Pet Treats You May Feed Those Pets, from The Human Kitchen

[Mountain Cat]

I have cats and I have chickens. By and large they get specific pet food. But sometimes they want (or I decide they want) treats.

My cats LUV chicken. As I'm not so fond of the breast, they get a good deal, but not all, of that.

Serenity, the older cat (17 years and nearly 18) doesn't care for human scraps other than chicken.

Obi-wan will eat just about anything (13 years as of the 11th), will eat just about any meat-type scraps.

The chickens... I feed them scrambled eggs (dirty ones that I don't want to eat, sell, or give away). Also almost all sorts of veggie kitchen things. Nothing moldy, and I really limit the alliums. They love just about everything except sweet potato peelings. Or corn husks. They adore watermelon, which I buy specifically for them in the heat of summer.

Anyone else here?

 

[medtran49]

I make cookies for our pugs and grandsons using baby food for 1 recipe, chicken livers for another one, as well as peanut butter for another.

 

[TastyReuben]

Our Kate (17yo English Setter) has always had digestive issues, so we've been very, very good about people food.

About the only things she gets are a bit of cream cheese for pill-hiding, a bit of saltine cracker, a bit of pretzel, and a bit of meat, as long as it's not overly seasoned. She gets 1/4 of a piece of bacon when we have it.

Her favorite treat in the world, above all others? Toast. Doesn't even have to have anything on it.

 

[rascal]

My daughter had a King Charles, called smudge, these dogs are said to be thick as a plank. Smudge wasn't, she absolutely loved peppermints, small treats. I taught her to bark on command. Sit ,lie , play dead and a few other things. Just for a peppermint. My sons dog I taught also to sit , beg, shake hands etc. also for a treat.

Russ

 

[caseydog]

My daughter had a King Charles, called smudge, these dogs are said to be thick as a plank. Smudge wasn't, she absolutely loved peppermints, small treats. I taught her to bark on command. Sit ,lie , play dead and a few other things. Just for a peppermint. My sons dog I taught also to sit , beg, shake hands etc. also for a treat.

Russ

Psycho-poodle can jump as high as my shoulders for a treat (I'm 5'11"). That's what he was doing in my avatar for the forum. There was a piece of Puperoni next to the lens.

The only people food he gets is steak scraps when I have a steak. I make him eat it from his bowl.

I buy treats. Cheap ones.

CD

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

My chooks get very little in the way of human food for a number of reasons not least of all the feed they are on is nutritionally balanced to their needs and adding anything in unbalances this. So they get only a little every now and again.

Ironically some of the things they love the most is anything white or yellow which means they will fight over some off the strangest of scraps. If we want to up their protein intake (for a sick or injured bird for example, or during moulting or a sitting broody,) we've found tofu is something they love. Cut it into small ½cm cubes and it disappears so quickly it is stunning. The extra firm stuff is the highest protein level one and here in Australia a 500g pack is $3.49 for an organic one. That's roughly £1.80 maybe. Having a large Asian population in Australia helps sometimes and that's by no means the cheapest. Visit the oriental, Asian or Indian shops or just the fresh food markets and you'll get non-organic stuff much cheaper. The organic one we buy is actually the one we prefer for ourselves, so usually if they get anything it's that least piece of an open packet that we cut up at the end of a meal and give to them plain and cold. They adore it. They also love tuna fish which we periodically buy as a treat. The shops own brand in spring water. 2 small tins will do the whole flock and we can do a visual health check on them all at the same time because 1 smell of tuna and they are all at your feet instantly. Sardines are similar but I don't normally buy those (it was for a rescue kitten, the rest went to the chooks after the kitten went to the vets, she was rehomed immediately by one of the receptionists who feel in love with her on first sight).

Avocado is another they simply adore. They can't have the skin or stone but the flesh they love, as they do bread, pastry (cooked or uncooked, they get all my spare usually cooked) and bananas. Hubby often gives them the skin which they will pretty much eat almost all of it. They love banana as well.

Frozen watermelon and frozen grapes are a summertime treat that they get went it is very hot and we need to help them cool down. If we're struggling, so are they. Luckily watermelon is exceptionally good and exceptionally cheap in the summer months at roughly $1/kg (a little over 50p/kg).

I won't give my chooks eggs at all anymore, cooked or raw because I had 2 that became egg eaters deliberately breaking lain eggs by kicking them out of the nesting boxes to break them. Nothing would stop them or break their habit and others were starting to show similar behaviour. But they do get the baked egg shells. I don't specifically bake them, they are just put into the oven as it cold down after use. This is enough to make them much more brittle and they decompose more easily this way as well (if they're too many shells and they wind up in the compost instead. )

 

[epicuric]

Our terriers live almost exclusively on our leftovers. In truth, we probably figure them into our meal planning, cooking a bit extra of what we know they like. They don't have anything heavy on garlic or onion, and never anything sweet, but our diet suits them fine. In terms of treats, they love olives.

 

[Mountain Cat]

I did once have a cat that liked 1) brussels sprouts! 2) corn chips! I didn't make a practice of giving him much of either - for one, I hadn't yet discovered how good Brussels sprouts could be...

He also liked raisins which I discovered inadvertently. I had accidently bought some breakfast cereal that had raisins - being as I intensely dislike raisins, I was removing them from my breakfast bowl when one inadvertently fell to the floor. He ran over and devoured it. Thinking he mistook the raisin for kibble (about the same size), I gave him two or three more. He yummied those down, so it wasn't a mistake on his part.

I learned after that raisins (and grapes) can be poisonous to cats - fortunately he'd had no more than those four. I didn't want to give him that sugary junk, so I never fed him more than that.