BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat

Subject: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Kim C
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 11:31 AM

I have recently discovered that my dog Belle, who is nearly 8 years old, likes peanuts and popcorn. She used to steal butter off the countertop but hasn't done that in awhile.

And of course, there's the cat box...

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: MMario
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 11:33 AM

One dog we had would do *anything* for green peas; the last one liked green grapes - he also would ASK for peanut butter - by tilting his head back and working his tongue as if he had a spoonful of it stuck to the roof of his mouth!

One of our current cats loves garlic alfredo sauce

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: beadie
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 11:37 AM

One of my former (now sadly passed) companion ferrets used to go absolutely bonkers over CoolWhip. I'd just put a little glob on my index finger and she would drape her slinky little body along my forearm and hold on tight while she licked the fingertip dry . . . all the while with her face all scrunched up in an ecstatic expression.

I guess they don't call them omnivores for nothing.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Wesley S
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 11:42 AM

One cat loves yogurt - the other one prefers my shoelaces.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 11:48 AM

Our dogs will eat anything I give them. Mostly raw veggies. Celery doesn't go over well, but they will suck the juice out of it and leave the strings. Had a cat once that would kill for the salty juice from green olives.

You should all know that besides chocolate, onions and grapes are also toxic to dogs.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Cluin
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 11:48 AM

Like many others, my dog eats his own shit quite often.

Maybe I can get him a job with the federal government.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Shuffer
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 12:16 PM

My Jack Russel loves hazelnuts in their shells which he plays with for a few minutes and then cracks them open and eats the nut. Don't know where the habit started but we have to keep a bowl full all year for the dog. He also likes raw potatoe and of course, anything we are eating.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Beccy
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 12:18 PM

My puppy likes (icky alert here) to let himself into the bathroom and eat whatever is in my son's training potty. Ugh...
My older dog, on the other hand, is quite the gourmet. He got into a bowl of marinated mushrooms I had on my table and gobbled them all down and licked the bowl clean.
They're both fond of carrots.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 12:26 PM

Our cats eat everything we do. It's probably unhealthy, and they'll probably croak but they're both ten years old and have never needed a vet.

Other than their dry stuff, they just sit beside us and we hand them cheese, pork, steak, fish, barbequed this, curried that, you name it. Their favourites? Parmegian cheese and salami!

Thank god we don't have children....our "rearing skills" are non-existant!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 12:27 PM

had a cat that would kill & devour a box of raw pasta..(spaghetti, etc,,) couldn't leave one sitting out.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 12:28 PM

cat shit

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Kim C
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 12:28 PM

We try to keep chocolate away from Belle but it doesn't always work. One time she got hold of two or three Hershey kisses and didn't leave anything but a few little crumbs of foil. She was none the worse for wear, though.

The cat... well, Thumper doesn't seem to care much for anything but cat food, cat treats, or tuna. Once in awhile he'll decide he wants to check out what we're eating, but not very often. And he's funny in that he won't eat from my hand. Never has. He won't take the treats unless you put them down first.

Dear departed Buddy Cat, on the other hand, could not be left alone with any edibles on the table. Many was the time Paul left a glass of milk for just a minute, only to return to see Buddy Cat with his paw in the glass.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: GUEST,geordie
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 12:42 PM

my dog eats raw mussels

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: JenEllen
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 12:53 PM

Re: the onions/grapes/raisins/chocolates/etc? Speaking from an entirely professional point of view, it usually takes an enormous amount (compared with the animals size) to induce illness. There are a lot of things that are more toxic, such as anti-freeze, that folks should be worried about. Nothing worse than seeing folks with a big anti-freeze puddle in their driveway telling their kids not to share a cookie with the dog 'cause it might kill it.

As a person who's owned by a few critters, we share and share alike. Bridgey is a snob, and only eats cat food. Angus'll eat anything except salty foods like chips and pretzels, and Sully wants anything the dog gets. Sully returns the favour by leaving me little headless rodent corpses. (I make a fuss about how wonderful they are, but I've not actually tried one yet).

Life's too short, share the cookies.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Kim C
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 01:00 PM

Well, Mister's granny did share everything with her dog, and he lived to be 15... but I want the cookies for myself. ;-)

Several of the pet stores now sell snacks that humans and their pets can share. I have just seen them in passing and haven't really checked it out thoroughly, but it could be fun.

