Why?

[Boddie]

My friend Rufus was in American Warewolf in London. He was the small boy with the balloon

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Susie

Erm, that is a tad harsh, methinks.

Personally I think it is misguided if the creature in question is usually carniverous but some people must find it very hard feeding meat to their pets if they are vegetarian through principle themselves.

if your principles are so firm that you cannot bear to feed meat to a carnivore , why would you be keeping said carnivore in the first place when i was involved with lynx many of the more extreme members would not countenance the keeping of pets or domestic animals saying that it was a master slave relationship - not a view I hold to myself , but then I eat meat too , and kill things when necessary , I was involved with lynx through an opposition to killing wild and endangered species soley for their fur.

[honeybee]

I've studied Animal nutrition and can't remember any of it I do know that cats in particular need meat, I don't know if you can synthesisethe minerals or whatever they need. My cat loved to eat peas though. My parents (both veggie) did look into buying veggie dog food but decided against. Some petfood isn't very good for dogs, too high in protein or full of aditives. Ours always have veg mixed with their diet.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by Dennis1234567

Dr. Robert K. Wayne, (canid biologist and molecular geneticist with UCLA) did some genetic research on dogs at the DNA level. He found that the domesticated dog originated from Canis Lupus - the grey wolf. The DNA link is so strong that they are still able to cross bread with them. Because of that research biologists changed the name of the household pooch from Canis Familiaris to Canis Lupus in 1993. The domesticated dog started out as a wolf before we played god, and we played god with the selective breading of wolves about ten to fifteen thousand years ago.

Domesticated dogs have always been, and always will be meat eaters, unless it's bred with a Rabbit

Just to clarify some of the above: The dog was known to be extremely closely related to the wolf, and so was recognised that it was descended from the wolf, many years before 1993. The only difference was that the link was reinforced by modern genetics. Similar research into most canids lead to the reclassification of many of them, not just the dog.

So the grey wolf changed from canis lupus, to canis lupus lupus, and the dog changed from canis familaris, to canis lupus familiaris (notice the familiaris part still there).

Yes the wolf and dog are both classed as carnivores, but even the wolf has a larger proportion of vegetable matter in their diet that people are aware of. At certain time of year such when berries and such like are abundant, wolves take advantage of these types of crop. Also when a kill is made, the vegetable contents of their preys stomach is usually eaten along with the meat. In fact they not only can survive without meat for certain periods, but they also benefit from important nutritional properties of the plant matter, which is missing from pure meat.

Since our domestication of the wolf, its descendant the dog has adapted to many of our ways, and it is true that the can survive quite well on high vegetable diets, providing suitable supplements are fed alone with the food. This is often dependant on breed though. In fact there is a debate whether domestic dogs should be classed as omnivores.

Personally I’d make sure a large proportion of a dogs diet consisted of meat, unless the dog had digestive problems. Graham mentioned his Alsatian above. This is one breed that can have dickey stomachs, along with hip displacia. That’s pedigrees for you - a result of inbreeding. Our fault!

Cats certainly depend on meat more than the canids. This is because of the physiology of their stomachs. So not exactly sure what you'd replace meat with. Quorn?

The difficulty comes with animals that we haven’t ‘changed’ by domesticity, such as snakes and reptiles. What do we feed them if you’re not keen or wont feed them dead mice and day old chicks for instance? Also, what if they’re insectivores – would or should that make a difference? In a way, insects are meat too!

I suppose it comes down to where the meat comes from, and how well the animals are treated before slaughter. But of course that applies to our food just as much too.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Alan

Just to clarify some of the above: The dog was known to be extremely closely related to the dog

very very closely related in fact

[Alan]

Originally Posted by eeyore

very very closely related in fact

Thank you..

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by speckled wood

My Hamster likes bacon although I don't think that she could eat more than one little piggie at a time. I will add that if I were to offer my hamster chocolate she would ignore anything else on offer as would my late departed (from this world) "wild" mouse.

I will add that I agree with Dennis on this one, although I would favour horse whipping rather than prison for the offenders.

When I was at uni I would let my hamster run about in my room of an evening and occasionally she's come over when I was eating my tea for a pea or bit of sweetcorn, have to say though the day she grabbed hold of a bit of spagetti and ran off with it across my desk before shoving the whole string, hand over hand into her cheek pouches was a particularly funny moment in my life......

Bods, I think most animals like cheese, ...