You should seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.

Everyone talks about calories in nutrition - but what are calories ?

• Definition : A calorie is the amount heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water from 14.5^oC to 15.5^oC. Usually nutritionists refer to kilocalories (kcal). One kilocalorie = 1000 calories.
• Three types of nutrient in animal foods can be utilised to provide energy as calories : proteins, fats and carbohydrates
• The following nutrients do not provide any energy for the animal : water, vitamins, minerals
• Fats and oils are the most efficient source of energy, as they provide about  2.25 times as many calories per gram as proteins or carbohydrates.
• Pet food labels carry information about the number of calories that the food contains, but this value is calculated based upon the amount of energy emitted when the food is burned under experimental conditions in a combustion chamber. It does not reflect the exact number of calories available to the animal when it eats the food
• Many pet food manufacturers calculate the energy (calorie) content of their foods from standard formulae - not by actually measuring the energy content experimentally
• Some calories in food are lost simply to supply the energy required to metabolise the nutrients. This is called "meal induced heat" and in animals undergoing average exercise up to 10% of energy expenditure is on meal induced heat.
• Calorie requirements often increase significantly in various clinical situations :
  • Following major trauma
  • In catabolic diseases - notably malignant cancer, hyperthyroidism, major organ failure (heart, liver, kidney)
  • Following burns
  • In animals with sepsis

  These are often situations when appetite is depressed so energy intake is too low resulting in weight loss and malnutrition.

• Calorie requirements go up during certain life stages :
  • The last third of pregnancy - only a slight increase
  • During lactation - can be a massive increase
  • During growth 
• If calorie intake exceeds calorie use by the body it is stored as body fat, leads to weight gain and can result in obesity so excess calorie intake should be avoided.

Updated January 2016