Best/worst Feeding Mistakes

[Pouches Rock]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

So I was inspired by another post in a thread that was discussing what certain animals NEEDED to eat and I thought about all of the experiences I have had with people feeding animals the wrong thing...so here are some of the best and/or worsts that I have seen at work in pet shop/vet clinic/or rescue

Dead Parakeet: didn't feed because seed hulls/husks still in dish so clearly animal still had food 🙁
Malnourished Guinea Pig because rabbit food and guinea pig food are the same right?
Ferret fed primarily on fruit loops (did not weigh much at all...probably took a year for her to get any real muscle mass)
Sugar glider fed primarily circus peanuts and cat food ( weighed five times the amount of a normal glider...2 months of proper nutrition and she was good)

AND variety of people who feed their dog chocolate and grapes

 

[Myotis]

Hmmm, the only one I can think of is a girl at the barn I took lessons at when I was younger. She fed her horse corn dogs as a treat, it wasn't a regular thing, but I thought it a bit weird...

 

[twelvetigers]

I was watching the movie Seven Pounds the other day (very, very sad movie BTW... my face hurt because it made me cry so hard... but anyway) ... one of the main characters has a great dane, and the Will Smith character gave it some meat. She came running and was like, "No, no! My dog is vegetarian! He eats broccoli and..." well... something else, I forget what. But I was like, "Damn, I hope she dies of heart failure or whatever she has, terrible pet owner, grumble mumble etc."

You make whatever personal choices about your diet, but dogs and cats should never be subjected to the same diet. ESPECIALLY cats, but from what I understand, dogs can't live on rice and broccoli either.

 

[Bearby]

You make whatever personal choices about your diet, but dogs and cats should never be subjected to the same diet. ESPECIALLY cats, but from what I understand, dogs can't live on rice and broccoli either.

I met a client who was a hare krishna and he had his cat on a vegetarian diet. The cat was extremely sick and had stopped eating but he felt that all his animals needed to eat the way that he ate. I tried to explain to him that cats are "the only true carnivores" and they cannot survive without meat of some sort. We had to take the cat to the back to do a variety of tests and give SQ fluids. The Dr. grabbed a can of Science Diet and put it in front of her, and magically she was eating again. Who knows if the owner continued with the food but it amazes me how uneducated some people are.

 

[StealthDog]

I was at a wildlife rehab facilicty where we got in a litter of four baby squirrels that looked to be about 5 weeks old but weighed as much as one-week-olds... Turns out the person who had "rescued" them was bottle feeding them nothing but Gatorade. Poor little guys were beyond saving 🙁

 

[lailanni]

More often we get people who only feed their 900 pound lab "just a few cups" of food.

Right. And when they show us their "cup" it's a jumbo super sized liter you get from buying a huge soda at the movies. (At work we have many different sizes of cups to show owners just so we get a real idea of what they're feeding).

Great work, people. Great work. Hope they don't try to follow recipes with that "cup".

 

[PicklePie]

An ex-friend of mine got a rat from the same litter as me and another friend. Whenever we got together to talk about our boys, she commented on how small he was and how he hadn't dropped yet. At first we figured he was just a bit runty and would catch up soon, but after a couple weeks she asked me to come over to see for myself. The poor thing was so tiny and bony. Despite the fact that she was pre-vet too, she had done zero research and thought that a diet of pure bread would be good enough. I wanted to scream, but settled for telling her what veggies to go buy and giving her some lab blocks.

 

[clairbear]

Years ago, I used to walk my goat and her twins every day; so, I had leashes on the twins, but not the mom because we live far enough from the road and the kids were young enough (maybe about 3 weeks) that she wouldn't go too far. One day, we were over by the house and I stopped and talked to my sister while the mom walked over to a rhodedron bush and started eating it. I didn't see her until she had a branch of rhododenron in her mouth and was chewing on it. I think I was able to get most of it out, but she still might of gotten a few leaves. We ended up getting her taken care of just in case and she was okay, but I definately learned a lesson. That was her last time walking free anywhere near the house too.

I have another goat, who used to eat dirt as a kid. Now that she is older she eats the other goats hair. She's not really a big goat, so when she wants in somewhere she takes a big hunk of the other goat's hair in her teeth and pulls it to get the other goat to move. She then proceeds to eat the hair that she pulled out.

