Can your pet eat human food? Can you just feed it what you eat instead of buying pet food? Yes, you can. However, with some important exceptions. While there are certain human foods you can feed them, there are also others that can prove extremely dangerous to them.
Below are some of the human foods that can prove deadly to your pet. Avoiding feeding your pets any of these foods;
1. Avocado
Avocados are mostly a problem for horses, donkeys, rabbits, birds and ruminants, like goats and sheep. The biggest concern is often cardiovascular damage, and even death, in rabbits and birds. Ruminants, donkeys and horses usually get swollen, with oedematous necks and heads.
2. Alcohol
Alcohol poisoning can occur when your pet ingests any substance that contains alcohol including, bread dough and flea spray. It’s mainly toxic to dogs and cats and can cause abnormal blood acidity, tremors, difficulty breathing, central nervous system depression, decreased coordination, diarrhoea, vomiting, comas and even death. You should never give your pet alcohol or anything with alcohol in it. If you think your pet may have taken some alcohol, call your vet at once.
3. Caffeine, Coffee and Chocolate
We all know that chocolate is toxic to dogs. However, cats are more sensitive to chocolate than dogs. Other animals like pigs, horses and chickens react negatively to cacao seeds. Methylxanthine, which is present in cacao seeds and coffee, can cause them to vomit, pant, be excessively thirsty, have abnormal heart rhythms, hyperactivity, seizures, tremors and even some cases death.
Darker chocolate products are more harmful than their white chocolate counterparts. White chocolate has very low methylxanthine levels. It’s the highest when you bake the chocolate.
4. Citrus
The seeds, fruit, peels, leaves and stems of the citrus plant have varying amounts of essential oils and citric acids that can irritate pets like horses, dogs and cats. They cause central nervous system depression. However, feeding your pet this food in small doses won’t affect them beyond minor stomach upsets.
5. Milk and Dairy
Most pets like cats and dogs don’t have the right amount of lactase (the enzyme responsible for breaking down the lactose in milk) in their body. Milk and a lot of other dairy products can lead to your pet having diarrhoea or several other digestive complications.
6. Macadamia Nuts
Macadamia nuts can cause tremors, vomiting, depression, weakness and hyperthermia in our feline companions. Signs usually show around 12 hours after ingestion and can last roughly 24-48 hours.
7. Coconut and Coconut Oil
When taken in small doses, coconuts and coconut products aren’t likely to cause your dog or cat severe harm. The milk and flesh of a fresh coconut do have oils that might cause diarrhoea, loose stools or stomach upsets. This is why you’re advised to be careful when feeding your pet such foodstuffs. Furthermore, coconut water has high potassium levels, which is very dangerous for pets.
8. Garlic, Onions and Chives
These herbs and vegetables can cause gastrointestinal pain and irritation in pets like dogs, cats, horses, cattle, birds, reptiles, sheep and goats, which could then lead to anaemia and damage to red blood cells. Although cats are more prone to experiencing such, these foods can also harm other pets if they consume them in large amounts.
9. Salt and Salty Snacks
When your pet ingests a lot of salt this can cause excessive urination and thirst, or sometimes even sodium ion poisoning. Salt is mainly harmful to animals like dogs, cats, horses, cattle, pigs and birds, Signs that your pets might have eaten too much salt include seizures, elevated temperature, tremors, depression, diarrhoea, vomiting and even death. As such, avoid feeding your pets salty-heavy snack foods like pretzels salted popcorn and potato chips.
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