It strikes me as odd that modern, first world humans aren’t even more obese than they are given that they essentially have access to an unlimited amount of food. How do other animals behave? Do they eat just enough to keep a healthy body weight? Gorge in one feeding until they die? Gradually gain weight until they die?
My dog had as much food as she wanted. She ate just as much as she needed and no more. I’ve heard that dogs which are fed a “meal” at regular periods are more likely to become overweight, because they don’t know that the food supply is actually endless.
I presume that there are individual animals who will eat more than they should, but this is probably a minority.
Humans, however, can rationalize. If we think that we need three meals a day and that a “meal” is the equivalent of 1-2 lbs. of food, we’ll mess ourselves up.
Depends on the animal. Some of mine were able to free feed without getting overweight, some not. I’ve known some labs that would pretty much eat an entire bag of dog food if it was available.
I don’t really see how feeding animals specific meals could lead to obesity, unless the person providing those meals isn’t monitoring the pet’s weight. Mine get meals, and if they’re looking a little chunky, I give them less, if they’re looking too lean, they get more. It’s rather easy, really.
My understanding is that it depends on the food, as well: feed lab rats rat kibble, they eat what they need and no more. Feed them bacon and potato chips, they overeat. I’ve certainly seen dogs gorge themselves on ham or steak or stolen bags of halloween candy or whatever that never overate dry dog food. But that’s strictly anecdotal–I haven’t read that anywhere authoritative.
Ditto my boy Boomer. His mother would have eaten until she barfed, but she had other dogs around. Boomer doesn’t, so he doesn’t feel the need to load up.
Years ago, we had a pot-bellied pig. We both worked long shifts, and kept the pig enclosed in our kitchen with gates. He had a bed, food and water, and access to a litter box. He managed to escape the kitchen by manipulating the gates, and found his way to where we stored his feed. I came home and found him passed out in a bag of feed. I thought he was dead. I called his name, and he responded by grunting. He was so bloated it was scary. He had the most intense case of gas for about a day, and didn’t event attempt to eat for 3 days. It gave new meaning to the term, “pigging out”.
I have two cats that won’t overeat. They’ll even leave leftovers of their favourite treats when they are full. My friend has a cat from the same breeder, and her cat won’t self-regulate. He found his way into a bag of his dry food once and gorged himself sick.
My dear departed dog, Hoover, would eat probably until he exploded if he had the chance, I think. When he was a puppy there must have been a lot of competition for everything amongst his littermates because he wouldn’t even leave any water in his bowl. It took a little while but eventually he learned there would always be water and stopped trying to drink every last drop in one go. I don’t know if his greediness with food was because of his early life or if he was just a natural-born guts.
It depends on the species of animal, and how it has evolved to feed.
Prey-type grazing herd animals (horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, etc.) are evolved to eat nearly continuously – they graze on pasture all day long (and part of the night). So if they get access to an unlimited supply of food, they overeat.
For example, if a horse gets loose and into the feed room of the barn, they will gorge themself in the grain bin, and can get colic, a serious, often fatal digestive problem. (Note that this is access to high-protein feed. If it’s just pasture or grass hay (not alfalfa), a horse can eat it continuously, without any problem, usually.) And horses kept in stalls all day are driven by instinct to chew on something, usually the wood of their stall. This is a common problem for horses kept inside.
Predator species (wolves, dogs, cats, birds, etc.) are evolved to eat in occasional feasts. When they make a kill, they will gorge themselves, but then may not eat again for some time. But their metabolism is evolved to handle this periodic overeating, so it does not make them sick like it would a grazing animal. Also, most of them are pack animals, and they tend to stop eating after a while and let the lower-status members of the pack eat.
So for example, many house cats are fed on a free choice system, with their bowls kept filled with dry food all the time. They do fine with this, just eating their fill without gorging.
So there isn’t a general answer to the question for all “other animals” – it depends on the specific animal species.
Has no one thought to invent chewing gum for horses?
It’s certainly my experience with our two pet rats… we could leave rat chow out for them 24/7, and they’d self-regulate. But they would eat their favorite foods, like Cheerios and scrambled eggs, even if they weren’t hungry enough for their dry food. We’d joke about it when we topped off the bowl in the mornings; they’d both come over, give things a good look’n’sniff, and then slink back to their sleeping corner with an attitude of "Dang. Just rat chow again."
They never actually ate themselves “sick” (rats can’t actually throw up), but they definitely ate for fun and not because they were hungry. And I miss the little gluttons.
My experience is limited to cats and dogs. If given things they like, every dog we’ve had would eat to the point of physically being unable to fit anything more in his/her stomach, and then try to continue. Our current dog has been put on a limited diet because he is seriously overweight. The vet says his overweight is as bad for him as ours is for us.
Most of our cats will eat just what they need. Many of them, even with favorite foods, will eat a modest amount and then stop. A few, including one current cat, were/are gluttons, eating even kibble in as large a quantity as is provided. And, just like humans, the overweight ones are not as healthy.
I have two cats. One can free-feed and not get overweight. The other is overweight as a result of free-feeding.
Appropriate name. I picture him sucking in the food like a vacuum cleaner.
It’s called the “cafeteria diet” effect; exposure to a variety of foods will cause pretty much every species tested (including humans) to eat more than when presented with a single food type.
Yesterday I was walking my dogs in a forest preserve off-leash area with several lakes. Apparently there was a large fish kill due to the spring rain/freeze/thaw cycle, such that the areas around some of the lakes were liberally strewn with mostly frozen partially rotten fish. I can assure you that those 2 knuckleheads tried to gulp down as many of those disgusting dead fish as they could. Did NOT make for a pleasant stroll. But you know - it is really only disgusting the first hundred or 2 times you pry a dog’s jaws open and yank a putrid fish that is halfway down their throat.
I’m assuming some dog owners out there can answer the obvious question: Whaddya do if you can’t eat a reeking dead fish? Roll in it of course!
Don’t know if it is based in fact, but I have often heard that you can leave cats for days with a bowlful of food and they will only eat what they need. Whereas dogs will eat as much as they can til they puke, whereupon they will eat their puke and repeat ad infinitum. Digusting creatures, but I love them!