Do you feed your dog (or cat) your own food?

I have a miniature dachshund and a horror of those overfed little barrel specimens of the breed you see dragging their poor little tummies along the ground. With this in mind he is never fed biscuits or sweet treats but he is a great opportunist and 'vacuums' the kitchen on a regular basis! He does like apple and carrots, but his top favourite is if my OH comes home with a Chinese takeaway. Prawn Crackers are apparently what a dachshund was born to eat, thank goodness for those little stumpy legs...

Our JR the lovely barney always parks himself in front of the oven when a chicken is roasting little mouth working away in antisipation of it jumping out of the oven into his bowl,he gives us no rest until the said bird has cooked and cooled down and he can have a slice in with his normal dried dog food,he will always eat the chicken first even though we now put it in the bottom of his dish,he will also sit by the fridge if the leftovers are put in there expecting a treat when the fridge is opened.
We had a cat who was half siamese who made it his business to help himself to many a hot piece of cooked meat from neighbouring houses during his lifetime,we never found out where he stole from and he never seemed to get caught by anyone we knew locally.

What you realise looking back over a life looking after, or being allowed to look after cats, is that there are a lot of stories, which become family folklore. I have now started writing these stories down and every time when GD1 comes I have written a another story about Micky who was my first cat, and who was an alpha animal in the days when I didn't know what that was. He was a big black Bosscat and had a huge revier of cats who were frightened of him.

I enjoy these stories and refer to myself as Margaret in the story and my granddaughter is now realising that I was not always Grandma. I must add that there is only one GC who appreciates it all, as she writes poems and stories herself.

One of my Burmese had a liking for socks and Arran sweaters. The other liked plastic bags. I loved them dearly but they were really hard work. However, I never found a cat to replace them. I'll never forget the first one I had; when she looked at me as a tiny kitten.... I'd never been scrutinised by a cat in that way before. She walked up my jeans, made her way up to my eyes and gazed into them as if trying to suss me out. I'll never forget that moment. Sadly she escaped onto the street when she was quite young and got run over by a car. Our house became Fort Knox after that, but it was hard work trying to keep cats indoors, even though they had their own enclosure outside.

It is easy to be anthropomorphic about our pets, but of course in the wild most animals have an extremely restricted diet, many species eating only one food item . I don't believe domestic pets need a varied diet either although I know some learn to like all kinds of foods.

I am also a cat lover, and sadly for the last six months we are without a cat in the house after 43 years of married life. One of our cats would do anything for a piece of cheese, and we developed a routine of giving him just a tiny corner when preparing packed lunches. He was always in place at the same time each morning, and woe betide us when holidays intervened! Another cat, a Burmese, loved sweet food, which we never gave to him - one day he climbed up on the worktop and finished the remains of a rhubarb crumble I was saving for the next day.
We have also had one dog, who lived throughout my son's formative years. Nancy was a collie cross who had a mixture of scraps, tinned dog food and dog biscuits. I have never believed either dogs or cats can live happily on just dry biscuits, however well balanced.

I know how you feel, expatmaggie - I adore cats and would love to have one but my present life makes it impossible. When I move to NZ I will be be able to share my daughter's pets (two dogs and two cats) but I will also be able to keep one in my own cottage as she will look after it when I am on my travels.
In the meantime, I watch funny cat videos on Youtube.

When we moved into this house there was an old mother cat who lived in the half-built, unfinished house so we more or less had to take her on. She was not easy and scratched a lot. She definitely had a sweet tooth. On DD1's birthday I made a large German cheesecake for the party. When the guests had arrived I saw with horror that the top yellow layer of the cake was all licked off.

I said nothing and powdered a thick layer of icing sugar over the cake, which the children ate with pleasure.
We kept her for further 12 years and the vet gave her a stomach lift as she had mothered so many kittens her stomach dragged on the floor. After her sterilisation and 'lifting' she led a long active life and we had to buy motor cycling leather gloves up to the elbow, to catch her to take her to the vet or put her downstairs.
Cats are lovely and it makes me sad to think that my lovely tomcat is my last one.

absentgrana I beg to differ on cats not having a sweet tooth! My cat who died last year aged 19 would also dip his paw into tea, but only if it had sugar in it . He was also partial to cheese, roast potatoes and crisps. His twin sister who died aged 17 preferred to drink her water from a dripping tap. Lovely moggies

We always had a Border Collie - before they were fashionable, and like in Greatnan's family they ate what what was available. My father knew a butcher and brought him a bone everyday when he came home from work. This of course made him into my father's dog, not my dog although he was my birthday present. Dogs in those days were free to roam about and were generally very well behaved and not aggressive.
DD has a dog who only eats those expensive dried biscuits and is fit and active on this food. I think it is because their dog poo is easier to collect and dispose of.
My 16 year old tabby lives on whiskas or similar and now he is getting old gets scraps of meat, washed sardines, and egg yolk occasionally. The cats we used to have did better as DD2 was a picky eater and there was always plenty of dinner left over.
I have promised him that when he is really old and frail I'll cook for him everyday!

