#feeding pets

[chocobochaserstories]

This is about how feeding goes in a multi-pet household:

The Great Pyrenees: Can’t we have cottage cheese and fish oil?

The Shetland Sheepdog: Excuse me? I wanted Duck, you gave me lamb! Cats: I’m not eating that without eating out the bowl custom shaped to look like the other cat’s head.

Rabbit: My kale is wilted. You’ve forsaken me!

Rats: FuCk YeAh PeLlEtS!

[drferox]

WHY you shouldn’t feed these 10 foods to your dog

Dogs might think they’re human, but their physiology is not like ours. Humans might eat a wide variety of foods with little concern, but there are some very common human foods which you should not feed to your canine companion. You’ve probably seen the foods on this list before, but this is WHY these foods should not be fed to dogs.

Chocolate, Theobromine and Caffeine:

Everybody’s heard that chocolate is bad for dogs, and it’s true. Chocolate contains a compound called Theobromine. Theobromine is a type of compound called a methylxanthine, and another methylxanthine you might be more familiar with is caffeine. We know quite a lot about these compounds, as humans use them both medicinally and recreationally. The long version is that they all inhibit phosphodiesterase and antagonise adenosine receptors. The short version is that they increase muscle activity, including the heart, and stimulate the central nervous system.

This presents as dogs that have fast and irregular heart rates, high body temperatures and increased muscle activity that can progress to seizures.

It takes a reasonable amount of chocolate to poison a dog. One M&M isn’t going  to do it. For a 35kg dog it’s going to take at least 3500mg of theobromine, which is about 5kg of typical milk chocolate. But only 1.2kg of dark chocolate or 600g of cooking chocolate, which is possible.

A 10kg dog needs much less. 1.5kg of milk chocolate would do it, which is only about 3  large Easter Bunnies, or 300g of dark chocolate, which is one packet from the cooking isle.

Chocolate is super tasty, dogs will absolutely gorge themselves on all chocolate available, so it’s not too difficult to poison smaller dogs with it.

And even if you get the dog through the toxicity, the high fat content of chocolate can go on to cause other gastrointestinal problems.

Onions & Garlic:

Yes, I said onions AND garlic. All allium species contain the same potentially toxic compounds, whether raw or cooked. That goes for spring onions too, it’s just really difficult to convince a dog to eat enough of them to be poisoned. These plants cause a Heinz body anaemia by inducing oxidative damage to the surface of the red blood cells, and for some reason breeds of Japanese origin like the Akita and Shiba Inu seem particularly prone to this toxicity.

It usually takes 10 to 15g per kg of body weight to poison a dog, but those breeds can be affected by as little as 5g per kilo. So for a big, 35kg dog, that’s about three medium sized onions.

Poisoning can happen all in one go, or it can happen by eating small amounts over a longer period of time, which is why it’s infuriating to see garlic being suggested as a natural remedy for things.

Bad cases will have to be treated with a blood transfusion as there is no direct antidote. And for interest, there are other things that can cause Heinz body anaemia too, like zinc.

Macadamia nuts:

You know how everything in Australia has a reputation for being deadly? Well the Macadamia is the one native Australian plant that has successfully become a mainstream agricultural crop. And it’s poisonous to dogs. Legitimately, for some weird reason Macadamia nuts cause progressive paralysis in dogs. We don’t know what the active toxin is, but we do know it’s present in both raw and cooked nuts, and as little as 5 nuts can cause paralysis in a 20kg dog. Sometimes the dogs develop vomiting and joint swelling in addition to paralysis, but most recover well with supportive treatment.

Grapes, Raisins and Sultanas:

This is another weird toxin when it comes to dogs, and it’s especially weird in that we don’t know what the toxic compound actually is. Grapes, raisins, sultanas and foods that contain them can cause idiosyncratic (unpredictable) reactions which result in kidney failure by ischaemic injury (lack of blood flow). It’s completely unpredictable which dogs will develop the reaction, and it’s independent of dose with as little at 10 grapes causing the toxicity.

