You and your pet might have a lot in common; you might both enjoy listening to classic metal albums, rolling around the grass, having a snuggle, or just glaring at that mousehole in the kitchen. But as close as you are, there are a lot of âpeople foodsâ that your dog/cat/horse/ferret/koala shouldnât share with you, and just as many things in your furry/feathered/scaly friendâs diet that you shouldnât touch, either.
Like all mammals, cats need certain vitamins for normal metabolic functioning, many of which canât be synthesized in the body and so need to come from food. However, cats generally only need small amounts of these vitamins and can usually get everything they need from a balanced diet. They may have serious symptoms if unneeded vitamin supplements lead to hypervitaminosis , or excess vitamin poisoning. While too much vitamin A can cause bone and joint pain, dry skin, and brittle bones, excess vitamin D may lead to calcification in soft tissue and bones and to dense bones, too. Poor kitty.
A surprisingly large number of common plants  found around the house can be toxic to most petsâones like carnations, geraniums, and tulips. And though pets generally get the message that a potted plant isnât a snack, they might mistake ones that they see you ingestâsuch as marijuanaâas being OK.
Many pets (and cats especially) seem to enjoy marijuana smoke or the smell of the plant itself, and some veterinarians have gotten positive results from using marijuana to treat pain, nausea, and appetite loss in chronically ill pets. However, the ASPCA points out that âingestion of Cannabis sativa by companion animals can result in depression of the central nervous system and incoordination, as well as vomiting, diarrhea, drooling, increased heart rate, and even seizures and coma.â So just make sure to hide your stash somewhere your curious kitty can't get in to.
According to most movies, TV shows, and commercials with a feline focus, the perfect way to court a cat is with a saucer of milk or cream. In reality, though, most cats are lactose intolerant , i.e. they donât have enough of the lactase enzyme in their digestive systems to properly process dairy. When fed to either cats or dogs, milk products can often lead to vomiting, diarrhea, and other tummy troubles.
There are lots of safe ways to relax with your cat or dog, but having a cross-species happy hour sadly isnât one of them. Food and drink containing alcohol âcan cause vomiting, diarrhea, decreased coordination, central nervous system depression, difficulty breathing, tremors, abnormal blood acidity, coma, and even death,â the ASPCA points out, while hops âa main ingredient in most beersâis one of your best friendâs worst enemies when it comes to toxic substances.
While youâre at it, keep them away from avocados, garlic, onions, and salt, tooâall things you might find in the guacamole appetizer your beer is washing down.
Coffee and chocolate both contain methylxanthines theobromine and caffeine, which can have very serious effects on both cats and dogs. According to the ASPCA, ingested methylxanthines (which have higher levels in dark and baking chocolate) âcan cause vomiting and diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures and even death.â
Just kiddingâdefinitely do not give your kitty a saucerful of any energy drink variety!
But Red Bull does contain taurine, an amino acid that all cats need in their diets in order to maintain healthy vision, heart function, and reproductive habits. Taurine is manufactured naturally by most animals (including male cows, whoâve supplied theirs to Red Bull), but cats arenât able to; so, cats need lots of protein-rich meatsâwhere taurine can be foundâin their diets for a healthy, if wing-free, lifestyle.
The ASPCA understands that your pet loves treats, that you love your pet, and that you like to show your love by giving little Fido or Mittens some doggie or kitty treatsâand hey, the groupâs experts are cool with all that. Just be sure that the treats your pet consumes donât account for more than 5% of its dietâgoing by calories alone, thatâs about the same as an adult limiting their intake of sweets to a decent scoop of ice cream per day.
Itâs also a bad idea to give more than the recommended amount of food to growing animals (and especially pups), even though it can technically make their bodies grow up quicker. Because even if youâre anxious for your dachshund to reach frisbee-fetching size, growing too quickly on too much food will likely cause serious medical problems for Little Lord Fauntleroy, like brittle bones or underdeveloped organs and muscles.
Guinea pigs are grazing animals, meaning theyâlike lots of woodland and field crittersâget their eventual fill by nibbling low-calorie greens all day. However, they have one feature that Bambi doesnât: their teeth are continuously growing longer, and they only stay at a reasonable length because of all of that near-continuous chewing. So in order to keep your chum's teeth in proper order, keep the guinea cage stocked with fresh hay and veggiesâno smoothies.
We may have opposable thumbs and DVRs to boast about, but when it comes to down-and-dirty eating for survival, many of our animals friends have special abilities that allow them to eat us under the table.
Around the world (and especially in parts of Africa and South America), a wide variety of species make a point of chowing down on mud to support a healthy diet. Macaws, parrots, cockatoos, and similar birds are particularly fond of gulping down beak-fuls of rich mud found near their primary water sources, while some types of primates have been observed casually doing the same thing.