I love how people think (and will argue with you too) that if the animal eats it then it must be good for them.

 

[lizinwonderland]

.

 

[Horsingaround31]

We had a Boston terrier come into the clinic where I used to work with paralysis in her hind legs. After LOTS and LOTS of questioning of the owner -- such as, "You really didn't give her anything else to eat? No snacks or anything?" -- it came out that the owner had given her a handful of macadamia nuts. After four or so hours, she was up and about, but walked very stiffly. A few more hours later and she was like new!

 

[ratbandit]

This summer I saw a box turtle who had been fed lunchmeat ham for 5 years. Besides the swollen eyes and crappy skin from the Vitamin A deficiencies he actually look pretty good.
I also saw a gecko (can't remember what kind but it was an insectivore) that had been fed a banana only diet or 2 years. We had to euthanize him because his bones were just mush.

 

[sumstorm]

Iguana who ate pinkies/fuzzies daily. Admittedly, he got a great diet otherwise, and he was over 5' and healthy. Apparently he was incredibly enthusiastic in his consumption of meat.

 

[Whyevernot55]

RE: the dumb **** dogs will eat. We had a dog in last year who was one of my favorite cases. Owner thought he'd eaten one of her shoes, classic CS of an obstruction. The radiograph showed his stomach was huge and filled with...cheerios? Almost. We opened him up and discovered an enormous semi-hard foam ball. You know that kind of construction wood glue that comes in a tube, comes out as liquid, and expands and hardens as it dries? You guessed it. PHENOMENAL.
We also have one lab who we have done two ex laps on to remove large rocks, and a cat who swallowed a piece of string attached to a sewing needle! It ended up in his lung, so we had to go in and pull it out. Talk about a cool surgery.

As far as owner stupidity, our worst is probably a really bad case of obesity in a 3yo NM Border Collie. He is so fat that his legs are deformed - they turn in so he walks on the outside of his paws. Poor guy can barely move. Owner is a teeny tiny little old lady who can barely walk herself. We have tried EVERYTHING. She gets angry any time someone admonishes her for his condition. We have tried individually bagging meal portions for the poor creature. We found her a dogwalker, who got fed up with her idiocy and quit. Ugh. So sad.

 

[aspiringDVM]

Not a terrible mistake, but my mom once mixed up the egg ration for the chickens with the goat's food (they do look exactly alike), and was quite puzzled when the hens mysteriously stopped laying until she started a new bag of feed.

 

[VeganSoprano]

Had to explain to a new owner of a hypoglycemic toy breed puppy that if the puppy wouldn't eat canned dog food or plain chicken baby food, then no, the puppy wouldn't prefer cereal or bananas or carrots instead. It was bizarre. I've had remarkably similar conversations with preschool aged children.

 

[jpeterman13]

Had to explain to a new owner of a hypoglycemic toy breed puppy that if the puppy wouldn't eat canned dog food or plain chicken baby food, then no, the puppy wouldn't prefer cereal or bananas or carrots instead. It was bizarre. I've had remarkably similar conversations with preschool aged children.

 

[cooniexp]

Hot dogs to hawks.

 

[causticus]

Hot dogs to hawks.

My friend once dated a guy that fed his pet hawk mice via large slingshot hooked up to his car's sunroof. 😱

 

[lalzi22]

We had a woman come in often with her golden Nikki. Nikki was a small sized golden (bone and height wise) but weighed in at 131 lbs. She was MASSIVE. Why? Her owner, every night with her 3 cups of kibble dinner, gave her dog 5 strips of bacon and 2 cups of vanilla ice cream for dessert. We kept telling her that Nikki was fat, very unhealthy, it can cause terrible diseases etc.. but she didn't listen because the owner was inflicted with the same condition (read: morbidly obese). Nikki died at age 7 of heart failure. HEART FAILURE. In a 7 year old fog. It was insane and so sad.

 

[Wolphcats]

Okay so I am branching off slightly. This is a list of things my husky mix dog ate (breaking into cabinets and such):
2 lbs of dark chocolate (surprised he didn't die)
1 1/4 sheet chocolate cake
2 1/2 sheet yellow cakes

... okay sure everyone's dog has broken in and eaten cake or something similar... but here is where it gets weird...

a bottle of algeacide for the pool
1 lbs of laundry detergent
and a bottle of citronella oil

Yes... he lives 😱... and I am not sure how... any theories?

