We have a dog and a cat. Neither of them particularly love their food – they eat it, but it’s not like they gobble it down the moment they’re fed. However…both animals are just ape-shit for the other beast’s food, and will snarf it right up if given the opportunity.
My wife says that she’s heard that there’s something in cat food that makes it really bad for dogs…but, I’ve found that my wife’s memory for these things isn’t always 100% trustworthy. So, I’m curious if anyone here knows the real deal. Is the dog going to get sick or die when she scarfs up the cat’s half-eaten food? Will dog food croak my cat?
Also…I’m not looking for advice along the lines of “well, if they don’t like it, you need to get them different food”. The dog is 16 years old, and has been a fussy eater her entire life. Changing the dog’s food, in hopes of finding something she likes, has always been an avocation for my wife; the dog has probably eaten 20-30 different types of food over the years. And, the cat has urinary-tract issues, which means he’s on prescription food (Hill’s C/D), so changing his food is not an option, anyway.
My understanding is that cats can’t survive on dog food because it isn’t supplemented with taurine. Cats need to get taurine, an amino acid, through their diet, while dogs do not.
Cat food, on the other hand, is a bit calorie dense. I think dogs can eat it just fine, but if a dog eats the volume he’s used to, he’ll gain a lot of weight. Dog food, on the other hand, tends to have more filler.
Yes, except Dog food really isn’t calorie dense enough for cats on an everyday basis, and it can contain too much non-meat products (cats really are carnivores, they need to eat meat. OTOH, Dogs can *pretty much *live on what we eat.)
My experience has been that dog food makes your cat develop dingleberry poopers that it then attempts to rid itself of by scooting its butt on your clean carpet.
This results in much shouting and screaming of the cat owner’s husband.
So, it’s not too healthy for me and my blood pressure.
Cat food has a much higher fat content than dog food, so it can cause pancreatitis, especially in older dogs who don’t tend to break things down as readily as younger ones. Pancreatitis can be pretty expensive to treat, and the older critters tend not to bounce back as readily. Also, most folks got better things to do than clean up vomit and bloody diarrhea, so I very much recommend not letting your dog eat cat food if it’s at all feasible. Also, cat food is so much more palatable than dog food that a diet heavy in kitty kibble makes them turn up their noses at dog food.
Typically, there’s not a lot of harm in a cat eating some dog food, provided it’s mainly eating cat food. Cats are obligate carnivores, and dog kibble by itself is NOT an adequate diet for them. A healthy cat snatching a few mouthfuls here and there after eating half a bowl of cat food generally isn’t a problem, though I don’t encourage letting animals eat from each other’s bowls, especially if the other animal is getting up there in age. With an elderly animal, you can get dementia-type changes, like sudden-onset food aggression, and that can go very badly indeed.
The main issue, though, is that your kitty isn’t healthy. He’s got urinary issues that require a special pH changing diet to prevent crystal formation. Your dog’s food, unless she’s also on c/d, is not pH balanced to prevent crystal formation. If you let him eat the dog food, you’re putting him at risk for urinary stones and blockage, which rather defeats the purpose of springing for the prescription diet. I’d keep him out of the dog food by any means necessary if he were mine, partly for his own sake, and partly because as much as I hate unblocking tom cats, I know the owners hate getting the bill even more. Especially when said unblocking happens at 3 am.
You may have to feed them in separate rooms at set times, and give them a time limit (10-15 minutes is generally plenty) before you take the food bowls away altogether. If they’re used to grazing through the day, they will generally dawdle about the first feeding or two and then moon around whining for food through the day or night. They’ll lay on the guilt trips, and make you feel about a micron tall, and also bug you absolutely to death. By the third day or so, though, they’re usually fairly used to it and become far less obnoxious.
Most of what Shadow (the dog) eats is dog food. And, most of what Kola (the cat) eats is cat food.
We do try to keep them separated when we put the food down. Both of them are generally accustomed to there being regular meal times (5am, 5pm). It’s just that they don’t always finish. Kola, in particular, can be a real pest when meal-time approaches…and then he eats half of his food and wanders off.
We’re well aware of the issues with crystals in Kola’s urine. The vet recently tried to put him on a different food (because he’s also overweight)…and, after only a couple of weeks, he was already developing crystals again, so it’s back on the C/D, just smaller portions. And, yeah, it’s not cheap…but at this point, we’re not willing to risk it.
When they don’t finish, take the food away. Toss it, dump it back into the package, lock it up in a cabinet they can’t access, whatever. Them wandering off with food in the bowl means they’re not really all that hungry, so the little blighters certainly won’t come to any harm not getting anything else until next feeding. If it’s there, though, and they’ve got nothing better to do later…well, it’s the same as if there’s cookies lying around and we’ve got nothing better to do, ya know?
Taking away the food is probably your only reliable way to keep Kola out of the dog food, which is better for his urinary tract, and also eliminating extra nibbling is better for his weight control. Cats are built on the feast and famine model, and their bodies tend to store fat every time they eat. So if they come and nibble 12 times a day, they lay fat 12 times, and that makes it harder to control weight on a chunky kitty.