Why Is It Important to Weigh Animals?

27/07/2021

An animal's weight is often one of the first signs that they’re ill. That’s why, as humans, we need to be weighed every time we go to the hospital or GP.

Why is it important to weigh animals?

Alongside a decrease in appetite and lethargy, a sudden drop or increase in weight can be a clear sign that something is wrong with your animal. Kidney disease, diabetes, and cancer are just a few of the serious diseases associated with weight loss.

Why should you weigh your Pets?

Although losing or gaining weight is a great indicator for an illness, did you know that even just being overweight can be dangerous for your pet? Pet obesity can cause problems, such as arthritis, skin conditions and breathing problems.

That’s why your vet will weigh your pet at the start of every check up. This is so that they not only have an accurate weight on record, but can also check to see if they’re overweight and give you advice to help with that.

What scales can you use to weigh your pets?

Most veterinary clinics have scales to weigh your pet for free, and even some pet supply stores have some. But, for complete ease, you can get your own weighing scale to use at home.

Marsden has a wide range of pet scales suitable for weighing pets of all sizes. Whether you have small critters, like a hamster or guinea pig, or a larger pet like a dog or cat, Marsden has a scale you can use.

We also have FREE a buyer’s guide that’s full of information on which scale you should choose.

Marsden scales even come with functions to make weighing at home even easier! So if you need to put your pet’s bed on the scale to get them to lie down in, you can remove that extra weight using the Tare function. Or if you have a really wiggly pet, you can use the Hold function to stabilise the weight reading.

Why should you weigh your Livestock?

When it comes to weighing livestock, regular weigh-ins are vital regardless of whether you are breeding them or preparing them for slaughter.

For Breeding

Weighing can help you make important decisions throughout the breeding process.

To start with, you can weigh your cattle and decide which animals in the herd have the healthiest weight, and are therefore likely to produce the healthiest offspring. If a cow is too small, this can cause calving issues, and if a cow is too large it can actually result in greater costs in the long run from consuming more.

Make better breeding decisions that positively impact your herd by weighing your animals before beginning the breeding process.

For Feeding

You can utilise weight when feeding your animals to ensure that they’re getting the correct amount of feed. This prevents you from overfeeding, which can result in health issues, or overfeeding, which reduces that animal's output and could cause weight loss.

Effectively monitoring weight during transitioning to a new feed can also help you evaluate which feed is more nutritional for your animals, as it could result in the highest average daily weight gain.

This can also help you to track feed consumption to help keep feed well-stocked and not run out.

For Medicine

Did you know that you should alter the amount of antibiotics, wormers or sedatives you give to an animal, depending on their body weight?

Giving them too much or two little can result in an overdose or in the medication having no effect.

By weighing your animal beforehand, you can be precise with your drug dosages and provide effective treatment. It can also save you from overpaying for drugs that you don’t actually need and avoid any potential medical costs that result from overdosing.

For Efficiency

At the end of the day, you’re rearing livestock to make money. Knowing your cattle’s weight and how they’re improving can help you make efficient business decisions that affect the livelihood of your herd.

By weighing your herd can help you identify animals that aren’t going to perform well early on. You can identify animals that aren’t gaining weight at the expected rate and even identify illness before it becomes a major issue.

What scales can you use to weigh your livestock?

At Marsden we have a number of scales that are suitable for weighing your livestock. Or if you are looking for something specific, we can even offer bespoke solutions.

We have worked with a number of farms around the UK to help them monitor their animals weight. The V-150, for example, found great success weighing sheep in Scotland.

Why should we weigh zoo animals?

Weighing zoo animals is so important that many zoos actually have a dedicated week every year where they weigh all the animals in their care.

Their weight can be a key indicator of health or whether they’re pregnant and can even be used to help with animal conservation in the wild.

Scale training is a vital part of weighing zoo animals that can really help make the weighing process easier. Making sure the animals are familiar with their scales and regularly encouraging them to stand on them, can help in the long run.

What scales can be used to weigh your zoo animals?

But with so many different animals, it’s impossible to get a weighing scale that works for all of them. Marsden has a wide range of zoo scales that can be used to weigh small animals, like red pandas and lemurs, to larger animals like tigers, elephants and even rhinos.