Creature Feature

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette cold weather calories illustration.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette cold weather calories illustration.

This might be a weird question, but I want to know if my dog needs more calories in cold weather than he does in warm weather. Even though we haven't had much cold weather, I know it's coming. My dog (Sam) is male, 6 years old and weighs about 45 pounds. Sam is mostly an indoor dog, but I take him for walks and sometimes to play at the dog park.

Your question isn't weird at all, but points to a concern shared by other pet owners when temperatures begin to drop. In fact, it's a common question, according to an article in the January issue of Your Dog.

Cailin Heinze, an assistant nutrition professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, Mass., says in the article that people have asked her if their dogs need to gain weight to weather colder winter weather. The answer, she says, depends on how much time a dog spends outdoors. A working dog such as one that herds or guards livestock -- or participates in any activities that require the dog to spend much of its time outdoors in all kinds of weather -- could need more calories to compensate for the extra energy expended to keep warm.

Indoor dogs, on the other hand, don't need extra calories during the winter, Heinze says. She adds that those dogs might actually need fewer calories because their owners may be less likely to take them for long walks or romps at the park on frigid days. When a dog lives indoors as your Sam does, the home's heating system does the work of keeping the dog warm so that his body doesn't need to.

If a dog does spend a lot of time outdoors, figuring out how much food he needs may take some trial and error. Factors to take into consideration include a dog's size, type of coat (short or long, for example), how much time he's outside, type of activity and whether the air is humid. Sled dogs are the most obvious example of dogs that need more calories in the winter. Chances are you won't find many of those in Arkansas.

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Pet owners these days have a lot of questions about animal nutrition, wondering about such things as how to read pet-food labels, whether it's worth the money to buy a "premium" food or how much protein a pet requires.

There's a lot of information floating around the internet about pet nutrition, but it's not always easy for a pet owner to assess the credibility of a source. With that in mind, three veterinary nutritionists at the Cummings School -- Heinze, Lisa Freeman and Deborah Linder -- have developed a website that addresses misconceptions and questions about pet nutrition.

Petfoodology (vetnutrition.tufts.edu/petfoodology) provides a wealth of information in an easy-to-navigate format. Topics include general facts about pet food, advice on how to choose the right food for your pet, info on nutrition for pets with health issues and looks at pet nutrition trends. There's also a weekly blog on topics such as how to handle mealtime when you have several pets, pet obesity and whether vegan diets are healthful or harmful to dogs.

You can test how savvy you are about pet nutrition by taking the Pet Food IQ Quiz, which poses questions about calorie needs and other issues. Would you say, for instance, that a cat needs 50, 100, 250 or 400 calories a day? (Answer: 250.)

The quiz asks if you know what the term "byproducts" means when used on a pet-food label (no, it's not roadkill), which part of a pet-food label is the best indicator of whether the food will meet your pet's needs (Association of American Feed Control Officials statement) and at what age a cat should be switched to a senior diet (depends on the cat).

The veterinarians on the site write clearly and knowledgeably about pet food, diets and nutrition so that you don't have to worry about getting bogged down or lost in medical terminology. Just read, learn and bask in the warm glow of feeling well-informed.

Family on 01/04/2017

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