I can't believe I forgot to mention the pizza crusts. Pizza crust was the only thing Zenith (who went to doggy Heaven last November) would actually sit and bark for. How she knew we were eating pizza, I have no idea, but she would sit there and wag, and when Mister left the crusts on his plate, she would bark. Hey! Gimme those!

Needless to say, the first time we had pizza after Zenith died, I sat there and bawled.

Of course, Belle caught the pizza crust bug, too. She isn't a barker, but she'll sit there and stare until you hand it over. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 01:04 PM

My cats have us well trained; they don't make a fuss when the food dish (dry Science Diet, their favorite) is empty. They sit quietly beside it and stare at us until we notice them. The older cat trained the new cat to do this, and sometimes it's dress right dress at the food dish.

One day I was showing the kids a trick for making friends with a dog (yeah, they know all of the cautions about strange dogs, but there are times when good dogs are a bit shy of new people). You rub the end of your finger in your ear to get a concentrated dose of your scent, and the dog will invariably take an interested sniff of your hand and decide if they know enough about you to be friends. One of the kids tried it on one of the cats--who promptly licked off the end of the finger. He thinks it's a real treat, that little hit of earwax.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 01:07 PM

Kim, they have noses so fine tuned it makes ours look like blunt instruments in comparison. You dog not only knew you were having pizza, she knew the ingredients in each of the toppings.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Kim C
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 01:15 PM

Well, I figgered it had something to do with that. But we didn't always eat the same kind of pizza! Must have been the cheese that gave it away. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 01:35 PM

The Weims eat about anything we do as do the cats. Jaeger likes Thai food and Sissy prefers Italian. Both are nuts for bread and you don't dare leave out the butter or the cream cheese. The poor cats just try to get in anything the dogs leave, but Jaeger and Sissy don't leave much. The scrap fits in with their regular, but modifed, B.A.R.F. diet.   They each get a few ounces of yogurt a day a well. I feed alternately BARF and kibble and in that I use either Innova or PMI Exclusive.

The big thing in our house anymore is that no other animal eats without Sissy's okay!!!

Friggin' Weimies eat better than we do!.........buy they're worth it.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 01:40 PM

" Crazy Things ways your Pets Eat"

had a cat that had a distinctive way of informing you that what was in her dish was old, not to her liking, or just boring. She would bite off a chunk, bring it into wherever you were (like the living room carpet) and slowly, gingerly, with kitty grimaces, eat it in front of you. "See what nasty stuff I have to put up with? Am I not a martyr?"

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Pseudolus
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 01:46 PM

Plastic bags and ribbons.....

The cat will munch on a plastic bag for hours and will also eat the ribbons right off a gift! Presents under our tree at Christmas time are typically bowless and ribbonless cause they would just get eaten anyway. The Christmas bows and ribbons do however make for some colorful kitty barf.....


Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 02:08 PM

Crazy animals!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: bill\sables
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 02:13 PM

I run a Paintball site and when my Lab dog comes he shovels up dropped paintballs and then shits green or blue or pink or whatever the colour of the paintballs. We once had a cow who, when killed, had a 6" ball of orange bale binder twine and a pair of rubber gloves in her stomach.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 02:27 PM

my hamster used to eat lettuce.john

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:34 PM

My brother's dearly departed cat used to drag corn cobs out of the trash, drag them off like prey, snarl over them and munch away. We took to saving him a few rows of his own on a cob or two.

Our dog loves tomatoes, but only if they are cut open or are bite-size cherry ones. He will eat anything Roger eats and some of what I eat, even lettuce if it's in a taco shell with tomatoes.

Our old dog, now gone, was known as Pasta Dawg because he was so nuts for all kinds of pasta, as long as they had red sauce AND parmesan cheese. He would leave a bowl of plain pasta sitting on the floor in front of him, alternately cussing us out and telling us "I Wuf U" until we added the sauce, BUT even then it wasn't good enough, oh NO! had to put the cheese on, too! He taught the current dawg all about it, so the legacy continues, although this one uses the silent, Compelling Eyes treatment instead of being mouthy.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: stevetheORC
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:36 PM

Bovril one of our little angels (demon in disguise:-) just luv's curry n beer!!!
He has been known to try brandy but was not too keen on that.

Orc

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Amos
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:37 PM

LOL!!! Little bit by little bit the Pets of the World gain MORE power with LESS effort. Just be nice to them -- they may be deciding what to feed US some day!! LOL!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:38 PM

Our dog Sarah loves carrots and popcorn.

