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Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

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Re: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

#31

Post by shados »

Stratoscope wrote: post #25
bluedino wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Your cat and/or dog is probably too fat Slightly above 50% of US pet dogs and cats are overweight.

One thing that can help a lot is to give dogs and cats more vegetables. In particular, they love brassicas, especially brussels sprouts and broccoli. Either mixed in with their regular food or as a treat, it helps fill them up with very few calories - and really good for them too. If you haven't tried this, I recommend it. Simply microwave some brussels sprouts or broccoli until tender, let cool, and either chop it u…

Dogs yeah, they're omnivores as far as I understand.

Cats though are straight up carnivore, and while they might enjoy the taste of some veggies, and some stuff can help with their digestion, they don't really get much nutrients out of vegetables, and a large portion of veggies are downright harmful to them.

Re: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

#32

Post by jaclaz »

randomThoughts9 wrote: post #26
jaclaz wrote: post #2

Clickbaity title. Original: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats Anyway,it's not like the article seems like being a particularly good one, while it cites the concept that meat fed to pets is (largely) not suitable for human consumption, doesn't take into account the actual related impact and vaguely talks of post-processing the non-suitable parts. The IMHO terrible part is this one: >And much p…

> meat fed to pets is (largely) not suitable for human consumption 30% unsuitable for human consumption? This choosiness is a just one more sign of affluence and one of the habits we have to get rid of if we want to improve our ecological footprint. Go to a rural village in a developing country and you will see them using 95% easily. This is just

>Go to a rural village in a developing country and you will see them using 95% easily.

Using 95%? Sure.

Eating 95%? Come on.

We will have to define what is "meat", in pets food a lot of parts of the animal that wouldn't be considered "meat" are used.

And there are some Laws/rules about some parts not being fit for human consumption (of course depending on the country).

Re: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

#33

Post by adanto6840 »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #12
boyaka wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the ones that arent getting premium pet food

For cats, the corn, grain, and otherwise carb-filled cat foods that dominate store shelves and are cheaply available are absolutely terrible. Cats are obligate carnivores and aren't built to deal with that kind of food composition at all. Some cats deal with it better than others, but generally feeding your cat these cheap foods will result in it becoming very obese and highly prone to several types of disease. I don…

+1 for airtight container. We had cheaped out on this and just purchased some cheaper plastic Rubbermaid-style containers -- to my wife's horror, she opened it one day to find maggots. She was sicker than the dog ever was (the dog didn't get sick and we threw that container out wholesale, food and all).

We purchased an airtight "food container" with a screw-on lid -- from a major pet store chain, and for some absurd amount of money -- but haven't had an issue sense, and the peace of mind was well worth it for my wife's sake.

Re: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

#34

Post by shados »

freehunter wrote: post #15
seiferteric wrote: post #3

Sounds like a perfect application for lab grown meat.

That's a great idea. Humans have refined tastes, we're going to criticize meat for not being marbled enough, or for tasting a bit "off", or for not being quite up to par. We will purposefully reject cuts like chuck when offered the option of a strip steak instead. Dogs wouldn't. They'd eat the strip steak and then eat the chuck and then chase down a mole, dig it out of the ground, and eat it whole. They don't have re…

That would be an interesting way to fund and scale production capacity for that lab grown meat too. Some stuff is just hard to figure out until you try doing it at scale.

Re: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

#35

Post by trhway »

bluedino wrote: post #4
jaclaz wrote: post #2

Clickbaity title. Original: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats Anyway,it's not like the article seems like being a particularly good one, while it cites the concept that meat fed to pets is (largely) not suitable for human consumption, doesn't take into account the actual related impact and vaguely talks of post-processing the non-suitable parts. The IMHO terrible part is this one: >And much p…

>> Your cat and/or dog is probably too fat Slightly above 50% of US pet dogs and cats are overweight.

>Slightly above 50% of US pet dogs and cats are overweight.

because they are spayed/neutered. We've never limited food consumption by our cats and by our dog and never neutered them, and they have never been overweight.

Re: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

#36

Post by tertius »

Stratoscope wrote: post #25
bluedino wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Your cat and/or dog is probably too fat Slightly above 50% of US pet dogs and cats are overweight.

One thing that can help a lot is to give dogs and cats more vegetables. In particular, they love brassicas, especially brussels sprouts and broccoli. Either mixed in with their regular food or as a treat, it helps fill them up with very few calories - and really good for them too. If you haven't tried this, I recommend it. Simply microwave some brussels sprouts or broccoli until tender, let cool, and either chop it u…

No, just feed them less and exercise them more.

