# Obese animals **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 8, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585 "2004-09-08T02:20:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rippingtons\_fan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rippingtons_fan/32/11767_2.png) [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/1 "2004-09-08T02:20:42Z")
I know that many types of mammals can become rather plump due to overeating, and they can stay plump through continued overeating (and little or no exercise). Can other types of animals such as birds,reptiles & amphibians and fish, put on extra pounds and inches to the waist and be considered plump (in the sense that many mammals become plump?) I imagine that this question would apply more to domesticated and captive animals. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/2 "2004-09-08T02:46:29Z")
I’d like to know the answer to this too, especially about fish. Do dangerously overfed fish get fatter looking? If so that’d be a warning sign that you need to feed them less… ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/3 "2004-09-08T02:51:23Z")
Pate de foie gras comes from geese who are delibrately force-fed into obesity. Other domestic birds can become obese, but it’s pretty hard given the high metabolism of birds. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/4 "2004-09-08T03:25:47Z")
Hummingbirds will put on about 50% of their body weight as fat before migration. I’m sure they look fat to other hummingbirds, but it’s pretty hard to tell if a bird is fat because the feathers hide its contours. [Petrel chicks](http://www.antarctic-diary.co.uk/Photos/f-030%20Giant%20petrel%20chickjpg.html) and some other birds may put on heavy layers of fat before fledging, because the parents abandon them for some weeks before they can fly and they have to live on their fat until they can forage for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/5 "2004-09-08T04:07:22Z")
I don’t know about fish, but I know that most reptiles kept in captivity can become obese if fed improperly. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/6 "2004-09-08T12:49:53Z")
Aren’t commerically farmed fish and animals essentially grossly obese? Factory farmed chickens grow an some astoundingly abnormal rate and it’s not unusual IIRC for their hearts to give out due to the strain on their system. Sounds like obesity to me. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/7 "2004-09-08T21:57:54Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Aren’t commerically farmed fish and animals essentially grossly obese? Factory farmed chickens grow an some astoundingly abnormal rate and it’s not unusual IIRC for their hearts to give out due to the strain on their system. Sounds like obesity to me. I wouldn’t be too sure about all farm animals. I can’t remember ever noticing that cows or bulls look particularly fat. Milking, or having a calf to nurse, is bound to draw down, as it were, a substantial portion of what the cow eats. For bulls intended for breeding purposes, there presumably wouldn’t be any purpose in overfeeding, either. But factory farmed chickens certainly do look obese, or maybe just overgrown. It’s hard to believe that wild chickens, which still live in southern Asia, can fly, and look generally more “birdish” than factory chickens, are the same species of animal. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/8 "2004-09-08T22:01:05Z")
I got your obese cats right here! Devo, the 22# tabby, is always running in front of me when I cross the room, to roll over on his back and show me his rather large tummy. Like he thinks that’s going to make me want to get him more treats… ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/9 "2004-09-08T23:41:36Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > I don’t know about fish, but I know that most reptiles kept in captivity can become obese if fed improperly. Lizards tend to accumulate fat at the base of the tail. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/10 "2004-09-09T00:25:10Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > But factory farmed chickens certainly do look obese, or maybe just overgrown. It’s hard to believe that wild chickens, which still live in southern Asia, can fly, and look generally more “birdish” than factory chickens, are the same species of animal. They aren’t obese or overgrown, it’s just that we humans have bred them to be specialized the way we want them. And we want a heavy bird, with a lot of meat on it, and we don’t care about flying ability. So the current breeds of chickens are made that way. But compare them to a laying chicken, which we’ve bred to emphasize their egg-laying ability. These chickens are actually scrawny, with hardly any meat on them – but they consistently produce 1-2 eggs per day. And about the comment ‘it’s not unusual for their hearts to give out’ – I rather doubt that. It’s never happened with any of the chickens we’ve raised. And it just doesn’t make sense – this would cost the farmer money, so why would they let it happen. Any breed of chicken that regularly had heart problems would soon be abandoned by farmers. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obese-animals/263585/11 "2004-09-09T07:32:12Z")
A quick google returns this cite from an admittedly rather biased source: > [@](#): > > An industry journal explains that “broilers [chickens] now grow so rapidly that the heart and lungs are not developed well enough to support the remainder of the body, resulting in congestive heart failure and tremendous death losses.” [link](http://www.factoryfarming.com/poultry.htm) I’ve heard it several times from left wing anti-factory farming lobby groups but I don’t have enough of a stake in the matter to investigate it for myself.