Obese cats and dogs may be eating when they’re bored, anxious or depressed (Picture: AP)

Is your pet putting on weight? It may be eating to quell emotional distress just as humans do, say experts.

Overeating may not be a psychological issue that is solely the preserve of human beings, with vets claiming in new research that cats and dogs are disposed to ‘emotional eating’ too.

The assertions were made in a new edition of the Journal of Veterinary Behavior, which looked at the eating habits of a range of animals as well as humans.

It said that eating can be seen as a ‘coping mechanism’ for pets, too, to combat stress and depression, in light of the animals consuming food when they weren’t even hungry.




While the study said that obesity rates can be as much as 25 per cent in cats and 45 per cent in dogs, one expert has said that putting the creatures on a diet could possibly worsen the situation.

‘The bottom line is that there is a ton of evidence in humans and animals like rodents that stress induced eating, or emotional eating is a very real thing and contributes to obesity, so we should be looking at it in pet animals,’ Dr McMillan from the Best Friends Animal Society told The Daily Telegraph.

‘If this is a major factor in our pet animals, then the standard approach, by simply yanking away their food, is very misguided and potentially harmful.’