My daughter in England insists on feeding her dogs on the most expensive tinned dog food, even though the vet has told her that they need at least some dry food to give their teeth something to crunch.
I know that when dogs got bones to eat, their faeces were white and chalky and much easier to clean up.
Down with sloppy pet food!

Btw I don't very often cook a Sunday roast for the people in the house unless we have guests. I certainly wouldn't do it for the dog. At the risk of offending you Carol, which I really wouldn't want to do, the person to whom you were talking really needs to get a life.

Greatnan I agree about dogs thriving when they used to be fed on scraps. When my last dog was very ill I took her to a wonderful holistic vet (I know - lots of people thought I was completely mad but there we go) and his view was that dogs should be fed on a more natural diet ie fresh meat (raw or cooked), vegetables, and scraps from the table - but he was very specific about what this should include and he didn't mean cakes and biscuits! He also believed that dogs in the past who were fed on scraps were much healthier and lived longer. He felt that commercial petfood was full of rubbish and was directly responsible for a lot of the health problems we see in today's pets. He wasn't able to cure my dog but with his help she lived a year longer than my other vet had predicted. I found him quite inspirational.

All my cats love cheese and sausages and three of them will steal toast and Marmite if given the chance. One has managed to grab a whole chicken kebab on a stick out of someone's hand and Dingbat stole hazelnut chocolate in spite of the fact that cats do not have a tastebud for sweetness. He also dips his paw into a more or less empty tea mug and sucks it.

My dear late dog was a rescue with a food fixation greater than the normal dog. He had to be watched while the cats ate their breakfasts. He would ignore his and stare fixedly at their bowls until they had finished, then rush in and lick up any last morsels before eating his own breakfast. He also reckoned that the cats' water was better than his. He not only ate a stolen rib of beef, a mince pie out of someone's hand and any leftovers on offer - he especially liked pasta with ham, mushrooms and cream - but also ate two pillows, the best part of a sofa, a duvet and several cushions. He had to have surgery to remove a Harrods plastic bag (much stronger than Tesco) that had bercome twisted in his gut.

I love that story gracesmum
Many years ago, at Christmas time, the dog of that time ate a whole box of liquor chocolates that were ready wrapped and left under the tree (yes, I know now that it was a stupid place to leave them).

Do you remember when small slices of wedding cake were posted to those who couldn't get to the ceremony? Another dog of mine was really happy when the postman dropped a small parcel through the letter box. If only dog had eaten the whole thing I would never have known, but he left just a tiny corner of the silver box!

Am I the only one with cats ... they like to share a little taste of some of our food - they'll finish off the readybrek, rice pudding, cheesey pasta, marmite on bread, one of them loves garlic sausage! one also wants chocolate digestive biscuits and malteesers, but chocolate is poisionous to them apparently, so I have to lick chocolate off first.

At the risk of repeating myself, the last greyhound disgraced herself by snarfing a whole box of chocolates I had left (gift wrapped) as a Christmas present for the cleaner.I got a slightly embarrassed phone call to say Thank you for the wine (for her husband) and then..... "was there something else ?" as she had found a piece of ribbon and a gift card, but NOTHING ELSE! The dog had polished off the chocs, the box and the wrapping paper. No point in telling the dog that chocolate is bad for dogs- too late. There were no ill effects, I clearly don't buy posh enough chocs.

She also loved whisky!

Anagram; dark chocolate is the most dangerous. We spoke to a couple when out walking the other year who had lost a dog that had stolen and devoured a block of dark chocolate. Raisins are poisonous as well [Ithink I get my raising, currants and sultanas mixed up!].

My Springer spaniel loves a cup of tea in a mug!

Alsation jeni - I thought that they were all German Shepherds now. I still can't get used to the new name for them. Did the kennel club think that they might leave the reputation behind if they were re-named?
Must admit that I don't like the kennel club - I think that they have done a lot of damage to a lot of breeds in the last few years

We had an Alsatian that loved apples, but only French golden delicious

When my MIL gave me instructions on the care of her overweight Jack Russell while she was on holiday, she said "don't try to give him banana because he doesn't like it". I had no intention of doing so! I think he used to share their meals, and too much too often.

I have read that chocolate is actually poisonous to dogs. I don't have a dog, but it may be worth Googling to check the facts.

Well, dogs only starting living with man because they ate all the rubbish and kept us warm!