Don't feed carnivores anything but meat if you don't have to. Especially cats.

Also, if your still want to feed them vegetables do so after you've satisfied their dietary needs.

Overfeeding is the problem.

Re: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

#37

Post by tertius »

shados wrote: post #31
Stratoscope wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that can help a lot is to give dogs and cats more vegetables. In particular, they love brassicas, especially brussels sprouts and broccoli. Either mixed in with their regular food or as a treat, it helps fill them up with very few calories - and really good for them too. If you haven't tried this, I recommend it. Simply microwave some brussels sprouts or broccoli until tender, let cool, and either chop it u…

Dogs yeah, they're omnivores as far as I understand. Cats though are straight up carnivore, and while they might enjoy the taste of some veggies, and some stuff can help with their digestion, they don't really get much nutrients out of vegetables, and a large portion of veggies are downright harmful to them.

Cats are obligate carnivores.

Dogs are carnivores. They need protein, fat and bone.

Re: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

#38

Post by xapata »

jaclaz wrote: post #32
randomThoughts9 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> meat fed to pets is (largely) not suitable for human consumption 30% unsuitable for human consumption? This choosiness is a just one more sign of affluence and one of the habits we have to get rid of if we want to improve our ecological footprint. Go to a rural village in a developing country and you will see them using 95% easily. This is just

>Go to a rural village in a developing country and you will see them using 95% easily. Using 95%? Sure. Eating 95%? Come on. We will have to define what is "meat", in pets food a lot of parts of the animal that wouldn't be considered "meat" are used. And there are some Laws/rules about some parts not being fit for human consumption (of course depending on the country).

If you boil meat to make broth and then throw out the chunks after some hours, you have pulled most of the nutrients into the broth. So, yeah, I would say they use most of the animal.

Re: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

#39

Post by mikestew »

adanto6840 wrote: post #29
Stratoscope wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that can help a lot is to give dogs and cats more vegetables. In particular, they love brassicas, especially brussels sprouts and broccoli. Either mixed in with their regular food or as a treat, it helps fill them up with very few calories - and really good for them too. If you haven't tried this, I recommend it. Simply microwave some brussels sprouts or broccoli until tender, let cool, and either chop it u…

Our dog absolutely loves carrots -- if you dare to eat a carrot near him, you won't hear the end of it until he's had one too. We stopped making homemade (meat) treats for him in favor of just keeping a baggie of small carrots in the fridge. It's still hilarious to me, but he just goes crazy for them, time and time again. I'm not sure if it's just the crunch, or maybe the 'social factor' of him watching my wife eat t…

My parents had a dog that would go out to the garden and dig up carrots to eat. They thought it was varmints until they caught him doing it.

Our Pit Bull/Mastiff mix will come running when he hears a cereal bowl being filled. That would be because when cereal is served, odds are there's fruit going on top of it. That dog is a hound for bananas, but he'll settle for peaches. It's blackberry season here in Seattle, so he gets a handful or two on our walks. Broccoli, brussel sprouts, I don't recall that we've found anything yet that he won't eat. Makes for low-calorie snacks to put in his Kong.

Re: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats

#40

Post by yorwba »

randomThoughts9 wrote: post #26
jaclaz wrote: post #2

Clickbaity title. Original: Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats Anyway,it's not like the article seems like being a particularly good one, while it cites the concept that meat fed to pets is (largely) not suitable for human consumption, doesn't take into account the actual related impact and vaguely talks of post-processing the non-suitable parts. The IMHO terrible part is this one: >And much p…

> meat fed to pets is (largely) not suitable for human consumption 30% unsuitable for human consumption? This choosiness is a just one more sign of affluence and one of the habits we have to get rid of if we want to improve our ecological footprint. Go to a rural village in a developing country and you will see them using 95% easily. This is just

The choosiness is also culture-dependent.

I have eaten pig feet, pig stomach, shark fin, unidentifiable organs and very bony meat at somewhat upscale restaurants in China. I'm sure there are some foods that are seen as basically inedible in China, but those do not necessarily coincide with Western tastes.

A lot of this is probably influenced by perceptions of "poor-people food" (like lobster) instead of being based in human nutritional needs. My Chinese friend was surprised when I remarked on the great taste of grilled pig liver, since it was the least expensive of the dishes he had me try out.

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