She also loves rabbit pellets and absolutely drives Abby, our bunny, wild when she invades the litter box. The only good thing about it, is there are no stray pellets around the house ;-)

JAB

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:42 PM

Meant to include this in my previous posting. I wrote it here at the Mudcat a few years ago:

Montee, the Pasta Dog (tune of On Top of Spaghetti)

On top of my pasta
My dog has drooled
He cannot help it
It's his favourite food.

He'll wear a nice bib
And, sit like a prince
But if I don't hurry
He'll talk and I'll wince.

He swears like a trooper
Much worse than the kids
He'll cuss me out loudly
For he's got first dibs.

He won't eat it plain now
It has to have sauce
And, "shake cheese" parmesan
All over the top.

Then the all clear is sounded
He moves in to "kill"
Gawd save man and critter
Who doesn't know the drill.

Oh, when he is finished
The bowl is licked clean
No incriminating evidence
Will ever be seen.

Now, if you see Montee
My Pasta Dog of yore
You'll know he's in heaven
Eating pasta galore!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:45 PM

Some years ago I tried to start a couple of rows of asparagus. I thought I'd had total crop failure for two years in a row, before I discovered that my new puppy was gnawing them off as fast as they sprouted. Had to move before I had a chance to see what kind of crop I'd get after I put up the fence.

Our current "deviants" are the 3 cats who refuse to let me feed the tropical fish until I give them a sample of the TetraMin Tropical Fish Flakes. They'll try to crawl in the tank to lick it off the water if I don't distract them with their own little "snack."

John

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Kim C
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:51 PM

Belle likes the raw baby carrots, but will only eat other veggies if they're cooked. She likes steamed broccoli and cauliflower.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:54 PM

My two dogs love chocolate ice cream, and get their share whenever we have it. I wonder who starts this dietary nonsense!
We give them our leftover vegetables (very good for them), and both beg for tomato.
Adding to JenEllen- In addition to antifreeze, many people are careless about where they put Warfarin bait and other materials used to control rodents. The stuff looks just like the food pellets for rabbits, which dogs find tasty as well. My daughter lost a dog because a neighbor put Warfarin in an accessible outdoor planter.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:54 PM

One of my sig-o's cats loves to chew on corn silk from the corn on the cob. When I was small, we had a dog who are corn on the cob. He would also go crazy for a chocolate covered graham cracker. He would spend hour licking the chocolate off, then eating small bites, to savor the treat. If you came up to him while we was eating this, he would gobble it down, but he loved to take his time, when left alone. The same dog also liked bread heals. One of my singing partner Margaret's cats liked to eat musk mellon.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Gareth
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 04:00 PM

Guto - my late Terrier, would murder a curry, or anything with Chili sauce on. He was also very partial to real ale, which was quite embarrasing in the Pub, seeing as the little S*D would not buy a round.

Many a late night kebab, with chili sauce, have I shared with him.

Obviously a true Welsh Terrier.

Funny enough he would not eat chips (french fries)

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 04:33 PM

Coprophagia....

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: beadie
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 04:58 PM

Cats have long been known to be gifted with a highly technical (and relatively secret) device called "t.u.n.a.r." This gives the cat the ability to respond immediately, from any point within the domicile, to the site where a can of tuna is being opened (usually before the lid hits the counter).

I have now discovered a disturbing trend among canines to be mutated to have the same capability.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: beadie
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 04:59 PM

Still more evidence of evolution.    Take THAT, Pat Robertson.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: JeZeBeL
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 05:13 PM

My cat doesn't like the sardines we've tried to give him....but he likes the tomato sauce they come in!!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: GUEST,Ely
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 05:17 PM

Ootek (dog #1)--LOVED celery; also liked peanuts & would make a complete ass of himself over popcorn

White Diamond (dog #2)--grapes (in small quantities), cherries, berries of all descriptions, tomatoes, peanuts, popcorn; used to love peanut butter until she found out I was using it to give her allergy pills (peanut butter was very entertaining since it would stick to her tongue, which is about four feet long, and she would sit there making silly faces and trying to lick it off).

Razz (cat)--chocolate, melted ice cream; she would drink iced tea right from your glass if you weren't watchful

I worked with a pony once that would attack if she saw you with a popsicle.

