Pet Food - Would You Eat It ?

Discussion in Pets started by gata montes • Aug 1, 2015.

  1. gata montes

    gata montesActive Member

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    By pet food - I mean what you feed your dog or your cat that comes out of a can or a package.

    I only ask - as after recently reading a few articles on some of the bizarre extremes that people would go to save money and eating pet food was one of them and it wasn't just pet owners either - who said that they saved money this way - particularly as - they'd found that they could eat more for less by doing this - as one bag of pet food with a coupon was way cheaper than a couple of cans of human food or one dollar could buy three cans of pet food compared to one can of human tuna.

    Although I couldn't even contemplate doing this - however broke I was - even though some said that they actually found it tasty and I'm not altogether sure - apart from maybe giving you incredibly shiny hair - that eating pet food can be that good humans considering what its made of or that pet food would be cheap everywhere.

    Just out of curiosity - would you be happy to chow down on a bowl full of your pets chicken niblets or a can of your cat's ocean fish dinner - as a way of saving money ?
     
  2. JosieP

    JosiePWell-Known Member

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    It's not even good for pets, so no. But I don't see why not for anyone who eats eats meat.. it's coming from the same animals.. and some euthanized ones, maybe some road kill lol, lots of fillers and corn. But it still might actually be healthier than what you're already eating! lol :p
     
  3. Lushlala

    LushlalaWell-Known Member

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    Dog food is probably healthy and wouldn't cause any harm, but I feel it's way too vile for me to be able to stomach LOL I mean, just to look at it is not very appetising. I don't even find the smell enticing. I don't smell it and think hmmm! So the answer is no, I wouldn't eat it.
     
  4. Feneth

    FenethActive Member

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    If you're talking about packaged cheap kibble or canned food, I wouldn't eat it. I'm weird about flavors and textures and probably couldn't tolerate it...though I did feed my younger brother a dog biscuit when we were kids.

    I have baked homemade dog treats or bought baked dog treats from a gourmet small bakery that uses human grade ingredients and tried those though. They're bland and I have no urge to eat them beyond the initial curiosity about the taste but they weren't bad. I have also taste-tested the freshpet select chicken treats because they smelled so good. Again, bland but not bad and just a one time impulse based on curiosity. None of those things are cheaper than human food though.

    I also read the monkey diet experiment webpage-

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    - with horrified fascination but I have no urge to try it. If a human were going to try to subsist on kibble, that would probably be the closest to meeting our nutritional needs.

    There is also a geek-food called soylent. It is a shake-based food that claim to meet all of a human's nutritional needs but it's pretty boring to only have that and for the price, if you wanted to cook you could get an okay diet of real food.
     
  5. LeopardJones

    LeopardJonesActive Member

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    I will admit to trying dry cat food when I was a super young child. I can’t imagine I’d eat pet food now, though, even if I suddenly went broke. But hey, never say never. Some of the non-mushy wet foods don’t look as terrible as the traditional types. That said, here’s hoping I don’t find myself in such circumstances as to warrant a measure like this…
     
  6. Denis Hard

    Denis HardWell-Known Member

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    I'd not eat pet food just because I wanted to save money. If things got really bad, it would be much better to dumpster dive if your city hasn't made it illegal yet. But I don't think that eating pet food would be bad for your health. Kids from time to time eat their pets' food [or share] and . . . at the end of it they'll still be perfectly fine.
     
  7. gata montes

    gata montesActive Member

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    Good point you make there - especially now that pet foods are better regulated and some brands do actually appear to contain items that could be classed as real food - with some even being additive and preservative free too - so yes - for some people and particularly those consuming diets that consist of the chemical connections that are now considered to be human “ foods “ - eating pet foods may way well be a healthier alternative.

    However I'm seriously hoping that its not something that is going to catch on - particularly as anyone who has snuggled their pet just after eating its gourmet meal will know - their breath can smell pretty lethal :eek:
     
  8. Pat

    PatWell-Known Member

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    I don't have a pet at this time, but if I did the food I fed to my pet would be safe enough for me to eat also. Having a pet is like have another child so you do want to take good care of the pet. The pet doctor bills can be as expensive as your own, so to avoid illness you take good care of the pet whic means good healthy food.
     
  9. Jessi

    Jessi<a href="http://www.quirkycookery.com">QuirkyCooke

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    Exactly.

    In fact, I don't even feed my pets the storebought foods. I find it cheaper to make my own anyway and it's much, much healthier.

