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Inaccurate Assessment of Canine Body Condition Score, Bodyweight, and Pet Food Labels: A Potential Cause of Inaccurate Feeding

The objectives were to investigate owners’ ability to assign the correct bodyweight (BW) and body condition score (BCS) to their dog and to interpret wet and dry pet food labels by estimating how much to feed daily. One hundred and seventy-four questionnaires were completed. Owner estimated BW was c...

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Autores principales: Yam, Philippa S., Naughton, Gregory, Butowski, Christina F., Root, Amanda L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5606605/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29056689
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci4020030
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author Yam, Philippa S.
Naughton, Gregory
Butowski, Christina F.
Root, Amanda L.
author_facet Yam, Philippa S.
Naughton, Gregory
Butowski, Christina F.
Root, Amanda L.
author_sort Yam, Philippa S.
collection PubMed
description The objectives were to investigate owners’ ability to assign the correct bodyweight (BW) and body condition score (BCS) to their dog and to interpret wet and dry pet food labels by estimating how much to feed daily. One hundred and seventy-four questionnaires were completed. Owner estimated BW was compared to actual BW, correct being defined within ±10% of actual BW. Correct interpretation of the total amount of food required was determined by the number of cans (±25% of cans) required for wet food and grams (±20% of grams) for dry food, based on the dog’s actual BW, the feeding guidelines on the label, and a comparison with the owner’s estimate. Eleven percent of owners overestimated BCS and 19% overestimated BW. Only 48% of owners could correctly estimate their dog’s BW. Only 23% and 43% of owners could correctly estimate how much wet and dry food to feed, respectively. Chi-square analysis demonstrated a significant positive association for owners correctly estimating their dog’s BW and interpreting the wet pet food label. Many owners are not aware of their pet’s BCS and BW and cannot accurately interpret pet food labels. Further owner education to improve these skills is needed if dogs are to be fed correctly.
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spelling pubmed-56066052017-10-18 Inaccurate Assessment of Canine Body Condition Score, Bodyweight, and Pet Food Labels: A Potential Cause of Inaccurate Feeding Yam, Philippa S. Naughton, Gregory Butowski, Christina F. Root, Amanda L. Vet Sci Article The objectives were to investigate owners’ ability to assign the correct bodyweight (BW) and body condition score (BCS) to their dog and to interpret wet and dry pet food labels by estimating how much to feed daily. One hundred and seventy-four questionnaires were completed. Owner estimated BW was compared to actual BW, correct being defined within ±10% of actual BW. Correct interpretation of the total amount of food required was determined by the number of cans (±25% of cans) required for wet food and grams (±20% of grams) for dry food, based on the dog’s actual BW, the feeding guidelines on the label, and a comparison with the owner’s estimate. Eleven percent of owners overestimated BCS and 19% overestimated BW. Only 48% of owners could correctly estimate their dog’s BW. Only 23% and 43% of owners could correctly estimate how much wet and dry food to feed, respectively. Chi-square analysis demonstrated a significant positive association for owners correctly estimating their dog’s BW and interpreting the wet pet food label. Many owners are not aware of their pet’s BCS and BW and cannot accurately interpret pet food labels. Further owner education to improve these skills is needed if dogs are to be fed correctly. MDPI 2017-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5606605/ /pubmed/29056689 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci4020030 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Yam, Philippa S.
Naughton, Gregory
Butowski, Christina F.
Root, Amanda L.
Inaccurate Assessment of Canine Body Condition Score, Bodyweight, and Pet Food Labels: A Potential Cause of Inaccurate Feeding
title Inaccurate Assessment of Canine Body Condition Score, Bodyweight, and Pet Food Labels: A Potential Cause of Inaccurate Feeding
title_full Inaccurate Assessment of Canine Body Condition Score, Bodyweight, and Pet Food Labels: A Potential Cause of Inaccurate Feeding
title_fullStr Inaccurate Assessment of Canine Body Condition Score, Bodyweight, and Pet Food Labels: A Potential Cause of Inaccurate Feeding
title_full_unstemmed Inaccurate Assessment of Canine Body Condition Score, Bodyweight, and Pet Food Labels: A Potential Cause of Inaccurate Feeding
title_short Inaccurate Assessment of Canine Body Condition Score, Bodyweight, and Pet Food Labels: A Potential Cause of Inaccurate Feeding
title_sort inaccurate assessment of canine body condition score, bodyweight, and pet food labels: a potential cause of inaccurate feeding
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5606605/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29056689
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci4020030
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