It has been through an experiment observed a group of Canadian sled dogs, and these dogs wrote Mon their food uptake and body weight through a period of one year.
To be able to talk about different physiological and nutritional factors in relation to the mammals, we can assume that the same situation as us, which will also be natural to assume that since we both genetically seen, and hence physiological terms, is little different from most animals in the kingdom mamalia. (For example, we have only one percentage deviation from chimpanzees around. 3). Therefore, this assumption is accepted, however, it will obviously always take into account that there is / may be species-specific deviations / adjustments. Another information we get is that the observed animals, all males are a male. The reason that this information is essential, is that had they been of the opposite sex, better known as female, a female, there could be a risk that they were pregnant, which would greatly increase their energy needs and thus their food intake.
We are also told that the dogs are not doing any physical activity, and have unlimited access to food. That means that factors such as little physical activity and little food is not playing in this assessment of dyres relation to food needs. And when you look at the figures, we can see that the only factor to have real influence is the ambient temperature. You could say that food intake is inversely related to temperature, in the sense that when it is cold (winter months same as us, because of the same latitude) dog eats more to insulate his body and to generate more heat, but its weight gain, does not. This is linked with canine total metabolism, and various trailers dependent factors.
The dog's basal metabolic rate is constant, ie. the energy needs of the dog has a minimum in order to survive and maintain its body and all the basic physiological conditions are obtained here. All that are required in addition, be executed in the box with the light blue color. But in this case we have not much to get in the box. We know that they are / may be pregnant, they perform no physical activity (let bastards) and while not disclosed, we assume that none of the dogs have been sick since this pregnancy and would require increased energy production , so all we have left to get in the box, the regulation of body temperature. But what we see of the results is that this factor also has much great impact on the animal's food intake and thus weight.
When you first hear about an experiment involving unlimited quantities of food, it would be logical to assume that the animal's weight over time would look like in fig.1, but this will prove to be true. Even if we removed the factor with temperature (which would make the box of "extra" very small) would curve closer look as fig.2, this is due to the complex hormonal effects on food regulation.
We must assume that the quantity of food they consume in April and June is close to their basal metabolism, because it should not be regulated much at body temperature, and from this assumption, we can see that the food intake measured in kilojoules, is close to doubled in the coldest months (November, December), which of course is because the dogs will maintain a comfortable warm body temperature, and this increased heat formation obviously requires energy. The way the animals here disposes heat is by small muscle contractions, which provides friction and thus heat. Just like when we humans are shaking with cold. It nevertheless also see is that during the warmest months, although they consume little energy, still increases their weight, so we can not say whether their weight is too small in the other months, or whether it is too high in this, but a bid could be that food consumption versus consumption needs are staggered in these months, so that the animal takes on in these months.