I work for a veterinarian and we see all sorts of "dietary indiscretions". 1) a Great Dane that ate a small stuffed animal. 2) a pit bull puppy that ate a dishrag. 3) a cat that ate a large twist-tie and a bunch of mylar gift ribbons. 4) a golden retriever that ate a fishing bobble. 5) a Rottweiler that ate a big rubber gasket and a bunch of oil-soaked kitty litter from the floor of his owner's garage. 6) another pit bull pup that found a piece of barbecued chicken and ate so much she couldn't digest it (ipecac to the rescue!). 7) a cat that ate a piece of rubber sole from a flip-flop.

One of my coworkers has a cat that has a string-eating obsession that has earned her one major exploratory surgery and lots of afternoons spent sedated while the vet unwound string from around her tongue (the cat is on the antidepressant amitriptilyne now and doing much better). Incidentally, if your cat is sick and you see string hanging out of one end or the other, DON'T PULL--I've seen plenty of cats with strings running all the way through them and you can bunch up and slice their intestines.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 05:30 PM

Lizzie who was rescued from LaGuardia Airport loves pizza crust. I suspect she survived on it at some point in her life. Ed and Alice will steal anything if I don't watch them.

But the strangest is Fred who hunts and eats worms. The bigger the better. Last spring my neighbors would sit on the front porch to watch the sport. He would walk around with a huge bloodworm dangling out both sides of his mouth or hold it by one end and drag it along. Nasty when he brought his meal into the kitchen. He taught some of the other neighborhood cats to hunt but they chose not to eat. Gives me the shivers to remember. For now, snow impededs his fun.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Kim C
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 05:38 PM

I have seen Belle snap a fly out of the air.

One time she caught a rabbit that had come through the chain link fence in the backyard. Of course, she ate it. This was right before bed. She came upstairs and reclined on her blanket, and I said to her, don't you EVEN think about throwing that up, right before bed.

Naturally, as soon as I settled in, she threw it up. Since mother figures seem to usually be charged with cleaning up things like vomit and poop, it was left to me. What was funny was, it was all in a neat little ball. With an eye looking right at me.

We laugh about it now. She hasn't killed and/or eaten any more wayward bunnies that I know of.

Belle used to like peanut butter too, until she started associating it with the terrible bitter taste of Dramamine...

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Helen
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 05:40 PM

One of my cats would come running and drooling every time we had steamed broccoli.

My hubby's cat loved prawns (shrimp) but my cat Timmy would turn her nose up at prawns. To her it wasn't a food at all. Hubby loves seafood, I barely tolerate it, and we only got together a few years ago, so each cat was nurtured with different tastes.

Timmy was my foster cat (died of kidney disease mid 2003) originslly grew up where there was an avocado tree. She would eat the fallen avocados and would kill for avocado, and fresh tomato pieces, when she came to live with me. She originally ate chilli con carne and 4am pizza, but I weaned her from those habits. She would kill for chocolate and sweet biscuits, and bread as well.

Hubby's cat also loved the fish food pellets made of vegetable matter, which we use for the yabbies (crayfish0. Hubby had to do the one for the yabby, five for the cat trick.

I started using Science Diet for Timmy, but too late. We are about to get 2 new kittens, so they will be starting out better.

I have a book on natural & herbal remedies dogs and cats by Juliette de Bairacli Levy. She pioneered the use of natural diets for animals, and by reading her original feeding mixture for kidney health, and comparing it with products like the Science Diet's kidney mix, I can see that she has greatly influenced these products.

I'll scan her recommendations and add them here tomorrow.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 06:25 PM

Alice loves peppermint. She steals mints and drools all over the package. Must be like catnip to her. The others gag at the smell.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 06:46 PM

This is all too funny!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Cluin
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 06:50 PM

My last dog loved frozen peas.

