Module 14

Keeping a Food Diary

Estimated Time: 40 minutes

This module will examine the following:

• The Goal of Food Diaries
• Recording Health Issues
• Tracking Weight Loss & Gain

14.0 Introduction

Pet nutrition is important to you and your family members; especially when you want to make certain all your pets are able to live a long and happy life.

Keeping a food diary for your pet or pets can be helpful to ensure proper nutrition. Like a food diary for you, you have the ability to track what your pet has eaten, when it was eaten, and how much was eaten. This information can be used for weight loss, weight gain, and to monitor overall health.

14.1 The Goal of Food Diaries

The main goal of any food diary is to determine whether or not weight loss or gain is occurring.

If your pet has no need to lose weight or gain weight to become healthy again, then a food diary can help you track their weight based on a steady diet.

A food diary allows you to answer the following questions: Is your pet eating the same amount of food each day, but they are still losing weight? Is your pet getting enough food based on needed calories? Is there an underlying medical condition that may be preventing your pet from retaining a proper weight?

These are the types of things you can ask a vet, but only if you know exactly what is happening with your pet.

14.2 Recording Health Issues

A number of health issues can require a pet food diary.

Any pet that develops diabetes needs to be monitored for the amount of food they are given, the type of nutrients, and whether medication was given to help even out the blood glucose level. 

Thyroid conditions in pets can also warrant a food diary, since thyroid conditions can cause weight loss or gain depending on the type of thyroid issue.

14.3 Tracking Weight Loss & Gain

You and your pet should have a routine that doesn’t differ that often.

When you wake up, you provide a meal. When you come home from work, there is another meal. Before bed, you might provide more food. It depends on the pet and what your normal day is like. Planning for three meals a day for your pet is a good idea so that you break down the amount of food and make certain they do not get hungry in between meals. Write the day or the times down that you provide food. You can also consider it breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is up to you.

Cats naturally eat several small meals per day.

Source: redmondvetclinic.com

What Has Your Pet Eaten?

When you write down the time of day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you also need to record what you fed them.

For a cat, you might provide 1/8 cup of dry food and the same amount in wet food. If you are only serving one type of food, but providing a snack at some point in the day, you should record that as well. You always want to record anything that was eaten by your cat, whether it was one of their treats or a portion of the daily calories you provide.

How Much Was Eaten?

You may be providing a certain amount of food to your pet, but has your pet finished it all?

Did you provide too much food at a time? Did your pet instantly make the food disappear and ask for more? 

Recording the behaviors, including the amount eaten, will help you track your pet’s nutrition, as well as any change in their eating behaviors.

Changing Food and Providing Treats

You may need to change the food you are giving your pet.

Perhaps, you have decided to go with an all-natural diet with food you prepare? A food diary can be great to ensure that you are providing enough of the essential nutrients you know your pet needs. You also want to make a note of the type of treat you provide. Did you give your pet table scraps or a different type of treat than yesterday? For example, cats have dental treats, regular treats, fish flavored treats, and the list can go on. On a Monday, you might supply dental treats, but on Tuesday, you provide no treat. 

Recording what you have given your pet will help you determine where their health or behavior might have changed, should a change occur in your pet.

What If a Pet Stops Eating?

Cats can be particular about their food.

While they may not seem to get tired of what you are providing, it can happen. There can also be dental issues like gingivitis that might alter their behavior. Cats make a good example for this section, because it can be less obvious when they stop eating or at least when they reduce their food intake. Many people simply provide a bowl of dry food to their cats because it is easy and cats know when to stop eating. If you have multiple cats in the house it is even harder to determine if a pet has stopped eating. 

By keeping a food diary and providing only a certain amount of food each day to your pet, you have the ability to monitor what your pet is eating or if they stop eating. A free-for-all feeding approach could make it seem like all pets are eating, when in fact, one might have stopped eating before you even noticed a significant weight loss.

Tracking Weight

Are you going to weigh your pet every day?

The chances are you won’t. Any scales you have are going to be set for you, unless you picked up baby weighing scales.

The only way to determine if your pet has increased in weight is to weigh yourself and then weigh yourself again with your pet in your arms.

It’s a lot to take on each day. However, you can record the weight your pet was at the last time you took them in for a vet check-up. This weight combined with the food diary record should help you determine if there is any point where the behavior and eating habits of your pet changed significantly to cause a shift in weight.

If there has been a change in weight since the last time you took your pet in for a check-up, you will need to start recording more or less food based on the issue.

If your pet has gained too much weight, you will know to lower the amount of food being supplied. If your pet has lost weight, then you will know how much to increase the food.

Additionally, what if you think you are feeding enough food to your pet with the various meals you are providing, but you discover after starting the food diary, that you are really not providing enough of the calories or nutrients your pet requires? With a food diary you know exactly what you are feeding and where the break down in nutrients might result from.

Adding Exercise and Play Time

Your food diary can be more than just about food.

Certainly tracking nutrition is imperative. You need to make certain your pets are eating enough, but what constitutes enough? Why are there some pet foods on the shelf labeled for “active” pets versus indoor sedentary pets? Each pet has their own activity level, which determines the amount of energy they are expending based on the food they ate. A sedentary pet may not be using up all of the calories they ate through movement. The energy they get from food might be high, but they are not using it at all.

Too many calories, unused by your pet, will start to turn into fat. It will increase the weight of your pet and lead to those health issues you do not want to see.

Very active pets may require more food simply because they are using the energy they have obtained from the food intake, and even more than this sometimes. Highly active pets require more calories. To find out if the allotted amount of food for your pet’s weight is accurate, you also need to keep track of their energy usage when possible. A part of this will be through weight management, where you take their weight more often to determine if they are losing or gaining weight. You can also tell by petting them, as you will notice you can feel the bones more easily when there is less weight on your pet. If there is a lot of fat your pet will feel heavier and show it in the change of body shape. If you are not around all day to see how active your pet is, then you need to monitor what they do when you are around.

Write down how many times a day they play when you are home. Make sure you note any walks you might have taken your pet on.

The more you record about their activities the better attention you are paying to their life details. This will help when you visit the vet for their annual check-up as well as for any troubling health issues.

Module 14 Summary

The goal of a food diary is to ensure your pet is maintaining a healthy life based on what they eat, how much they eat, and when they eat it.

In addition, to the foods they eat, exercise and play time are also important to assess if your pet is receiving too little or too many calories for their activity level.

You can keep your pet’s weight at about the same level when you monitor what they eat and how much they eat.

You can also help maintain a healthy body, weight, and diet by paying more attention to what you feed your pet.