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Hello,
and welcome to
Cat Puz zles!
The
Human-Companion Animal Bond:
The Bond and Behavioral Aspects of Feeding, Part 2
By Myrna Milani, BS, DVM
In the first part of this article, we began discussing the five components
that come into play when we feed our pets:
What we feed our pets
Where we feed our pets
When we feed our pets
How we feed our pets
Why we feed our pets
Ensuring that our pets receive a quality diet requires that we become
informed consumers, and providing them with a quality feeding area involves
taking any pet behavioral and physical needs into account. Now we need
to examine the ways when, how, and why we feed our pets can enhance
or undermine the feeding process.
Perfect Mealtime Timing
When we feed our pets often says a lot more about our own schedules
that it does about our pets', with many owners leaving a bowl of dry
food for their dogs and cats to nibble free-choice. On the plus side,
this enables each animal to eat according to its own schedule. Rex,
the terrier mix, prefers to nibble multiple times throughout the day,
except in the summer. Then he does the bulk of his eating in the cooler
early morning hours. Compare this to Fluff who does most of her feline
nibbling in the dead of night. In both cases, the animals might periodically
skip eating altogether, an event that happens routinely in their wild
compatriots' lives.
The fact that owners who offer food free-choice get a feeling for how
much their pets eat over a period of days rather than at a specific
meal can function as either a positive or negative factor. On the plus
side, free-choice feeding keeps owners from obsessing about how much
their pets eat. If Rex's owner doesn't see him eating one evening, she
doesn't worry about it because she has a feel for how much he eats over
a 1-2 day period rather than any specific meal. However, if Rex's playmate,
Misty, doesn't eat one of her two daily meals, her owner immediately
begins adding table food to her dog food to get her to eat. If Misty
didn't eat simply because her body had no need of additional nutrients
at that time, her owners' supplements teach her to eat for behavioral/emotional
rather than health reasons, and this can lead to obesity and other problems.
On the other hand, owners who feed their pets regularly scheduled meals
often gain a much clearer idea of their pets' feeding habits than those
who offer food free-choice. If Misty never, ever missed a meal, her
failure to eat tells her owner immediately that something is bothering
the dog. Then her owner can begin collecting data to determine what
physical, behavioral, or other factors might cause this change. Meanwhile,
it may take Rex's owner several days to realize he's not eating.
Free-choice feeding also may create problems in multiple pet households
where physical or behavioral factors cause one pet to consume more than
another, or when nutritional needs vary between pets. Under these circumstances,
one animal may be obese while a second is rail-thin, or one animal may
thrive on a diet that causes another problems. In such cases, feeding
the animals at specific times enables owners to regulate and monitor
the feeding process.
The How of Feeding
How we feed our pets raises the specter of all those deliberate or
subconscious factors that go into feeding rituals. For many people food
communicates a message of love and comfort. For an equal number, feeding
serves as the one guaranteed source of daily intimate interaction with
the pet. Put these two together and we can see how feeding could become
a highly symbolic, ritualistic act. Not surprisingly this, too, poses
a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that some pets relish
these rituals as much as their owners, and a serene mealtime soothes
human and animal spirits alike.
The bad news is that some rituals generate such excitement in the animal
that these may lead to problems. Misty's owner gets her so excited about
her impending meal that she bolts her food the instant her owner puts
it down, then throws it up an hour later. Dogs whose owners joyfully
feed them immediately after a equally joyous home-coming may begin secreting
digestive juices in anticipation of mealtime, just like Pavlov's dog.
Digestive secretions can irritate the delicate lining of the digestive
tract and, if the owner gets held up in traffic or stops to do some
shopping, the dog could experience a prolonged period of discomfort
anticipating this feeding ritual.
Other times, owner rituals evolve to the point that they serve as part
of the appetite-stimulating process. Mary Beth goes through such an
elaborate ritual when she prepares and presents Buffy's food to him,
that he refuses to eat unless she presents it this way. When the new
baby's arrival makes that impossible, she joins those owners who rue
the day they incorporated certain factors into the feeding process that
they, or someone else, couldn't maintain over time.
Why We Feed
One way to evaluate the overall quality of our approach to pet-feeding
involves analyzing each of the previous components in terms of the question:
Why are we doing this? Why do we feed our pets what we do: because the
diet addresses the pet's specific nutritional needs or because of its
cost or some other strictly human factor? Why do we feed our pets where
we do: because it's convenient for us or because it provides the best
environment for our pets? Why do feed our pets when we do: because this
complement their schedules and needs or because it suits our own? And,
finally, why do we incorporate certain rituals and symbolism into the
feeding process? Does Rex really prefer pizza to his own food or is
he responding to the positive charge we give that pizza? Why do we want
Fluff to leap up in the air or turn somersaults when she hears the words,
"Dinnertime!": because this enhances her food consumption
and digestion or because it makes us feel good?
By taking the time to consider these mealtime ingredients as they may
affect our animals as well as ourselves, we can prevent many food-related
problems in our pets.
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Copyright 2005, Myrna Milani, TippingPoint, Inc, Charlestown, NH All
Rights Reserved Worldwide
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Would you like to read about
cats? Myrna has written some great articles about them and other animals
and the human-animal bond. To read them, go here: www.mmilani.com
Publishers,
you are welcome to reprint this article in its entirety provided you
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