He didn't like them cooked or even thawed-out; just when they were frozen.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: JenEllen
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 08:09 PM

Sins;
Angus loves the peppermints too! He knows he's not allowed to touch the Christmas tree, so he'll sit and stare with the puddles of drool at his feet, willing the candy canes to jump off the tree. Funny thing is that he doesn't 'eat' them...just rolls the candy around in his mouth until it melts away, then comes and breathes on you, just to make sure you notice how great his breath smells...*bg*

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: gnu
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 08:29 PM

What I could never level out was why my cats had such a taste for fish and seafood. If I brought home ruffed grouse from a hunting trip, they would be indifferent. However, if I cracked a lobster, they would go nuts... Cheucie, at 17 years old, would become aggressive, and she damn well would be fed lobster or she would actually fight and scratch for it. As if lobster was the natural diet of a house cat.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 08:46 PM

Yesterday I went outside and I see this animal (I thought) laying in the driveway, well I go over to it and here it's a deer head with a rope still around it's neck. So I picked it up and moved it to a high spot (figure I'll throw it out in the woods next time I go out), so anyway I go out this morning and there is deer teeth and some scraps of bone, those dogs of mine must have found a hunter's pile again and been chowing down. Reminds me of the deer leg bone on the porch thread!
Zircon (dog) will lay down in the fall under the oak trees and pig out on acorns., He also loves raspberries in season and he'll munch on a variety of veggies from the garden. Jade (dog) will eat about anything except fruit. Cinnabar(cat) only eats cat food and cat treats and only likes the water from the tuna.
Helen, I love that Timmy liked avacado! An acquired taste!
Peace. Rustic

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 09:13 PM

My brother's lab loved raspberries and he picked them one at a time from their bushes. His favorite bush was always left unpicked so he could "snack".My sister-in-law still leaves the berries untouched on Max's favorite bush.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 09:31 PM

Beer-guzzling horse.... from the bottle, always.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 10:10 PM

Last summer I was wondering why the basil was not doing well. Looked out the window one day, and there was Max the Granddog munching away. Moved the basil inside the fence.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: mouldy
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 02:56 AM

Yep, coprophagia, I know it well! (Eating their own shit). The dog I inherited from my mum has always done it, and I'm now giving her pills to stop it. (Someone once said if you feed 'em pineapple it stops it but she likes pineapple). So far after a week on the pills, which she also likes, (it's supposed to take two weeks, if not you double the dose) I am still seeing evidence of it - she quite often comes back into the house licking her lips, and I find occasional nibbled evidence. They guy at the local Petsmart says it's a habit they develop when puppies. Same dog likes also cucumber, raw carrot, and tomatoes. Also eating the bits of charcoal that fall off the BBQ, as they probably taste meaty, and nibbling the centaury leaves in the summer.

My other dog, before she got old, used to eat the kids' wax crayons, balloons and stuff. When we first had her she nicked a quarter pound of very ripe stilton. (Most dogs seem to like cheese - is that why they like licking feet too?)

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 03:13 AM

Weeeell.

Monty my cat loves about anything, before we got him after he was rescued at 6months old he was used to fending for himself, until someone tried to sail him down the river in a box with stone in it!!

So as a result he'll pretty much eat anything - and he's turned into a brilliant mouser. His favourites are pasta, broccoli, cabbage, sweetcorn, yogurt, bread (he knows how to open the bread bin and help himself), occaisionally the whole bin if he knows there are fish scraps in there. Any meat that is left out on the sideboard, potato (mashed), stuffing, omelette, ice cream, the milk at the bottom of your cereal bowl. Most mornings he will sit on the side of the armchair, and stare at you until you relent and give him the dregs of the cereal and milk. He goes mad for dreggy milk and museli, cornflakes with no milk, chocolate, custard. And then there's rabbits he catches.

Meanwhile, his co-habiting cat chum Tigger, will only eat cat fud, and cat biscuits, sometimes the best cuts of meat that we share with him, and doesn't feel the need to steel anything. Though his friend did teach him a few bad habbits when he first turned up. Tigger is much too a sloth to catch anything other than the odd meandering butterfly, when he catches them, licks their wings and then gets bored.

Well, I'm moving soon and mom and dad have claimed custody of my two boys, and as much as those two are my puddies, they both (mom and dad) have said they'd miss them too much and it's cruel to take them away as they are so settled.

Sooooo.... I told our local cat protection league lady I was available for 2 second hand cats, and on Sunday I am taken charge of by two, one male and one female - tabby and white and ginger tabby and white. So, I'm yet to see what their habits are like - I've seen one of them and she looks like she has a bit of siamese in her - UH OH!!!!

Ella

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 03:19 AM

Oh... and we used to wonder why my two boys, would be so keen to be out of the house in the morning before 6am. They'd go mad and insist on it, until one morning we opened the front door, and caught the milkman, putting a pile of cat biscuits on the doorstep, with two spoilt puddies sat next to him waiting for him to do so.