Researchers speculate that various minerals, bacteria, and other substances found in mud help aid the digestion of the birds and primates who seem to love it. Various human cultures have also embraced eating mud, often during times of famineâin an attempt to gain whatever nutrients the mud might hold, or to calm an aching, empty stomachâbut also, not unlike other animals who eat mud, to aid digestion. Certain groups have also held the traditional belief that eating mud (baked or raw) can help cleanse the body, especially the digestive tract.
Depending on how you source your mud, though, you could run the risk of ingesting anything from lead and petroleum residues to feisty microbes and parasites, that latter of which your animal pals are typically better equipped to handle.
Lots of animalsâsuch as the charmingly named gillaroo trout, or Salmo stomachicusârely on their gizzards, a.k.a. âgastric mills,â for digestive support. These muscular stomachs typically help animals who lack teeth to crush up their food on its way down (though some crustacean gizzards do actually contain teeth), and can be found inside anything from birds, earthworms, and fish to crocodiles and dinosaur fossils.
These and other animals often additionally help out their digestive systems by eating sand, grit, or stonesâalso known as gastroliths, or gizzard stonesâthat help crush up tougher foods and can stay in the body for long periods until theyâre excreted or regurgitated. And while swallowing some sand or small rocks yourself might not lead to medical catastrophe right away , you really should try to avoid it.
Thanks to different toxin resistance levels and evolutionary windfalls, countless animals can eat plants that are poisonous to humans, and often in very large amounts.
Your pet koala, for example, can spend almost every waking hour eating eucalyptus, a plant that causes dizziness, weakness, difficulty breathing, and stomach pain and burning in humans, among other things (itâll also cause illness in dogs, cats, and horses, so be warned). When used properly, the essential oils in eucalyptus have medicinal properties for humans and can also be an effective disinfectant, but poisoning from itâwhich koalas and other marsupials avoid by paying close attention the smell of leavesâcan cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Deer, on the other hand, are among natureâs most frankly unfazed eaters (unlike goats, whichâdespite urban legends involving tin cansâmay âbrowseâ and taste various things, but are actually quite picky). âDeer will eat a little bit of almost everything out there, including a few bites of various toxic plants,â wildlife biologist Tom Hanley explained to Alaska Fish and Wildlife News . âThere seem to be threshold levels for the toxicity of different plants, and as long as deer eat below that threshold, theyâre okay.â
Hanley noted that deer are also fond of eating protein-rich skunk cabbage when the smelly, fairly vicious plantâchock-full of poisonous calcium oxalate crystalsâfirst crops up in the springtime. He pointed out (from personal experience) that just a taste of skunk cabbage can leave the mouth burning for hours, and that the sensation is ânot like a chemical burn,â but rather âlike there are tiny needles in your tongue.â
An enormous variety of animals rely on raw, rotting, and even just-about-liquified meat for nutrition, and have the mandibles, digestive juices, and immune systems to match. Youâve likely noticed that your dog or cat is darned interested in meat of just about any age; even box turtles will get down on some carrion if itâs in the form of a nice, safe-to-approach, dead snake. Of course, wild and domesticated animals do run risks when they eat raw and decomposing meat (even scavengers, whose strong stomach acids can kill most parasites), just as we do when eating steak tartare or the like.
Donât feel too jealous, though; while the stomachs of many carnivores give bugs a much harder time than our own guts do, there may be an evolutionary reason for our speciesâ sacrifice of a stronger stomach: a 2012 study found that our Homo erectus ancestors probably overcame certain nutritional limitationsâones that make the great apesâ bodies large but keep their brains smallâwhen cooked food appeared on the menu. Researchers have suggested that eating cooked food, which has less total nutrition than raw food but is far easier for our bodies to process, gave us more non-feeding time and allowed our neurons and growing brains to flourish.
Humankind has definitely made some fascinating culinary innovations (like, say, the Turducken ) and set some impressive eating records, tooâones that the rest of the animal kingdom wonât likely upset soon. For example, Ed âCookieâ Jarvis ate almost nine pounds of grapes in a 2005 contest, Patrick Bertoletti polished off a record 10.63 pounds of corned beef and cabbage in 2007, and Molly Schuylerâputting fellow mushroom fans to shameâconsumed a full 11.5 pounds of fried mushrooms in just eight minutes during the 2014 Mushroom Festival National Fried Mushroom Eating Championship.
Sadly, though, none of those meals even comes close to the daily reality of literally âeating like a bird.â Our winged friendsâ metabolisms vary bird to bird and species to species, but, on the whole, birds are capable of eating enormous amounts of foodâoften between ¼ and ½ of their body weight per day (or, in the case of many baby birds, sometimes even more than their full weight). Meaning, the average U.S. adult woman or man would have to put away at least 40 and 50 lbs of food, respectively, to even be in the running with a dignified 25% of body weight consumed.
All images via iStock.
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