The rain is pelting down. You are wearing your favorite woolen jersey. The dogs are cuddling under the duvet. A thick chicken noodle soup is brewing. Next to it, in a slow cooker, is mom’s Tomato Bredie: thick red sauce, tender meat and whole potatoes. For dessert, malva pudding and hot custard. What a winter meal.

Now try this in February; 30 degrees in the shade and 38 degrees outside, the air stagnant, not a breath of wind.

Appetite gone? Off course. More appropriate would be a light salad or a cold meat platter. In fact, it would not be abnormal to skip a meal when it is so hot.

Four legs or two, we are all the same. Heat affects appetite for all of us.

Every year during the hot summer months I am often approached by concerned clients complaining that their pets have lost their appetite. Some even blame the brand of food that they are using.

I remind them that some believe that our beloved "Fido” is a descendent from the Wolf or wild dog and that our cats are descendents from any of the wild feline family. If that is the case then these “poor” creatures would only eat once in a while when they brought down their prey.

While scientists have apparently confirmed that our furry companion friend may not be descended from the wolf (there are, they say, too many different genetic sequences for this to be possible), they propose that it is possible that our canine friends could have descended from the dingo, jackal, fox, or even a coyote. If this is true, then food was even more difficult to come by and they had to rely on scavenging and the odd small prey.

In either case, they were accustomed to eating very irregularly. Nowadays we force our domestic pets to eat once and even twice a day, summer or winter, yet this is so foreign to their metabolism and inherent desires.

To make matters worse, in the last 50 years the whole nutritional base of our animals has shifted to highly processed and chemically-laden foods - an abrupt change from a natural diet that spanned thousands of years. Before, a “less hungry dog” would consume a lighter meal of vegetables and grass. Now, his only option is a carbo-loaded, high calorie diet in the form of a pellet. The recipe remains the same and feeding quantity remains the same, but the nutritional requirements may have changed depending on the season. He may thus eat his meal very reluctantly because the desired nutrition for that moment is not there.

Palatability is as important to our pets as it is to us. In fact, we all know that our pets have an extremely sensitive sense of smell and taste. So, when the weather is hot, and knowing that our pet’s appetite is poor, it is desirable to present palatable food that is tasty. Variety is also very important to enhance appetite. Who wants to eat the same food every day?

It is not abnormal for our pets to diet for two to three days, and it appears that this more of a problem for the pet owner than the pet itself. To keep your pet excited about his nutrition and eating regularly (once or twice a day) one needs to be pro-active and experimental.

Natural food offers variety and palatability and one can change from chicken to beef to mutton to ostrich to game to vegetarian. One can even make the meal more appetising by adding a chicken broth and chicken flakes. A natural chicken liver gravy or chicken fat also enhances taste.

Other “tricks of the trade” could include melted butter (not margarine) or melted lard poured over the food. A home-made natural chicken, beef or fish stock also works wonders.

What about your home-cooked leftovers, stews, mince, veggies and braai? For thousands of years we have been feeding our pets table left-overs with great results and suddenly we are petrified to include the same into their meal.

I keep on saying, “Four legs or two, does it really matter?” What is healthy for you as a human is healthy for your pet. In general, however, we advise against including meals containing dairy, sugar and preservatives.

Summer is a great season, but it also impacts on the lifestyle of our companion animals.

Paul Jacobson is a Pet Food Nutritionist and qualified chef, and owner of Vondi's Holistic Pet Nutrition. Vondi's has been producing natural pet food for 14 years and is a registered nutritional pet food producer. Vondis is actively involved in educating the public on the benefits of natural diets for pets and a holistic approach to treating them.

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