In addition to being unpredictable, you really don’t want to mess around with it. Grape toxicity when it happens has approximately a 50% mortality rate.

Yeast dough:

A dog can absolutely eat cooked bread, but raw dough with yeast in it to make it rise presents some interesting problems. First is that the fermenting yeast produces ethanol, which can be toxic on its own. Second is that the yeast can and will continue to ferment inside the dog’s stomach where it’s nice and warm. This produces more ethanol, but can also cause bloating and the sticky dough is very difficult to remove by vomiting.

Chewing gum and Xylitol:

Xylitol is a sugar substitute used in many ‘sugar free’ products, of which chewing gum is the most common, but more and more foods contain it these days. It’s found naturally in many plants such as berries, but ingesting a large amount of it, about 75mg per kg, will cause profound hypoglycemia. Larger doses can also cause liver failure, and it’s only about 50:50 whether treated dogs will survive that. Dogs with hypoglycemia can look drunk with symptoms like vomiting and difficulty walking.

For a 35kg dog, 10 to 15 pieces of sugar free gum could cause this toxicity, and they will happily eat the entire packet if given the chance.

Alcohol (ethanol):

While humans indulge in this recreational plant toxin, we have spent a considerable amount of our history adapting to its use and some human populations have evolved a higher tolerance than others. Dogs have not done this, but they will consume it either in alcoholic beverages that humans give them for a laugh, or by consuming rotting fruit that’s fallen off trees. Yeast dough can contain it too.

Signs are more or less what you would expect for a drunk dog - sleepy and wobbly, but can progress to low body temperature, metabolic acidosis and some will stop breathing.

The median lethal dose of alcohol for a dog is about 1 standard drink for 2kg of body weight, orally. That’s an average, but some dogs will be more severely affected than others, and complications can still occur at lower doses.

And remember, wine is made from grapes, which can and will cause unpredictable kidney failure, so that’s an extra No.

Stone Fruit:

The flesh of fruits like apricots, peaches and cherries are fine to feed in moderation, but it’s the large seed inside the fruit that causes most of the problems. These seeds do contain cyanide if cracked open, but the more common problem we see is not a toxicity, but gastrointestinal obstruction.

Some of these seeds are small enough to swallow, but large enough to cause a blockage either at the pylorus, where the stomach empties into the intestine, or in the small intestine itself. This will obviously vary with the size of the pip and the size of the dog. A cherry pit isn’t going to cause much drama, and a large dog like a labrador might poop out a series of peach pips, but a small dog like a terrier may not be so lucky.

Avocado:

Avocados deserve a special mention because not only are they a stone fruit with a large stone that would cause an obstruction in most dogs if eaten, the flesh of the fruit also contains a toxin caused persin. Persin is very toxic to some species of birds and herbivores and will cause inflammation, swelling and cardiac arrhythmias. In dogs, it would be unlikely to see more than vomiting from this toxin. However, avocado is also relatively high in fat for a fruit, and fatty foods are also not ideal to feed most dogs and cats.

Fatty Foods:

The most common reason for me to see gastroenteritis in the vet clinic is a dog eating too much fatty food, but it will also potentially cause pancreatitis and that’s even more of a concern. We can tolerate dogs with some diarrhoea or a single vomit after eating something unusual - even humans do that sometimes - but pancreatitis will cause significant pain as well as nausea, and can progress to sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, diabetes or death.

Dogs vary in terms of how much fat they can handle in their diet, with some being much more sensitive than others, and this sensitivity usually increases with age. For most dogs, moderation is the key, not gorging on fatty scraps that the humans didn’t want to eat or barbeque leftovers.

So now you know why these foods aren’t recommended for dogs. We’re not just saying it for no reason, even for the unexpected ones like grapes and macadamias.

This post was sponsored by Fluffy on Patreon. Thank you so much for your ongoing support.

