I know she's on a diet but......

[CathyG]

My 21 month old baby boy loves Tetra Prima pellets

I caught him licking his finger and putting it into the tub this afternoon and i've also caught him eating algae wafers before

LOL! When my daughter was a year old, she decided to try dried cat food (the complete diet stuff) She had this biscuit in her mouth for an hour! She was unable to chew it (no back teeth) yet refused to spit it out! I was not prepared to put my finger in her mouth, since she had a tendency to bite hard, so I had to follow her around to make sure she didn't choke until she got bored of it! They say apples don't fall far from the tree, apparently I used to like Bonio dog biscuits as a kid

We can laugh at our animals' (and kids!) dietary experiments, but we should bear in mind that it might not be healthy for them to regularly consume foods not intended for their diet. My parents used to run a pub, and one regular used to give his Alsation a saucer of ale. The dog absolutely LOVED ale, but the owner did not know that a dog's metabolism cannot cope with alcohol, and therefore he would suffer a worse hangover than a human. This maybe (or not!) an extreme case, but the reason we are sold specific foods (that manufacturers spend a fortune researching) is because our animals need a specific diet. I bet every vet can tell a story of overweight dogs whose lives are threatened by well meaning owners feeding them steak and chocolates intended for human consumption.

Just something I thought we should keep in mind B)

 

[FishDan]

My parents used to run a pub, and one regular used to give his Alsation a saucer of ale. The dog absolutely LOVED ale, but the owner did not know that a dog's metabolism cannot cope with alcohol, and therefore he would suffer a worse hangover than a human. This maybe (or not!) an extreme case, but the reason we are sold specific foods (that manufacturers spend a fortune researching) is because our animals need a specific diet. I bet every vet can tell a story of overweight dogs whose lives are threatened by well meaning owners feeding them steak and chocolates intended for human consumption.

While I agree, in principle, I think there is a difference in what seems to be the common thread in this thread. No one is feeding their cats fish food, etc. Most posts seem to be about their animals "get at" the other's food. Not mine, I give my cat a few flakes as a treat now and again. I've talk to my vet about this and I am assured this is not a problem. Of course if you feed your cat, dog or "other" only steak and chocolate they may not be as healthy as other animals, but then again, wild dogs, cats and fish don't get specially formulated diets by Science Diet, Iams, Purina, etc. They eat what they can and do well without researched diets. The large reason the money is spent researching these foods is to make us, the pet owners, feel better, and thus make us buy the expensive food. My cats don't need to eat (relatively) expensive Science Diet food, but it makes me feel good to feed them something that seems good for them. Plus my indoor cats are not going to get the opportunity to hunt for food they would get in the "wild".

\Dan

 

[Arfie]

My cat will sneak up behind me when I am feeding the fish and get anything he can, but seems to prefer algae wafers.

If mum feeds him he'll ignore cheap cat food and only eat expensive stuff, I can feed him anything and he eats it, he even tried croissant yesterday

We also used to have a beagle and he used to raid the fridge and eat cheese, butter, eggs etc and if he got in the cupboard he'd eat raw potatoes, we had to install child locks on the fridge and cupboard doors

Arfie