 

[Whyevernot55]

I have a cat who once unwrapped and ate half a bag of Hershey's Hugs chocolates. She was 100% fine.
Same cat likes to break into cupboards and open cardboard boxes to see if the contents are edible - including toothpicks and uncooked rice or pasta. Sigh.

 

[lalzi22]

Yes... he lives 😱... and I am not sure how... any theories?

Do you happen to live near a power plant that may have given his stomach radioactive capabilities, thus destroying all things that enter his stomach?

Or maybe he isn't actually a dog, but superman in disguise. Thats all I've got.

 

[Wolphcats]

Or maybe he isn't actually a dog, but superman in disguise. Thats all I've got.

OMG 😱! It must be true!!!!

 

[Magical Realist]

I have a cat who once unwrapped and ate half a bag of Hershey's Hugs chocolates. She was 100% fine.
Same cat likes to break into cupboards and open cardboard boxes to see if the contents are edible - including toothpicks and uncooked rice or pasta. Sigh.

I have a cat with pica who likes to eat big tufts of shed cat hair. Since I have eight cats, he's always got a source, no matter how often I vacuum. He paws at the beds or scratching post until he gets a nice, big wad, then devours it. Then he'll go drink lots of water and puke the whole mess up 30-60 minutes later.

He's a perfectly healthy middle-aged cat, so our vet's as mystified by it as I am.

I also know a cat who was fed a vegan diet for over a month as a kitten, and nearly starved to death. The poor guy's runty and sickly, and while he's a sweetheart he's possibly the dumbest cat I've ever met. His current owner raises a few turkeys for holiday dinners every year and swears the turkeys are smarter than the cat. I think he may be right...

 

[katryn]

One of our clients decided hypoallergenic food was too expensive, so they started feeding their dog McDonalds hamburgers every night.

And Wolphcats, you're not alone. My mangy mutt thinks that wires are tasty. Thankfully he seems to know when they're plugged in, so he hasn't electrocuted himself yet, but we can't leave anything UN-plugged or we get to go retrieve from his intestines later.

 

[evenstar7139]

I've seen somebody give a horse beer before! It liked it!

One of my mom's dogs likes Korean kimchi! (I could swear her eyes were slanting more after she ate it no just kidding lol)

I have a dog that will eat ANY sort of vegetable, fruit, bread...he'll eat baby carrots, asparagus stalks, anything...he even likes being given pills! If you bring medicine up to him he gets all excited and jumps around. "Does Dakota want his medicine. Does he? Does he?!??!" and he jumps around like "YES YES GIVE IT HERE!!!" lol

 

[Willowhand]

This is sort of a reverse of the topic, but once my father ate our dog's Heartgard chewy because "it looked like a piece of hamburger". Then there was the time my horse treats were disappearing, and after some questioning I discovered that my grandmother was eating them. She said she thought they were meatballs 😕 Not sure how that mistake was made, given that they're mostly grain (and obviously no meat!). I guess I should keep the animal food in family-proof storage

 

[Crazy Hippos]

My friend's girlfriend had a malnourished Maltese. When I asked how it became malnourished, he told me that she thought that less food = Teacup Maltese.

 

[DVMDream]

The worst I have seen for bad feeding have just been morbidly obese dogs. One was a dachshund so fat that it could not walk. Tons of obese labs. With my own pets, my cat will attempt to eat anything. I swear she can sense you eating an apple from the opposite side of the house and she will come running and attempt to lick the apple while you are eating it. There have been time were I have dropped a chip on the floor and she will eat those before I can pick them up. She also attempts to eat mashed potatoes (something else that she comes running for especially the garlic variety). A few weeks ago my little sister had gotten a cheeseburger from a local fast food restaurant and my cat was attempting to eat the cheeseburger. My sister had to keep moving the cheeseburger out of her reach because my cat was so determined to eat some of it. She is one crazy cat! And it is not like she is being starved…she gets PLENTY of food…she is actually slightly overweight (ongoing problem that I have been trying to fix, but has been very difficult (read un-active, uncooperative participant)). 🙄

 

[168135]

My friend's aunt has a shih tzu dog. When he used to belong to her grandmother, she would buy him a roast chicken from the grocery store and that's what he ate for the week. He's on dog food now.

