# Strange things your pets eat **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635 "2003-01-24T16:56:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/21 "2003-01-24T18:44:50Z")
Why does my Enter key make the post go through? Sorry. Anyways, my vet had tried to save a nice Springer Spaniel after he ate something that perforated his intestines, surgery couldn’t save him. But my cats catch and eat moths, gross, they crunch when they chew them. ---
**Author:** ![cichlidiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/22 "2003-01-24T18:53:09Z")
Believe it or not, there’s a site with stories just like this, [Strange Foreign Objects In Dog Feces](http://www.watchingyou.com/poop.html). Probably not for the faint of heart. Without getting into the grisly details, I’ll just add we had a dog that was fond of popcorn. Leftover popcorn + midnight doggy raid = landmines riddled with popcorn kernels. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/23 "2003-01-24T20:10:01Z")
As a child I had a guinea pig who, when allowed out of her cage, would eat dust bunnies, clothes, cat chow, wax paper, foil, regular paper, hair, and wood. Basically anything she encountered would be gulped down before we could stop her. She even scarfed down a rubber band once, and I’ll never forget the disgusted expression on her face when she found a TicTac mint on the floor and ate that. And although I never saw her pass any of the indigestible substances she consumed, she lived for four years. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/24 "2003-01-24T20:18:35Z")
Stuff Tipzy (female Boston Terror) eats or has eaten: •\_Anything on its way to the floor. Rarely does anything actually hit the floor. •\_Leaves •\_My ex-boyfriend’s glasses •\_An entire Pier One wastebasket, including contents and the disposable razor that was in there Stuff Hurshell (male Boston Terror) eats or has eaten: •\_Poop. Tipzy’s poop, cat poop, his own poop. Whatever poop he can get to. This time of year, they’re poop-cicles. •\_Anything Tipzy doesn’t get to first •\_my toothbrush Stuff the cats eat or have eaten: • potato chips •\_embroidery thread – yanked it out of my hand. Had to pull it out the other end the next day. Stuff they will not eat, but you think they should like: roaches, spiders and other bugs the rat the cat caught the other day. Dog found it and licked it a lot, but nobody ate it, thankfully freshly lopped off fish heads (nobody wanted anything to do with those) ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/25 "2003-01-24T21:05:25Z")
Thankfully, my dog never eats anything that’s not placed in her bowl, but my grandmother’s dog is another story. In the past year, my grandmother’s dog has eaten: –A pin cushion (containing pins-- I actually had to remove a few from his gums) –A wash cloth –A loaf of bread, including plastic bread bag –A roofing nail –A bag of polyester stuffing, again, including plastic bag –A handful of coin-sized rocks –Numerous horse “patties” –A pair of socks, and partially consumed a rubber boot –Barbie’s head, and left arm –And, a foot-long section of baseboard When the vet sees the dog, he sighs and says “What has he eaten this time?” ---
**Author:** ![Peach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/67e7ee/32.png) [@Peach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peach)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/26 "2003-01-24T21:28:43Z")
i used to feed my cat gekos. I would catch them from the wall and give them to the cats (i know, thats mean.) They would devour the first one within seconds and play with other dead limp body for hours. ick. What not to do: my b/f and I were given a rather large iguana. He was a very friendly vegetarian lizard. One day my b/f decided to give him some sausage from his pizza. The lizard loved this and soon he was eating meat and cheese with glee. He was diagnosed with cancer soon after and died ☹ to this day i believe it was the nitrates in the meat that killed him. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/27 "2003-01-24T21:48:50Z")
Dongle, my Boston, has an affinity for Q-tips. He sucks the cotton off both ends and trots around the house looking like he has a cigarette in his mouth. Georgie, My other Boston, has an affinity for bananas…with the peel on. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/28 "2003-01-24T21:49:22Z")
My Yellow Lab Willow is also a turdburglar (her new nickname) But she only eats the turds of my Black Lab Morgana… …sometimes BEFORE THEY TOUCH THE GROUND, if you know what I mean ( the look on Morgana’s face during this is priceless…yeccchhhh! ) FYI my user name is in NO WAY related to Lab turds… ---
**Author:** ![Marconi\_Schmeese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Marconi\_Schmeese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_Schmeese)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/29 "2003-01-24T22:04:59Z")
First, I would like to preface this with ALL MY ANIMALS ARE RESCUES. Thank you! My tabby cat _loves_ lettuce! :eek: She’ll see when I get my baby field greens out of the fridge and **waits** for me to get done with the salad spinner. She will then pick and choose which greens she wants out of the spinner! She also loves bread - she has chewed through the plastic on my french baguettes before! My English Springer Spaniel will eat anything that falls on the floor, **except** ice. :rolleyes: My parent’s cat (also rescue) loves olives. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/30 "2003-01-24T22:21:53Z")
Baby cat is nuts about ice water - comes running when she hears ice hit the glass. She’ll lick it right from the glass. (Sometimes she gets an ice cream headache - just stops and looks at me with her eyes crossed for a second then goes back to the ice water.) Snowball cat has a hair fetish. I have long hair and usually braid it before going to bed. But if I lay down for a nap, I will be gently awakened by \\> ICK! Our poor sweet outnumbered Dog likes squirrels. She’ll play with the tail, the only bit remaining, for a week after her conquering the evil, tricksy tree invader. again Ick. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/31 "2003-01-24T22:23:54Z")
