Does your pet eat you out of house and home?

[Darth_Kitten]

Man, my cockatiel sure has a healthy appetite. Little porker. :)

[ET Awful]

1. Quinn and Althea eat as well or better than I do :) n/t

[InvisibleTouch]

2. Oh yes.

The Pom and the reptiles don't eat much, but my big dog ... wow. Definitely eats better than I do. And then I get the dumb question from people who don't know sighthounds: "Is she supposed to be that skinny?" :eyes:

[Longhorn]

3. With five dogs currently residing here, you betcha!

We measure their food and feed them twice a day. Sparky, the 105-pound ridgeback mix, gets two cups at each meal; Buddy, the 70-pound white lab mix, gets one cup; Paco, the 50-pound black lab mix, gets one cup of senior formula; and Brutus, the 18-pound dachshund, gets 1/2 cup of senior formula. Then we've been taking care of our daughter's dog, Rowdy, the 60-pound pit bull mix, who gets 1-1/2 cups each meal.

So we buy 40 pounds each of large breed formula and senior formula and I'd say it lasts 3-4 weeks. I got four of those plastic stacking drawers from Target for the utility room and keep the large breed formula in two drawers and the senior formula in another. We used to keep catfood in the fourth drawer until our cat left us a couple of years ago so now I keep rawhide chews in there. I also cut up one of those foam waffle-weave rug liners up into "placemats" to help keep their bowls in place. I feed them in an old set of metal mixing bowls that are sized just right for the four permanent residents.

Besides the swimming pool, I keep them watered with a water-cooler-style watering system. It only cost about $10 (from Wal-Mart back before I knew better!) and it holds three gallons and fills the bowl automatically as they drink. It has to be refilled maybe every ten days.

Since the dachshund is on thyroid meds and the little lab mix is on glucosamine, I have a seven-day pill caddy that's big enough to hold their pills to help us remember to dose them. We just throw the pills in their food and they eat it. Poor Rowdy had to have antibiotic capsules recently and quickly decided we were NOT going to poke them down his throat. So we opened them up and sprinkled them on his food (he had to have two at a time) and he still ate it even though they must have tasted as bad as they smelled!

Pet management -- almost as complicated as managing four kids! :D

[scarlet_owl]

4. A bag of science diet kitten formula (ferret food) lasts about

two or three weeks here. It seems like all they do is eat and poop.

[kslib]

5. I used to think so

until I read everyone else's posts! My 8lb. bag of hypoallergenic Waltham's last about a month (my cats are both "free choice" on dry), and a can of fancy feast every two days for one cat (1/4 can twice a day), and a jar of lamb BABY FOOD (jeez) for my allergy cat (mixed with lactulose) also lasts two days. They both have a daily pill, but won't eat them in food, or crushed, or with tuna juice; so, I have to fight with the monsters every night. A little butter makes them slide down a lot easier though!