Do you share your food with your animals?

[Mt_Goat]

I thought I would share this. As the pic of Jezebelle our African Gray my wife snapped really caught her zest for my Steak, Egg and Cheese bagel. She was originally on top of her cage and flew over to where I was sitting and began to help herself.
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[profdlp]

I share my food with my dogs all the time. I've turned them into the worst beggars in the world, all I need do is take the canopener out of the drawer and they come and sit in the kitchen and stare at me with those pleading big brown eyes.

One day I opened a can of pineapple chunks for myself. They immediately went into their look-at-me-I'm-being-so-good routine. After a while I got disgusted and thought I'd teach them a lesson so I gave them each a piece.

They ate it. Then they begged for more.

Thinking they must be hoping for a different treat, I offered them another piece just to see what they would do.

They ate that, too, then several more until I said enough is enough and cut them off. :wtf:

[pseudonym]

PSA

DO NOT give your dog people food, its just not good for them. We used to give my Jack Russel people food and now we have a half blind diabetic dog on our hands. Still love the guy but us giving into his begging put him into that position. I will NEVER give my dogs people food ever again.

GI JOE!!

[muddocktor]

I give my conure food all the time, albeit stuff that isn't totally outrageous. He loves veggies like corn, peas and green beans. I also occasionally give him a little meat; he loves chicken. ;D ;D The type of conure he is is a bird of opportunity in the wild so a little meat occasionally doesn't hurt him. He will also beg pecans and other nuts. He also loves bread but I don't give him much of that though. I also cut him off of drinking my coke because the caffeine in it hits him like crystal meth; you can't shut him up afterwards. ;D

Prof, if you want to break those dogs of begging for everything you open, give them some dill pickle slices after opening the jar up. :D

[profdlp]

...Prof, if you want to break those dogs of begging for everything you open, give them some dill pickle slices after opening the jar up. :D
That and onions are about the only things they won't eat. :p

[Nightwolf]

I share my food with my dogs!

[Mt_Goat]

All the big birds like the Gray, Conure, Cockatoos and Macaws like vegetables which we try to feed every day alog with nuts and pasta or rice. They do get some chicken or meat from time to time along with pizza on the rare occasions we have it. The dogs get bones and dog treats only. The cats get cat treats only.

[MrBill]

We share with out cats. They are trim and healthy.

We have one cat that would rather eat potatoes than meat. ;D

[RADA]

I had a cat growing up that LOVED cantalope.

I would make this big production out of cutting some up for her.....

...putting it in her bowl....

calling her, so the other 3 cats would come running...

set the dish down and watch as the other 3 males would push her out of the way to get at what she had......

...then they would look at her like: :wtf: :scratch: :shakehead what the heck are you eating!!! Then walk off all indignant.... ;D ;D

[CB]

I never share with my animals. I don't like begging animals...

On the rare occasion that I give the cats some kind of non-cat food (like tuna-can water or fatty cut-aways). I wont do it if they beg.

Mewing and pawing at my leg will get the tuna water dumped down the sink. Sounds harsh, but I don't want to reenforce bad behavior.

[Gargoyle]

I rarely gave my cat food, but he would take bread without asking. If I left a fully cooked steak on the counter and a loaf of bread, he'd tear that bread open before even looking at the steak. We learned to leave the bread in the cabinet. :)

[Nightwolf]

By the way...that bagel looks delicous..wanna share some of it w/ me?

[GHoosdum]

Whenever I give the dog food scraps, I try my best to give them to her in her food bowl, rather than at the table - she barely begs at the table at all. I also don't give her anything that would be bad for her, with the exception of a half-slice of American cheese from time to time. For some reason, every dog I've ever had loved American cheese as much as I love real cheese. ;D

Unfortunately, the food prep area of our kitchen is right next to the door to the backyard that we always let her out through - we can never tell if she's begging for food or if she wants out to play with the neighbor dog.

