Abstract
Overweight and obesity (O&O) is a risk factor for several health conditions and can result in a shorter lifespan for cats. The objectives of this study were to investigate (a) cat owners' attitudes towards feline O&O and their associations with O&O in their cats; and (b) the risk factors for feline O&O and underweight, particularly those involving owner practice. An online survey comprising questions related to cat owners' attitudes towards feline O&O, owner-reported body weight and body condition of their cat, and potential risk factors for feline O&O was conducted. Primarily targeting the Australian population, the survey attracted 1,390 valid responses. In response to ten attitude-related questions, more participants (percentage range among the ten questions: 39.1-76.6%) held a disapproving attitude towards feline O&O than a neutral (17.1-31.9%) or approving attitude (3.9-27.7%). A greater proportion of participants had a more disapproving attitude towards obesity than towards overweight. Cats belonging to owners with an approving attitude towards O&O were more likely to be overweight or obese than cats belonging to owners with a disapproving attitude towards O&O. The cats had particularly high odds of overweight or obesity if their owner agreed that 'being chubby says that the cat has a quality life' (OR: 3.75, 95% CI: 2.41-5.82) and 'being fat says that the cat has a quality life' (OR: 4.98, 95%CI: 2.79-8.91). This study revealed, for the first time, that begging for food was a risk factor for O&O in cats. Other important feline risk factors for O&O identified included being middle-aged, being mixed-breed, dry food as the major diet, the amount of feed not being quantified, and frequently spending time indoors. Being over 11 years, receiving no dry food and receiving measured amounts of feed were associated with an increased odds of underweight in cats. As specific attitudes often lead to certain behaviours, reducing approving attitudes towards feline O&O may potentially reduce the frequency of O&O and the risks of O&O-related disorders in cats.
Highlights
Research on overweight and obesity (O&O) has extended from humans to companion animals, with increasing recognition of the issue of O&O as a risk to health conditions, a shorter lifespan and impaired welfare of cats and dogs [1,2,3,4,5]
Positive attitudes towards feline obesity are associated with ownership of obese cats half of the participants heard about the survey from social media (691, 53.0%) and 29.6% (n = 386) of the participants obtained the survey from RSPCA Australia-related sources
The current study examined the risk factors for underweight and O&O in cats and, for the first time, reports the association between feline O&O and the owners’ attitudes towards O&O in cats
Summary
Research on overweight and obesity (O&O) has extended from humans to companion animals, with increasing recognition of the issue of O&O as a risk to health conditions, a shorter lifespan and impaired welfare of cats and dogs [1,2,3,4,5]. Most studies investigating extrinsic risk factors for feline O&O have focused on owners’ management of their cats. Details of risk factors investigated are shown in S1 Table. Many studies have shown that male sex [6,7,8,9,10], neutered cats [11,12,13,14,15,16,17], middle age [6, 11,12,13, 18,19,20,21] and mixed breed [12, 14, 19,20,21] are associated with an increased risk of O&O. The extrinsic risk factors supported by the best evidence include feeding dry food [9, 22] and feeding treats/table scraps [6, 9, 15]
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