 

[cooniexp]

I've seen somebody give a horse beer before! It liked it!

One of my mom's dogs likes Korean kimchi! (I could swear her eyes were slanting more after she ate it no just kidding lol)

I have a dog that will eat ANY sort of vegetable, fruit, bread...he'll eat baby carrots, asparagus stalks, anything...he even likes being given pills! If you bring medicine up to him he gets all excited and jumps around. "Does Dakota want his medicine. Does he? Does he?!??!" and he jumps around like "YES YES GIVE IT HERE!!!" lol

Sounds like MY dog

 

[clairbear]

I was at McDonald's once and a guy came in and bought 15 hamburgers for his dogs. He said he bought the hamburgers for the dogs (I forget how many there were, but it wasn't too many) every week because they deserved something "special."

 

[aspiringDVM]

This is sort of a reverse of the topic, but once my father ate our dog's Heartgard chewy because "it looked like a piece of hamburger". Then there was the time my horse treats were disappearing, and after some questioning I discovered that my grandmother was eating them. She said she thought they were meatballs 😕 Not sure how that mistake was made, given that they're mostly grain (and obviously no meat!). I guess I should keep the animal food in family-proof storage

I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. We once had a client who took her poodle's post-op rimadyl for a migraine. I still don't know whether it was an accidental grab-random-pill-and-swallow mistake, or whether she actually thought that a 5 lb poodle dose of carprofen would help her headache. Her husband called to get the poor dog a refill.

 

[sofficat]

not quite the same as poor dietary choices, but still amusing...

i once encountered a client who wanted to know why the revolution she was using wasn't controlling the flea population... even after feeding it to her dogs monthly!

Interesting that it wasn't working because Revolution can be taken orally and safely. Feral cat populations often have revolution put in their canned food to try to help with flea and parasite problems. I'm sure it tastes terrible but it should still work.

 

[DLY303]

I was at a wildlife rehab facilicty where we got in a litter of four baby squirrels that looked to be about 5 weeks old but weighed as much as one-week-olds... Turns out the person who had "rescued" them was bottle feeding them nothing but Gatorade. Poor little guys were beyond saving 🙁

That's interesting. When I worked for a vet several years ago, we had a client that had a few "exotic" pets, including some large cats and a few smaller critters. One day they brought in a little unweaned Rhesus monkey that they picked up at an exotic animal auction. They had been bottle feeding the poor thing nothing but gatorade for a few weeks. He was literally at death's door. What is it with gatorade? Is there some sort of old wives tale about it being good for baby animals?

 

[Tech2Vet]

I used to live in the UK and for a while there was a spurt of new puppies coming in on diets of wheatabix (human wheat breakfast cereal) and milk. They were all from separate breeders and some owners even brought in the instructions specifically stating that diet. Dumb backyard breeders!

And just for fun...some interesting foreign body surgeries: condom, pantyhose, cassette tape (not a happy ending 🙁 ), intact large rubber dog toy, change, and a cat who'd eaten a piece of a vacuum cleaner...those are the most interesting ones I can remember anyway..

 

[PM2009]

I think the worst thing in vet clinics by far are all those 'Science Diet' and 'Prescription Diet' foods that are basically raw corn with a little animal by product. 😡 Owners think they're feeding their animals a high quality food and in reality they're feeding them crap. Even if a vet DOES know it's a bad quality food (which many do not) they still want the money from it so it's a viscious circle.

There's just no awareness out there of proper nutrition. It really turns my stomach when I see owners buying their very ill cats an expensive 'prescription' food that is made mainly of brewers rice and corn. Cats are obligate carnivores!

There are a few studies out there linking 'science death' to bone cancer and a few other major illnesses. I haven't done much research on them. I'll never forget seeing one of my own dogs deteriorate on the Rxn foods after being swapped from a high quality kibble (Taste of The Wild) when I was away at school. My parents thought they were doing the right thing because it looked official but in reality she was getting almost no nutrition. As soon as I swapped her back over the course of a few weeks she picked right up again and is going strong at 18 years old.