[tcith]

That and onions are about the only things they won't eat. :p

Just be careful what you give animals

for example
onions can cause kidney failure in dogs
potatoes are toxic (especially green ones)
Chocolate is especially toxic to dogs
also watch the complex sugars as they as also mentioned can give diabetes - balance is the key and rememeber dogs are omnivours and happily wolf down vegetables (baked pumpkin is excellent for sick dogs or dogs with weight problems)


I give my dogs leftovers - like metioned in other parts of the thread he only gets food in his bowl, never directly from our table or plate so he does not beg or come expecting food around the kitchen.

That said I also make him special meals of rice, meat and/or pasta and olive oil, it's good for his coat and digestive system - other than that he gets mostly dry food - he's 12 years old, very fit and runs around like he's only 3, so the diet must work.

moderation and dicipline is the key, remeber your the leader of the pack and don;t let them run all over you

[TheSmJ]

potatoes are toxic (especially green ones)

Not true. My dog is allergic to wheat, so she's on a diet based on potatoes and lamb. I don't think they'd sell such a food if it was toxic to the very animal it was designed for. And I'm pretty sure the vet would never have recommended it in the first place.

Grapes are also toxic to dogs.

We feed my dog a lot of carrots (she loves baby carrots more than any other treat we've bought for her) which I understand is very healthy for them. She occasionally gets scraps from the table or any fallout that lands on the floor provided it won't make her sick.

She's lactose intolerant (which is common for dogs) but she's been known to have a cheese cube or two if we have them around once every few months.

When she's sick I'll make her browned ground beef/lamb and rice. The vet says this dish helps settle a dog's stomach if it had aten something to upset it.


The puffer fish get shell-on shrimp occasionally. It's their favorite treat.

[FormFactor]

Yea I feed my dog all the time. He is a beggar but he is so cute I cant resist.

He never seems to get sick, but its safe to say whenever I eat, he is there, and I will share.

He DID once get into my double stuff Oreos and ate nearly an entire bag. I was worried he would get sick, but he never did. I know they say chocalate is toxic to dogs, but my dog has never had an issue, and I give it to him all the time.


BTW that is a beautiful Gray. I would really like to get one some day.

[FormFactor]

and the cat gets ice cream, and licks of fudge pops.

[TheSmJ]

As I understand it, a dog would need an oweful lot of chocolate vs. it's weight to get sick, but it is deadly none the less.

[Buddy J]

I had a horse who liked beer.

I rarely give my dogs any people food. Sometimes I'll toss a cracker or a piece of toast or something to my lab, but that's cuz he can catch. That's really it.

My cats used to get tuna water, but they live in our barn now so they haven't had it in quite some time.

[profdlp]

As I understand it, a dog would need an oweful lot of chocolate vs. it's weight to get sick, but it is deadly none the less.
My understanding of this is that it's a toxic-shock kind of thing; some dogs are fine with it, some would keel over after even a tiny bit of it.

That's a risk I'm unwilling to take, so no chocolate for my poochies.

[FormFactor]

I should point out that at the time I started giving my dog chocolate I didn't know it could be bad for him, I actually found out watching Oprah one day (or rather my girlfriend did :wtf: ) . I would never give him anything I thought was bad for him. He's my best friend. And now if I give it to him, its in small doses.

But the fact that he mowed a whole bag of oreos without issue leads me to believe its probably pretty safe for him to eat it. I'm thinking about getting another dog soon, but he won't be getting any chocolate.

[tcith]

As I understand it, a dog would need an oweful lot of chocolate vs. it's weight to get sick, but it is deadly none the less.

It's the concentration of theobromine (which is a xanthine compound which is in the caffine "family")

you need 100 to 150mg per KG to cause a toxic reaction

now it depends on the chocolate
eg:
milk chocolate contains 44mg of the substance per oz
semisweat chocolate contains 150mg per oz
bakers/cooking chocolate 390mg per oz

so using a dose of 100mg/kg as toxic it comes out roughly as
1 once per 1 pound of body weight of milk chocolate
1 ounce per 3 pounds of body weight for semisweet chocolate
1 once per 9 pounds of body weight for cooking chocolate

so dependig on the weight of your dog and the concetration of theobromine the dog may just get a bot of an upset stomach that you won't notice.

Milk chocolate usually causes diarrhea 12 to 24 hours after eating regardless