If cats and dogs don't have to eat vegetables why do I?

[sidd851]

Do you seriously want a nutrition lesson?

The title is funny, but your post is somewhat troubling. Neither cats nor dogs would do well on such a diet as you describe (although peanut butter is good). In WW2 many prisoners of war were given a diet of only rice and eggs, and some of those were denied the eggs as punishment. When deprived of the eggs for long enough they would go blind before dying.

When things are rough it can be difficult to keep motivated, it's too bad that decent nutrition is necessary to feel good physically and that the two are so closely tied in other ways. I'm sure you realize that you need protein. I hope the sandwiches aren't on wonder bread. Not sure what else to say, but please look after yourself better.

Good fats and fatty-acids, also.
Our brains/nervous systems are basically made of them.
The most important nutrient for a child under 7yrs old?
Cholesterol. Brain development DEPENDS on it's abundance and availability.

 

[the_tortoise]

Specific to cats: Milk, bones/fat

Milk is not toxic to cats. It is simply that most (not all, just most) weaned cats cannot digest it -- they are lactose intolerant.

(Actually most mammals stop producing lactase -- the enzyme that allows the body to digest lactose, which is the type of sugar in milk -- after they are weaned. Humans treat lactose-intolerance as an abberation, but in reality it's the norm for adult mammals.)

Too much fat in the diet of a cat can lead to pancreatitis, but it is not toxic. In fact, cats must consume some fat or they could develop serious health problems. (For example, cats' bodies cannot produce arachidonic acid, which is an essential fatty acid for them, so they must consume it in their diet. )

Cats who capture and eat prey animals eat the small bones and cartilege with no ill effects. Many cats fed homemade or commercial raw diets also eat tiny raw bones/cartilege or finely ground raw bone with no ill effects. It is cooked bones of any size that are dangerous (they become hard and brittle, and more likely to break into large splinters), and possibly large bones whether raw or cooked (although I doubt most cats would try to eat large bones -- more likely they would scrape/lick them clean of meat and leave them).

 

[WittyAspie]

My cats love cooked sweet potato and squash.
They also enjoy nutritional yeast.

Some cats I have known liked to eat cooked corn
off the cob. I don't know any cats that like fruit.

My mother used to cook carrots for her dogs.

I have never met a cat that didn’t like carbs: bread, french fries, chips, etc. I’m not saying it’s healthy, but they love the stuff.

 

[WittyAspie]

My most recent cat got angry if I didn’t regularly let her kill things. If she went to long without hunting she took it out on me by pawing me in the face while I slept.

 

[sidd851]

My most recent cat got angry if I didn’t regularly let her kill things. If she went to long without hunting she took it out on me by pawing me in the face while I slept.

Like...
"If I'm not huntin',
you're not sleepin'."

 

[WittyAspie]

Like...
"If I'm not huntin',
you're not sleepin'."

More like I became her prey

 

[sidd851]

More like I became her prey

"Oh, look!
My human, who is NOT allowing me to hunt, is defenseless. Hmmm..."(thug life)

 

[John Parris]

Plan plan plan.

One of my ways of managing is to plan and schedule so that when things get rough I have a way of keeps me going and to minimize my anxiety. Then I can calmly think through solutions to that rough bit.

Try to plan ahead what meals you are going to have maybe for up to a week. Make a simple schedule, check your stores and shop. Stick to the schedule so that you carry on when life gets rough. You'll feel better and as you prepare meals you'll calmly find answers to the rough in life.

It doesn't mean you have to avoid the food the devil tempts you with - include some of them in the schedule. ENJOY, particularly the planning - look at recipes to see you could have (cookbooks and the internet are full of ideas).

 

[Ste11aeres]

Actually, I don't know about cats, but it's beneficial for dogs to eat vegetables.

@ZebraAspie your grandmother's dog was lucky not to have suffered ill effects, as grapes are poisonous to dogs.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I remember when I read the Chronicles of Narnia and in the book The Horse and his Boy, the horse can't fully comprehend why the boy can't just eat grass like does, even when he told the horse "I can't eat grass any more than you could eat a mutton chop". The horse asked him if he ever tried grass. He said he did and it was awful. I found this pretty funny, but not as funny as the horse worrying that his fondness for rolling around on his back was something talking Narnian horses *weren't* supposed to do, that it was something only the non-talking horses did, and he'd have to give it up once he got back to Narnia.

Anyway, I've wondered what it would be like if animals really could talk, and having to explain to your dog that if he eats chocolate it could kill him, when humans can eat it.

 

[Gracey]

Nobody has to eat fruit and vegetables (if you can find a way to supplement the missing nutrients during that phase)

Choosing to eat them offers an easy, ready made way of giving the body what it needs.

I sometimes ‘raw feed’ my dog. This involves getting the ratio of raw meat to bone to veg/fruit correct for his weight, age and stage.

It would be easier to let him hunt, he’d be motivated to search out and eat exactly what he needed.
But we live in a house and he’s domesticated so we have to do it this way instead.

One of my three cats is curious and willing to try a lot of, well, anything.
If we humans eat it, she would like to find out what it is and try it, thank you.

I have cat grass and cat nip planted in the garden for them to graze at will.
(Prevents them from chewing the edges of house plants)
Made an assumption if they’re chewing houseplants they want some ‘green’ to chew, gave it to them in the form of tried and trusted cat planting.

 

[Dwoops]

Diet and nutrition is definitely an interesting thing. Another point is that a lot of digestion has to do with bacteria in your intestines. This bacteria and what they can digest is very important in determining what foods you can digest. For example many poison immunities that animals have are due to bacteria in their intestines rather than an innate immunity.
As for myself, my nutrition sucks as I generally eat quesadillas, spaghetti, apples, and occasionally some plain chicken or hamburger(nothing on it). I really need to diversify my foods but it hard sometimes

 

[AuBurney Tuckerson]

It's due to their anatomy and natural diet of the species. Carnivores, rarely eat any fruits and vegetables because their bodies aren't designed to digest them. Just look at the dentition. The evolution. Their teeth are made for flesh and bones. Ours are more made for vegetation. We have flat incisors for cutting and molars for grinding plant matter. Our canines are possibly for fighting or eating little meat, but most other apes ate more herbivorous, so our canines could just be for fighting or an evolutionary leftover. Carnivores and omnivores have carnassials for shearing, incisors for cutting, and canines for ripping flesh. Some of them don't even chew all the way. Many just swallow large chunks. And while we, along with other herbivores have more taste buds and are able to move our jaws from side to side, carnivores have less taste buds and can only move their jaws up and down. Some of them lack the taste buds for sugar! Then again, why would they even need to taste sugar when they mostly eat meat.