[casual-outfit]

Mini sheepadoodle puppies have arrived! Take a look! 

[thisdayreservedfor]

“I am so glad to have a friend who will feed me in the snow,” said Jacob. 

Source

[crazyfishmaiden]

This video is about overfeeding animals. While the video does a nice general over-view I wanted to go into things a little deeper here.

Overfeeding animals doesn’t just lead to the outward signs. As it pertains to fish here are some of the common consequences.

The first relates exclusively to feeder fish. Many people over-do it on the feeders, and as a result set their tanks up for bad water quality on a regular basis. This is because, number one the amount of waste increases. It may simple be because the feeder fish lead to more noxious waste, or because the fish are eating when they are full, and pushing predigested food out to make room for new food.

A second consequence is a higher chance for hole in the head disease, or lateral line erosion. The HiD disease is often linked to Hexamita, which is a protozoan parasite. It will exist inside the fish’s gut, and initially not cause problems. However, the moment the animal starts go through any sort of stress, it is more likely that the immune system of the animal dips. This then allows the parasite to start to wreck havoc. It can go so far as to travel to other parts of the body and this is where the pits, and eroded face look starts to set in.

This is completely avoidable if, number one the animal isn’t over-fed on feeders concentrating the parasite in the host, or increasing the potential for exposure. This also means cleaner water, and a tank that isn’t as difficult to keep up on. That in turn means less of a chance for stress related to bad water quality.

There is also another dangerous side effect to some feeders such as Goldfish, and minnows. It is also shared with foods such as beefheart. These are high in saturated fats, and in excess lead to organ failure, such as a fatty heart, or enlarge heart, and or liver disease (fatty liver disease). So even if you were over-feeding and keeping up on stellar water quality, and kept stress levels down, the fish will still die early, and possibly painfully because of the internal problems.

If that isn’t enough the two fish species mentioned can concentrate something else that leads to a problem with nutrient absorbing. So, in conclusion on this, the more you stuff your animals with feeder fish, the faster you are killing them.

Beef heart also tends to be something people over-feed to encourage fast growth. If an animal is growing faster than it’s skeleton can properly keep up, you can end up with a brittle skeleton that is easily injured.

Any type of over-feeding is bad with fish. It leads to water quality problems, and if over-fed on the wrong foods has other issues as stated above. So why do people do it? As stated in the video my prominent theory is that people have a dissonance in their head because of their own human habits. For some, that turns into bad habits with their animals to try to settle that dissonance. That means feeding more often, and more food.

Many animals don’t actually appear to be able to tell when they are full. Not like humans, anyway. If animals in the wild are always foraging because they find small bits of food through-out the day to equal what they need, then they are more likely to eat everything that is offered in captivity.

It is up to us, the people in charge to make the right decisions, and to put our own dissonance to the side. We must recognize that our animals are not always going to mimic our own habits 100 percent, and it can be dangerous to expect otherwise.

I hope you all learned something, or at the very least remember it’s okay to speak up and try to educate people when they enter the hobby, or are first time pet-keepers. Education is the key to prevention, and the key to helping people make the best choices for their pets!

[raspberryrose6]

I’m travelling up North this week for a conference and although it’s going to be interesting and useful for sure, I’m really going to miss my little family at home 👨🏻‍💻🐱🐹 The Lovely Husband said “I hope I don’t forget to feed Electra”. I was like 😂😂😂 AS IF she would let you forget!!! She’d just quietly knaw his leg off in the night... Mew Mew CHOMP! 😾😼😸

[tanyaluca]

Feeding Homeless Puppy

[atomicarcadewhispers]

Milk is good for us all by Kathie McMillan Via Flickr: Okay, we now know cow's milk is not so great for kitties! "My Little Nature Book With my Very Own Pictures" Follow the Dots activities published by Cupples & Leon Company of New York. One of the Rainy Day Books series. Illustrated by H.G.C. Marsh Lambert. A quality little hardback, unknown date.