At summer time our pets usually change their way of act, which also affects their diet. A lot of
people get worried when the warmer months start because their furry friends eat less than
usual. At first, this is not a cause to be worried: it is common in dogs and cats to reduce their
appetite when the amount of solar light and the temperatures increase. Even so, from Lenda we
recommend adapting the pet necessities to the environmental conditions and to make sure that
our pet is well fed.
Why do they eat less?
Even if the heat lowers hunger, the real reason for this to happen is the light. Light levels affect
the canine and feline endocrine system, making changes on its annual rhythm. These animals’
brains are prepared to accumulate food during winter and to take down their intake during
summer. This is the reason why our friends prefer to lay down and do not go closer to the feeding bowls, even if the air con is on.
Temperature makes our pets move less and to get dehydrated faster. This means that the heat
changes our dogs routines, who, having sweat glands only on their paw pads, are panting the
whole day, which makes them lose a big quantity of water. Our feline friends also need to drink more in summer but, in contrast to dogs, cats refrigerate through glands spread through strategic places of their body.
Shall we change the way we feed them during summer?
As we said before, if our pet eats less during summer we should not worry, but it is always good
to check their diet regularly. Besides from Lenda we do not recommend to make big changes in our pet’s nutrition, there are some tricks that we can use to recover their vitality on warm sunny days:
• Feed them with wet food
Canned food is perfect to provide an extra hydration during the warmer months.
Moreover, our Lenda wet food stimulates your best friend’s appetite and contributes taking a bigger amount of nutrients. One of the biggest canned food benefits is that digestion is lighter than dry food.
• Make sure there is always water available
If we decide to give wet food to our pet, we are already hydrating them, but we still have to be sure that they drink enough. Heat strokes are common in dogs and cats, and consequences can be very serious.
• Fruits
Small quantities of fruit and always being sure that it doesn’t has any seed, fruit is also healthy food for them. They will like more if it is fresh and mixed with their food. Even if it is healthy food, we should avoid some fruits like grapes, because it contains bigger
amounts of sugar. Bananas, pears, apples and even plums are very recommendable.
• A fresh prize
When our pets are not hungry, Lenda snacks are a good idea to treat them in a healthy and funny way. In summer, these snacks will be even more appealing if they come straight from the fridge. Flamenquines, for example, are perfect for skin and hair care and maintenance during warm months and, apart from other properties, help your dog’s
cognitive and cardiac well being.
As nutrition experts, at Lenda we recommend avoiding intakes during the brightest hours
of the day and let the veterinarian know if the luck of appetite comes with weird behavior.
If during summer we can understand that our furry friends are a bit lazier, their diet can be the clue for dogs and cats to recover their energy and enjoy the most this period.