THen the milkman admitted, he's been doing this every morning for the past couple of years, as he looks forward to see my two boys every morning.

Lots of kids in the street all know Monty's name too, which leads me to suspect that he has engraciated himself with several other households in the street. Everytime the kids see him, they all shout his name and run up to fuss him. He's so smug!

There have also been reports of Tigger being found on neighbours beds curled up asleep, having got through the cat flap, and another one reporting they had to remove Tigger from the cat flap, as he is a portly boy, his hips got stuck!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Kim C
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 10:55 AM

I read somewhere that cat poop has some sort of enzyme that is helpful to canine digestion. Who knows. They seem to all like things that stink.

Isn't catnip a member of the mint family? Could explain why some kitties like the peppermint.

Belle has trained me to get her a biscuit every morning when I get out of the shower. I am pretty sure dogs will one day take over the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: JenEllen
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 11:00 AM

Kim,
Cat poop is loaded with PROTEIN! *bg* Their diet is more meat-based than dogs, so when they go, it's loaded with 'pro'. If your dog hasn't ever eaten cat crap before, it might be an indication that its protein levels are outta whack. You can have blood tests done pretty easily, but even easier is to just give them some cooked chicken with meals to up their blood proteins.

And, yeah, you're right about the catnip.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: AggieD
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 12:47 PM

Our current dog, Jasper loves licorice, (as did our previous dogs Benji & Sam)as well as whatever we are eating. Yoghurt is a favourite, & he's allowed to lick the pot after I've finished.
Cat poo is very high on the list of goodies, & he has a very good nutritiously balanced food.
Dried pasta is a favorite too.

Cats Misty & Treacle love anything fishy - today it was the scrapings of smoked salmon, a particulate favourite for some reason- spoilt or what? - as well as a little cooked chicken & cheese.

We looked after a dog that belonged to my cousin, for a short time. She adored anything from the orange family, as soon as you started to peel an orange, satsuma etc. she would magically appear, & sit drooling until she got a piece.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Susanl
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 01:00 PM

There is nothing my dog won't eat. She's a yellow lab and they're supposed to be famous for their appetites. When we got her, she was about fifteen pounds overweight. We put her on low-cal dog food and gave her vegetables and fruit and raw almonds as treats. Now, it's gotten so she expects a salad after dinner. She LOVES salad. She's lost fifteen pounds with regular walks and runs and frisbee-fetching and looks happy and healthy. When I saw this thread, I thought "Geez, what DOESN'T my dog eat?" So far, nothing. There was a brief time there when she didn't much care for celery but she's gotten over that.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 01:02 PM

Old Tobble Dobble loved food....all sorts...in fact she use to have her own feeding routes that she would take everyday...all along the route were people that she knew were sappy enough to feed her. Now her favourite was an old German gentleman by the name of Mr. Messenbrink. That old fellow would feed her all sorts of goodies, including cakes and ice cream. I remember one time she got accidentally bit by our great dane....(she fell on the great dane while the poor girl was sleeping so Tobbles got bit almost clean in half) and she could hardly go anywhere and had tubes in her body and everything....she disappeared we tried to find her and Mr. Messenbrink comes over and says are you missing a dog?

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Kim C
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 02:16 PM

Belle eats Kitty Tootsie Rolls all the time, in addition to her regular diet of dry & canned food, dog biscuits, steamed vegetables, peanuts, popcorn, and whatever falls in the floor, by accident or design.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Kim C
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 02:22 PM

And I forgot to mention, we do have a super-extra-covered kitty box. Belle can finagle the lid right off. We tried blocking off the door, just leaving it open enough for Thumper to get in & out, but she finagles that too. She's a clever girl.

Anyway, here's a little article about poop-eating dogs:

Yummy!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: GUEST,Wa BAn Zhou
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 04:34 PM

My lab, who didn't have a lot of skill areas, really like to take bananas and potatoes to bed with her. She didn't eat them.. mind you, she just like to have them around in her sleeping area. She sometimes lick and snuzzle them, but not if I was watching. She worked out an arrangement with the cat, whereby Dulcita would kick bananas off the counter,and she she would pick them up and trot off to bed. Never could understand what the payoff was for the cat.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: annamill
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 05:46 PM

My little Maxie (Maltese) eat bunny turds! Whenever we go out for a walk she goes searching. Yuch!!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: KateG
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 05:48 PM

Years ago I had a cat who would kill for mushrooms; she also liked eggplant peelings.

