What's the score?

People often wonder if they are feeding enough, too much or too little food to their pets, but how can you tell if it's just fur or fat?

Body Condition Scoring (BCS) is the standardized way for owners and veterinary professionals to check on Fido's flab. This scoring system is done by evaluating 3 parameters of your pet: How easy it is to feel your pet's ribs and your pet's outline from the top and side.

Tickle those ribs! If you can run your hands across your pet's chest and feel ribs with slight pressure, that is good. If you can play the xylophone on those ribs, your pet doesn't have enough fat. If it feels like pushing a sofa cushion with the tv remote underneath, there's too much fat.

From the top! Your pet should have an indentation or waistline. If your pet has a nice gentle curve from above, that is good. If your pet has the waist of an 1800's Victorian lady, your pet doesn't have enough fat. If your pet looks like a link of sausage from Octoberfest, there's too much fat.

From the side! Your pet should have a nice gentle slope up from the chest to the abdomen. If it looks more like a steep ski jump, there's not enough fat. If your pets outline from the side looks like a level table or the outline goes on a downward slope, there's too much fat.

Body Condition Scores are usually reported on a 5 or 9 point scale. Example: Ein, the wonderpuppy, would score a 3/5 on the 5 point scale or a 4/9 on the 9 point scale.

I prefer the 5 point scale, just because of the simplicity. Some vets like the 9 point scale because it offers a greater chance to pinpoint the exact condition.

The 5 point scale can be found at Hill's PetFit website here.

Purina has a good explanation of the 9 point scale here.

On the 5 point scale, the ideal pet would score a 3. Ideal on the 9 point scale is a 4 or 5.

Next time you take your pet in for a check up, make sure to ask your Vet for the Body Condition Score. Keeping track of this is better than just going by weight alone.

Now that you know how, what's the score?

Next time, we will learn what to do if your pet scored high on the Body Condition Score.