July is Hydration Awareness Month
Keeping Your Pets Hydrated
Keeping your pets hydrated is just as important as keeping your self hydrated. Like us, dog & cat bodies are made of mostly water and staying hydrated is crucial to their health.
In general dogs should consume 1 oz of water for every pound of body weight. For cats, the general guideline is just under that – 3.5-4.5 oz per 5 lbs of body weight. However, the environment and weather (hello, Texas summer) can play a role in how much water they need to consume. Obviously providing fresh, clean water to your pets is the first step in keeping them hydrated, but there are some other things you can do to increase their water intake:
- adding liquid toppers to their food like bone broth or goat milk;
- including raw food in their diet – most frozen varieties have quite a bit of moisture
- adding some canned food to their diet.
Hydration Is Key To Keeping Chickens Cool
For our backyard chickens, the practice should be similar to other animals: Clean, cool water is essential. Follow the general rule of providing 500 millilitres of fresh water per bird per day. This equates to one gallon for every seven adult birds.
Drinking water helps cool a chicken’s body temperature. In high temperatures, chickens will drink up to twice as much water as during temperate conditions. If birds do not have quality water, they are less likely to eat or lay eggs. read more