My old Rottie was a bagel hound. Every morning on the way to work I'd stop for breakfast and by one cup of coffee and two bagele; one for each of us. By the time he passed on he had my whole staff trained, any batch of bagels that came into the office included one for him.

My new Rottie girl thinks bagels are OK, but she'd rather have cookies or peanuts.

KateG

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: SINSULL
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 06:05 PM

I had a cat who also loved bagels. I had to hide them or he would go through ALL of them and eat off the top. Fred the Wormer is named after Fred the Bagler. Alice also eats toothpaste if I don't put the brush in my mouth fast enough.

My cats don't eat poop but Fred collects it and has a stash under my bed for play time. They roll nicely. SIGH!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 06:23 PM

This gets funnier and funnier, but eggplant peel????? Weird, man. But mine would probably eat it if I gave it to them.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: GUEST,Frash
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 08:10 PM

Relish -- my Dachshund -- loves warm soup, grapes and rabbit poop, although not necessarily in that order. If no rabbits have visited the yard recently, she will substitute cat shit for the bunny bon bons.

I may consider joining your group now that I've discovered your discussions are more than simply frivolous fluff ... thanks to this thread.

Not to mention tasteful as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Hrothgar
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 03:56 AM

They're all getting even for the pensioners who eat pet food.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Gervase
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 04:24 AM

Had a cat once that loved baked beans and marmite.
Nastiest thing, though, was a friend's dog who had a passion for used condoms. It's turds would come out half-wrapped in shredded latex (I assume the contents had been digested). Friend's girlfriend used to mutter about the bloody dog sniffing around the lover's lane at the bottom of the garden, but friend once confided in his cups that the dog would simply snaffle the used johnnies from under the bed after the soggy deed. For some reason he couldn't be arsed to dispose of them in a dog-proof way.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Helen
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 05:52 AM

You all *need* to read Paul Gallico's book, purportedly written by a cat, called The Silent Miaow. The aim of the cat-author is to share info to other cats so that they can refine their skills at training humans to do their bidding. Cats don't have owners, they have staff.

Yes, even you dog-lovers! You need to read it too.

Sweet corn - hubby's cat liked a few of those scraped off the cob, and mine liked the milky water from the can of sweet corn.

Guest Frash, I am not sure why a discussion about what our pets eat is not *frivolous fluff* but it is worthwhile joining our community because it's one of the nicest bunch of people I have (n)ever met (in the flesh) and I got addicted about 6 years ago and can't wait to get my daily fix every day. We can talk about anything and make it interesting - even music, and instruments, and dancing and poetry and ... and....

Reading about Tobble Dobble, I thought she must have been a cat - having well-trained humans throughout the neighbourhood supplying her every need. That's one clever dog!

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: AggieD
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 06:02 AM

I forgot that our old dog Benji used to love baked beans.
He was a rescue dog who was so thin when he came to us that his bones were sticking out everywhere. He couldn't sit or lie in one place for any length of time because he was so thin. The rescue society said that the family he came from appeared to have a regular diet of baked beans & little else & he used to knock the pan of the cooker & eat them(the beans, not the family!). We needless to say gave him a good diet & the beans were an occasional treat, but he never did lose that love of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: My guru always said
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 07:09 AM

I knew this cat who was determined to stop someone's 'mary-jane' from growing up - she just loved the fresh sprouts. What a habit!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: M'Grath of Altcar
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 08:40 AM

My old Lurcher was a bad thief.

He stole The Christmas Turkey once.

Ice cream from childrens hands,
bags of flour,
sugar,
Food from peoples shopping bags,
raisins,
pasta,
chip pans full of lard (oh how he loved cold lard)
My Juggling cubes
Mogadon sleeping tablets

Things hit rock bottom when he got an ENTIRE bar of ex-lax laxative chocolate.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 10:29 AM

Let's see -- Mortimer is a cream cheese fanatic, while Banjo will become quite brazen in the quest of any sort of cheese left on the table. (She usually doesn't come anywhere near "The Giants" -- we might pet her, or something.) Sabine licks the melted butter off napkins and also likes popcorn.

You couldn't keep Tractor away from pork chop bones or rosé wine. (Long before my wine sense had developed; we were young and it was cheap.)

Ivan would gobble uncooked noodles out of the cellophane bag on the counter.