 

[PM2009]

I've seen somebody give a horse beer before! It liked it!

All of my horses get beer in the summer every day. It helps them sweat. Many have trouble in the heat. They get one Guiness in their grain and it works 100 times better then any of the drugs on the market for the same purpose at a fraction of the cost. Sometimes if I forget to pour it in their grain I'll just toss it in a bucket and they slurp it up.

 

[Tech2Vet]

I think the worst thing in vet clinics by far are all those 'Science Diet' and 'Prescription Diet' foods that are basically raw corn with a little animal by product. 😡 Owners think they're feeding their animals a high quality food and in reality they're feeding them crap. Even if a vet DOES know it's a bad quality food (which many do not) they still want the money from it so it's a viscious circle.

There's just no awareness out there of proper nutrition. It really turns my stomach when I see owners buying their very ill cats an expensive 'prescription' food that is made mainly of brewers rice and corn. Cats are obligate carnivores!

There are a few studies out there linking 'science death' to bone cancer and a few other major illnesses. I haven't done much research on them. I'll never forget seeing one of my own dogs deteriorate on the Rxn foods after being swapped from a high quality kibble (Taste of The Wild) when I was away at school. My parents thought they were doing the right thing because it looked official but in reality she was getting almost no nutrition. As soon as I swapped her back over the course of a few weeks she picked right up again and is going strong at 18 years old.

I think that some of the prescription diets out there are necessary for certain conditions.
Although, It is sad how little vets are taught about nutrition in school. On the plus side, a lot of people seem to be more conscious about what they themselves eat and I think it's beginning to spill over into the pet food industry. It is really amazing seeing the differences between animals on "junky" food vs. those on high quality diets. It is true - you are what you eat!!

 

[twelvetigers]

My dog is fed C/D because of her issues with uroliths/renaliths, and she's been on canned S/D for a few months here and there when her stones appeared to be growing... is there really even an alternative choice in my case? Also, my petless vet school friend gets me 40 lb. bags of it for free. That's hard to pass up as well.

 

[ckgilabert]

we had a malnourished maltese puppy come in TWICE b/c the owner kept on syringe feeding it baby food and water. when the puppy came to our clinic we would put it in a cage with a bowl of water and dog food...and it ate fine!

eventually we got the owner to sign it over to us and we adopted it out. it's totally healthy now, but i think her baby food diet stunted her growth.

 

[Coquette22]

we had a malnourished maltese puppy come in TWICE b/c the owner kept on syringe feeding it baby food and water.

See, it's the twice part that confuses me. I don't get why these people have a problem, get it fixed, and then go do the same thing again! We had a dog in clinic who was a repeated rock eater. Every time he was left unsupervised, he'd eat rocks. He'd had no less than 3 ex-laps to have them removed, plus numerous time spent in clinic waiting for them to be passed naturally. You'd think after the first time, they'd learn to either supervise the dog while outside or get him a muzzle.

 

[rugbychick16]

There are a few studies out there linking 'science death' to bone cancer and a few other major illnesses. I haven't done much research on them.

Oooh, I bet you found those on a real credible website. Evidence Based Veterinary Medicine anyone?

 

[Tech2Vet]

My dog is fed C/D because of her issues with uroliths/renaliths, and she's been on canned S/D for a few months here and there when her stones appeared to be growing... is there really even an alternative choice in my case? Also, my petless vet school friend gets me 40 lb. bags of it for free. That's hard to pass up as well.

We've gotten good results with Wysong pH- as a supplement.
Oh and you can check into this as well - http://www.vetriscience.com/renal-essentials-dogs.php - I am a big fan of Vetriscience products!

 

[DVMDream]

See, it's the twice part that confuses me. I don't get why these people have a problem, get it fixed, and then go do the same thing again! We had a dog in clinic who was a repeated rock eater. Every time he was left unsupervised, he'd eat rocks. He'd had no less than 3 ex-laps to have them removed, plus numerous time spent in clinic waiting for them to be passed naturally. You'd think after the first time, they'd learn to either supervise the dog while outside or get him a muzzle.

We had a Bernese Mountain Dog who did the same thing. Repeatedly eat rocks and then we would have to go retrieve them. The last time she had surgery it was not a happy ending...🙁

 

[PM2009]

Oooh, I bet you found those on a real credible website. Evidence Based Veterinary Medicine anyone?