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    #9Aug 2, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 3, 2015
  10. JosieP

    JosiePWell-Known Member

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    So awesome! If my dog were still here, I'd be making hers as well. I have 5 cats and I want to make their food, but I'm still trying to figure out how to go about it, when I have the time. They're currently on a food as close to raw as I can get them for now.. very few ingredients, none of the useless, harmful ingredients that fill store bought foods etc. Commercial pet foods are absolutely horrible for pets.. nowhere near what their bodies are able to digest properly. Look at the most common issues a vet sees and they're all perfectly avoidable with the proper foods.. just like humans! lol.
     
  11. DreekLass

    DreekLassWell-Known Member

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    I don't actively eat animal foods, but I will admit that the smell of the fish' food is mighty tempting. It would probably be a little salty, but nothing compared to human foods, and I have enough problems with my gut already without adding to it with eating pet food lol. When I was younger, I tried animal food. It was nothing to write home about.
     
  12. JosieP

    JosiePWell-Known Member

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    LOL! When I was small, I remember lying next to my cat, watching her eat and thinking.. "like she'd eat that every single day if it weren't amazing". So I tried it and will never completely trust those shady creatures ever again :p
     
  13. DreekLass

    DreekLassWell-Known Member

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    Hahahaha!! Don't trust them, especially cats. Studies have shown that cats understand what we are saying, but still choose to ignore us. You can't trust a shady creature like that lol. I don't see why this situation should be any different ;) Their taste buds have got to be different from ours, because their food sucks.
     
  14. ACSAPA

    ACSAPAWell-Known Member

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    The only pet food I've recently tasted is some gourmet organic turkey jerky made for dogs. The label claims that human grade ingredients are used. Since dogs don't eat spices, it was bland but tasted okay.
    I wouldn't eat it to save money because this gourmet jerky for dogs was more expensive than just buying a package of meat and cooking it for myself.
     
  15. Dora M

    Dora MWell-Known Member

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    I wouldn't recommend eating pet food since a lot of the processed meat is made of roadkill and other dubious meat. Also, it's often highly processed that makes it almost unfit even for animal consumption, not to mention all the additives and preservatives.
    Even eating dog cookies isn't a good idea, since the ingredients used tend to be of a low quality. I think if you have to resort to eating pet food, it's only ever because you are really desperate. I know of various pensioners around my area who occasionally eat pet food to supplement their diet, as they can't always afford to pay for decent food at the end of the month. It's shocking.
     
  16. Corzhens

    CorzhensWell-Known Member

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    Some years ago we went to a big mall for a pet festival. It's actually a Pet Day affair with lots of booth selling pet accessories and dog food. There was one parlor game participapted in the the dog and the owner. The objective of the game is to finish the dog food - one for the dog and one for the master. That was to prove that dog food is edible even for humans.
     
  17. Ke Gordon

    Ke GordonWell-Known Member

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    uhhh no. Pet food is for pets. It might be better for you than hot dogs and other things people eat, but it never looked good to me. I remember many years ago, there was a show on tv about a guy who fed himself ridiculously cheaply per week, and he ate dog food casseroles. No, Thank YOU! I thnk the idea sounds disgusting!
     
  18. ohiotom76

    ohiotom76Well-Known Member

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    I believe I read somewhere a while back, that by law, pet food (at least for cats and dogs) is required to be safe for human consumption - don't quote me on that though. I guess that makes sense since you have to consider families with little kids, where the kids might get into the pet food and try to eat it, as gross as that may sound.

    There was a hilarious episode of some show that shows the lives of some of the biggest cheapskates, about this lady who is a millionaire but eats cat food instead of canned tuna fish because it's cheaper. Her neighbor ratted her out on this, because she was visiting her and the millionaire lady offered to make her a "tuna sandwich" and when the neighbor looked into her kitchen she saw the can on the counter was actually cat food, lol.
     
  19. tasxx

    tasxxMember

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    Oh dear. When I used to have a cat, I always dreaded having to open a can of cat food because the smell was rather revolting. As Ke Gordon said, pet food is for pets. Even if there wasn't any other food in the house, I'd much rather starve than eat cat food. Apparently, my parents recall me accidentally eating the solid cat food one time as a kid but I don't think I'd ever do that again willingly.
     
  20. missbishi

    missbishiWell-Known Member

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    I remember trying one of the dog's biscuits when I was a kid but I just couldn't bring myself to taste tinned pet food. If people want to eat it to save money, well that's up to them but I can't help but feel that there are far tastier and healthier alternatives out there for even less, as long as you take a little time to learn how to make them.