A friend's dog is a vegetable fanatic. He once dragged a bulb of garlic out of my purse just before snagging cabbage off the counter. Raw potatoes, carrots, anything was fair game.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: MMario
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 10:35 AM

Man's best friend leaving you vulnerable to vampires? shocking!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: JenEllen
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 10:48 AM

Linn, my dear, you are moving ever closer to "Queen of Things You Don't Hear Every Day". He once dragged a bulb of garlic out of my purse ... ?!?!?!?!

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Kim C
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 10:59 AM

Belle once ate an entire stick of butter off the countertop. We figured she was in for a horrible case of the scoots. Nope. It was just like nothing ever happened.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 11:41 AM

That particular bulb of garlic, which my friend had purchased at Common Ground Fair, was destined to be planted in my garden. (Well, OF COURSE, I'd have a garlic bulb in my purse!)

Almost forgot about Napoleon, usually referred to as "Kitten Kat". He'd lie between my naked breasts in bed (is this too much information for anybody? I was 80 lbs. younger then) while I was eating chunks of pineapple with a fork. Well, if I was lucky, I'd eat them. Mostly he'd snag them off the fork and eat them first. It was a game to see which of us could get our mouth around the pineapple chunk first. (He wasn't with us long, alas. He committed suicide by pulling the iron off the ironing board onto his head. Guess who had NEVER left the iron sitting on the ironing board again even if the cord is neatly wrapped around it.)

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: AggieD
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 12:55 PM

A friend of mine's old dog chomped her way through almost a whole sack of carrots, the aftermath was pretty horrific apparently.

One Christmas Benji & Sam got hold of a pack of mince pies,luxury version of course & eat their way through them. They left the cheap-o ones of course. Boy did they have lots of visits to the garden that day.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Peg
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 01:19 PM

I have heard cats should not eat pork because the fat molecules are too large for them to digest properly. This is why no commercial cat foods, even though they contain many other types of meat, contain pork. (The "liver and bacon" flavor has imitation bacom flavoring I believe).

Our English setter Nellie liked corn on the cob; she'd hold down one end with her paw, nibble it across, then turn it to get at the next section. Smart dog!

Cat Emmett (female, named after my grandfather) used to enjoy licking salt off saltine crackers, then eating the crackers...

I once nearly got my jugular vein severed by cats trying to get at some gelato-style ice cream! I worked at the ice cream joint next to my apartment in college and sometimes brought it home. I think it was the high butterfat content they loved. Weird that they could smell it, though.

My cats will eat any plant I bring in the house so unfortunately I can only have wheatgrass or oatgrass, which is of course for them...

Cat Stony is named after Stonyfield yogurt as he gobbled it down as a kitten...

Whe I was a vegetarian years ago I decided to feed my cat Ziggy on tofu and scrambled eggs! He loved it. But I found out cats can't be vegetarian. Dogs can, though and I have known some very healthy dogs who were never given meat or commercial foods at home, just home-made slop consisting mostly of cooked grains and milk...

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 09:06 AM

Well...

I just rescued me a cat! She's very timid, shy, nervous, shaking in her boots. She's petrified. We've left her contained to 2 rooms, with a litter tray, food, water, scratch post and a new bed.

The main thing is the kids where she was pulled her around alot. And well - at the moment she doesn't trust us completely - I'm sure she expects us to do the same.

Though this morning she licked my big toe - and prrrrped at me a hello.

We think she's maybe a cross tabby, with either a siamese - or another oriental type cat. She's very graceful, has that ridge of fur down her back that sticks up when she's greeting us.

She hasn't eaten much yet with us, and will only eat when we are out - doesn't trust us to eat near us yet.

She's got ear mites, not been vaccinated and probably got fleas - but she's so cute, ladylike, and actually very loving if we go and sit in her hiding hole with her. Came home the other night to see her sitting in the window waiting for us. Which was lovely! Each day she's getting bolder - a trip to the vets soon as she is calmed down enough to make another journey.

She also doesnt know how to play, I jiggled a toy mouse infront of her this am, and she tapped it once and then ran off and hid behind the sofa.

We're going to have to be patient with this one!

Ella

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: JedMarum
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 09:26 AM

My Whippet, Lacey, likes to chew razors. They taste like blood.

Subject: RE: BS: Crazy Things your Pets Eat
From: Cluin
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 05:19 PM

Vegetarian dogs, Peg?