Cats are known for lounging around most of the day, being lazy and getting fat. An overweight cat is often considered “normal,” and we may chuckle at the sight of a tubby cat waddling around the house. But allowing our cats to become overweight is actually a serious problem. Feline obesity can lead to a great number of health risks in cats and is easily prevented.

For our dogs, food might as well be the whole world. Our pups love food, so much so that they could eat all day if we let them, and they rarely pass up an opportunity to sneak a table scrap or two.

Now that winter is officially here, and the cold has crept into many places around the world, we’ve been cranking our thermostats, donning winter jackets and adjusting our lives to fit with the weather. But have you considered that you need to make a few changes for your dog, as well? One of the major things pet owners forget when winter approaches is that our pets need some adjusting for the cold, too—and one of the most-forgotten items on the list has to do with food.

If you venture down the cat toy section of a pet store, you’ll notice that a lot of the toys will be branded with the word “catnip” on them. Catnip is a familiar term to pet owners, as it is well-known to produce a “high” effect in cats, but the reason for the effect is much less widely known.

Fido loves to beg for food, no matter what it is. While prepping dinner, opening a takeout box or munching on a savory snack or sweet treat, our dogs are most likely there at our sides, giving us puppy dog eyes to convince us to drop them a bite.

Our cats meow and beg for food all the time, and in a world of large plates and hungry bellies for ourselves, we may be tempted to cave in and feed our feline friends just a little more. These temptations often lead to one of the most common health problems in cats: obesity.

In the wild, cats are natural hunters. A wild cat might hunt down and eat 10 small meals per day, filled with meat because of their carnivorous diets! When it comes to domesticated cats, though, hunting for food isn’t an option or a necessity. It is up to the cat owner to provide enough food for the pet each day.

As almost any cat owner who lets their feline friends outside knows, cats have a strange obsession with grass. They’ll poke and prod at it, play with it, sniff it and even bite it—a lot. Cats eating grass is a pretty normal occurrence, and so is the pile of vomit you’re sure to find shortly after.

Last Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that traces of a drug called pentobarbital might be found in numerous popular dog food brands. Pentobarbital is a barbiturate that is commonly used to put dogs, cats and sometimes horses to sleep.