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Beyond the Look: How Spaying and Neutering Influence Your Dog's Dinner Bowl
In this series, we’ll dog dive deeper into the science behind the formula we use to calculate your best friends’ food portions. We will explain step by step and in a language you may even enjoy what we take into account when we work on our unique recipe. They are put in a random order and maybe there are one or two more factors that we hold back to avoid cats spying on us, but you’ll notice that there’s more to it than just picking a number or throwing a dart.
In this first S-File, we’ll go down the rabbit hole of spaying and neutering, a hot item in the dog world and a topic that is very controversial and even emotional. Before you close your eyes and stop reading, we’re not going to give any advice on whether to do it or not, we limit ourselves to the consequences it has on feeding your puppy and why we included it in the formula.
Whether you already did it, or are thinking about it, you’ll either get the look, or already had it. That look that says: “Hey, I had plans with those!” It’s too late anyway, they are gone. No, crying over spilled milk would the cat say. However, there are some things you should realize after the recovery of the procedure. One of them is nutrition
Spaying and neutering surgeries affect the dog’s metabolism, appetite, and energy levels, which can impact their nutritional needs and activity levels. Ok, activity levels are something most people understand but what the hell is a metabo-thingy? We’ll try to explain the link between nutrition, activity, and spaying/neutering. There will also be a hint as to what the bipeds of the family can do to keep their furry friends fit and healthy after the surgery. Maybe this solution would also work for dogs with a pound too much, I’m saying maybe.
Imagine your dog’s metabolism as a superpower that turns the food they gobble up into energy for running, playing, and wagging their tail. It’s all over the place and makes sure everything runs smoothly: from growing, and building muscles, to healing wounds and keeping tails wagging.
The metabolism is part of every natural process. It’s like a little power plant that generates energy from its food. For some dogs, food can be just about anything their jaws will process, and the effectiveness and amount of energy they can harvest is related to the quality and quantity of food they scavenge, steal, or beg for.
And guess what, humans have one too!
Hormones come in a wide variety and are sourced in a lot of organs in the body. So not only in the reproductive system. Eliminating that part does not mean your pup now has to go on without any hormones. They still will experience fun (try telling them up front), anger, hunger, sadness, and almost any other emotion.
Spaying and neutering only ensures they no longer produce the levels of estrogen and testosterone (two hormones) that are needed for reproduction. But there is still enough left to fulfill other roles in the body, such as regulating growth, development, metabolism, and behavior.
And there you have the metabo-thingy again. The dots have been connected. But what does that mean? The decreased presence of these regulatory hormones implies that the metabolic rate decreases and the amount of energy the body uses to maintain vital functions at rest goes down. They will require fewer calories to keep their systems in top condition than before.
On the contrary, the other hormones that regulate hunger and satiety (the feeling the belly is round and ready for petting) are not eliminated and keep telling the brain that more food should be taken in. A bit like the thermostat of your heating indicating a nice and warm temperature, but you still feel like freezing your fingers off.
So that’s the part about the food and why you should get less despite the puppy eyes, scavenging, and begging. It’s hard at first because you have the feeling you deny them something, and that’s the last we want as dog parents, but believe me, it’s the mind playing tricks on the body.
If you do give in and let them indulge in equal quantities of food and treats, it will have a significant impact on the dog’s body weight and body composition, leading to excess body fat accumulation and obesity
The decrease in activity level can be caused by the change in the balance of serotonin and dopamine. The same guys that make sure you keep reading this article, scroll down your phone or eat that cookie. These guys are your fun factory and they can reduce the motivation to exercise as you no longer can reproduce and thus don’t have to maintain that speedo or bikini line. (it’s what your brain tells you, not an opinion)
As our wagging wacko’s guardian we want to prevent weight gain and obesity and go for #MoreHealthyDogs is our credo. So we need to adjust the diet and feeding habits according to their altered nutritional needs. It’s that simple, those who thought it was rocket science, I apologize sincerely.
So when we ask for the sex and the vasectomy (for the boys) or ovariohysterectomy (for the girls), two Latin terms to impress your vet with meaning they had a few things removed. It’s because we need to take it into account when we calculate the amount of calories your pup requires in each of the options available. Intact or not, male or female, they all matter.
For some strange reason, female dogs have more problems with regulating their hormonal balance after this type of surgery and will visit the fridge more frequently. There are still ongoing studies as to the why of this and no, it’s not because a man wrote this article! It’s been objective studies.
If you choose not to believe us, great! At the bottom of the article is a list of references you are welcome to read and interpret. We love to hear you get back to us about any of our scientific articles and we are always open to new views and arguments.
Salt, C., Morris, P. J., Wilson, D., Lund, E. M., & German, A. J. (2019). Association between life span and body condition in neutered client-owned dogs. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 33, 89–99.
Eirmann, L. A. (2014). The challenge of providing feeding recommendations for puppies after neutering. Proceedings of the Purina Companion Animal Nutrition Summit: Nutrition for Life, Austin, Texas, 25–31.
de Godoy, MRC (2018) Pancosma comparative gut physiology symposium: all about appetite regulation: effects of diet and gonadal steroids on appetite regulation and food intake of companion animals. J Anim Sci 96, 3526–3536.
Houpt, KA, Coren, B, Hintz, HF, et al. (1979) Effect of sex and reproductive status on sucrose preference, food intake and body weight of dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 174, 1083–1085.