Actually my opinions come from working with one of the top vets in the country at one of the top vet schools in the country. He's the one that calls it 'science death'. But they are simply my opinions. I started doing my own research after my dogs issues and watching other animals on these diets in my 8 or so years of veterinary experience. My own vets here at home have stopped stocking it after prescribing it for years because the animals were doing so poorly on it. I encourage you to do some research on proper nutrition and then start looking at the ingredients/nutritional facts of science diet and prescription foods. You can draw your own conclusion.

Another big problem is how hard it is to find the good kibble/dry foods. I have horses and am lucky that my feed store stocks a lot of the very excellent brands such as Taste of The Wild and Wellness Core (one of my dogs has a grain allergy and it can be tough to find grain free kibble). The average dog owner never goes into stores like this so their options are pretty much limited to the poor quality foods since they simply don't know where or what to look for.

I'll let the ingredient lists speak for themselves though:
TOTW:
Bison, venison, lamb meal, chicken meal, egg product, sweet potatoes, peas, potatoes, canola oil, roasted bison, roasted venison, natural flavor, tomato pomace, ocean fish meal, salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract, dried fermentation products of Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D supplement, folic acid
Prescription Diet:
Ground Whole Grain Corn, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Mill Run, Chicken Liver Flavor, Calcium Sulfate, Soybean Oil, Flaxseed, Iodized Salt, L-Lysine, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Choline Chloride, Dicalcium Phosphate, Vitamin E Supplement, Taurine, Potassium Chloride, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), preserved with Mixed Tocopherols & Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

 

[projekt]

Yes... he lives 😱... and I am not sure how... any theories?

I think you have one of those situations sort of like in the Prestige, where you have multiple identical dogs that you do not know about.

 

[sofficat]

That's interesting. When I worked for a vet several years ago, we had a client that had a few "exotic" pets, including some large cats and a few smaller critters. One day they brought in a little unweaned Rhesus monkey that they picked up at an exotic animal auction. They had been bottle feeding the poor thing nothing but gatorade for a few weeks. He was literally at death's door. What is it with gatorade? Is there some sort of old wives tale about it being good for baby animals?

When I was younger we rehabbed squirrels and thus talked to a lot of other rehabbers and online sites etc. Often when you get animals in they are very dehydrated and water doesn't have all the electrolytes needed to get their body functioning back. Good in theory, right? But then people took it too far and thought "gatorade has electrolytes!" (thinking about the movie idiocracy haha). Plus I'm sure the squirrels love it because it is soo sweet!
SO... when we've gotten in a super dehydrated animals we would give them bland, flavorless, sugarfree pediolyte and also use that to dilute the milk down for the first day or so. It's better to address the dehydration/electrolyte imbalances and then slowly start to feed them.
People try to do the right thing, but just don't get it. And why would you keep them on that for weeks?!!

 

[LoungingMarten]

When I was in 1st grade, my teacher decided it would be fun to incubate some eggs and hatch chicks. When the chicks hatched, all she fed them was rolled oats (oat meal). Needless to say, many of them died, but I got to take home and raise the few that survived and now I'm a chicken enthusiast 🙂

 

[PicklePie]

I think the worst thing in vet clinics by far are all those 'Science Diet' and 'Prescription Diet' foods that are basically raw corn with a little animal by product. 😡 Owners think they're feeding their animals a high quality food and in reality they're feeding them crap. Even if a vet DOES know it's a bad quality food (which many do not) they still want the money from it so it's a viscious circle.

There's just no awareness out there of proper nutrition. It really turns my stomach when I see owners buying their very ill cats an expensive 'prescription' food that is made mainly of brewers rice and corn. Cats are obligate carnivores!

We should be angry-at-pet-food buddies. 😍
It is so frustrating to sit back and watch owners paying premium prices for food that is mediocre at best, because they trusted their vet or the big brands. I lose a bit of respect for vets that only push Science Diet and the ethics involved in Hills and other companies supplying vet students with nutrition education makes me uneasy. I start to feel like a crazy conspiracy theorist, ranting and raving at any friend or family member who will listen.

On a lighter note, this is the best.