My mom’s cats didn’t like catnip, but would react in a similar fashion to green pimiento-stuffed olives… even the juice made them nuts. I had a couple ferrets that loved red licorice - if you opened the bag they’d soon sniff the air, and then run over and try to get at the licorice. Most that I’ve had also love to taste beer, wine, juice, and coffee, plus tomato sauce. One loved tortilla chips and salsa too. I had a dog when I was growing up who’d finish up the scraps of food leftover on her plate. She got so used to bits of pancake with maple syrup on that she’d reject plain pancakes until you poured on some syrup. She’d also eat **around** raisins in a cereal bowl, leaving a licked-clean pile of raisins in the bottom. She refused to go near jello though - I think the wiggling bothered her. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/32 "2003-01-24T22:37:10Z")
My black labs have eaten the TV remote control, my glasses (just the frames - left the lenses alone), the handle off a rubber mallet, and the leg off one of the plastic lambs from our Nativity scene. Strange things my dog **doesn’t** eat would be a shorter list! ---
**Author:** ![Harli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c0e974/32.png) [@Harli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harli)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/33 "2003-01-25T00:35:28Z")
I love this thread! I’m just sitting here and chuckling. My first cat, when I was a kid, Spooky, _loved_ BBQ potato chips. But she’d just lick the seasoning off it, then look at me as if to ask for more. My parents Yorkie pup, Artamis, _loved_ dill pickles, but would get the funniest look on his face everytime he bit into them. This same dog also loved grapes. You would throw him one and he would toss it around and play with it until it was warm enough for him to eat. Now there is Marley, my precious kitty. She eats elastic bands. I have never seen her eat them. So how do I know? While cleaning out her litter box, I noticed something reddish in colour in her poop. Slightly paniced, I looked a little closer. It was an elastic band. Now I often see traces of beige and blue as well as the red. I have no idea where she gets them from. She also enjoys used Q-tips. Marley will _not_ eat Pounce cat treats. I have tried numerous different flavours, but she thinks they are toys and bats them around the kitchen floor. She honestly has the most personality of any cat I’ve ever encountered. ---
**Author:** ![Mamapotomus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@Mamapotomus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mamapotomus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/34 "2003-01-25T01:05:06Z")
Our cat Jorge will eat _anything_ he’s not supposed to. We’ve caught him in all of the following: Bread (wrapper included) Spagetti sauce on the stove, simmering away Beef jerky (wrapper included) Flowers Plastic Bags Lettuce Cookies (wrapper included) and my personal all time favorite… **Coffee grounds**!!! Why in the world would an animal chew through the garbage bag for coffee grounds?? He’s my least favorite cat because everything he gets into comes up the same way it went in… so he tries to eat it again. :vomitsmilie: ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/35 "2003-01-25T01:05:09Z")
well, these are mostly dogs on my guilty list… My dog Laddie (collie…how cliche) ate half the shingles off of his dog house. My dog Sheba (german shephard) ate my Gargoyle’s Quest gameboy cartridge My dog Cleveland (lab) had this thing for eating hats. The entire time we had him, he devoured 3 of mine, and about 30 of my brothers. He always left the rim and the plastic pegboard size thingie behind. My dog Cecil (samoyed) ate one of our gerbils… and my parrot Popcorn ate a windowsill…he probably just chewed it but there were never wood chippings left behind ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/36 "2003-01-25T01:06:55Z")
My beloved Pugsley (mutant terrier) loves all forms of discarded feminine hygeine products. There’s nothing like coming home to find your living room carpet covered with a bloody pad shreds. Yum. I guess I should assume that ladies will leave such things in the bathroom trash, but it never occurs to me until it’s too late. Fortunately, I don’t have to deal with Pugsley’s bloodlust too often. Unfortunately, I have had to deal with this problem more than once. ---
**Author:** ![TheOnlySaneOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@TheOnlySaneOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheOnlySaneOne)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/37 "2003-01-25T01:27:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scarlett67 \* > \*\*DOGS WILL EAT ANYTHING \*\* Agreed! My dog has been known to eat: [ul] [li]crayons[/li][li]toilet paper[/li][li]stuffed animals[/li][li]sewing thread[/li][li]various foodstuffs still in the wrapper[/li][/ul] I swear we got a goat by mistake… ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/38 "2003-01-25T01:30:43Z")
Things my dog has eaten: -Numerous discarded tampons and pads. -An ENTIRE large cheese pizza, within the five minutes it took me to answer the phone. He lay on the kitchen floor and panted for three days. -An entire box of Krispy Kremes -An actual tin can. It had catfood in it, and he ripped it apart and chewed it up to get the catfood molecules out. That last point is how he earned his name - **Goat**. ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/39 "2003-01-25T01:32:35Z")
Whoa! Weird simulpost! Hey **TheOnlySaneOne** , your dog’s not an aussie by any chance, is he? IMHO they’re the most goat-like of all dogs. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635/40 "2003-01-25T01:32:56Z")
My cat Muffin is obsessed with eating sticky tape. We have to leave the dispenser out of paws reach or she will eat it until she vomits. She will also try to chew the tape off boxes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-your-pets-eat/150635.md?page=3)