Why You Stop Feeding Human Food to Your Pet

Why Should You Stop Feeding Human Food To Your Pet?

Every pet owner agrees that a pet ceases to be a mere animal the moment you bring him home. He becomes part of the family. It explains why pet owners are ever running around to care for the health of their pets as if they were human. From several trips to the vet, frequent exercise, and a proper diet, the health of your pet matters a lot. However, even with all the need to care for animal friends, some pet owners are still stuck on feeding human food to their pets. 

The main concern is not even that, but the fact that most people do not understand why human food is not suitable for animals. If you are one such pet owner, enlighten yourself with the following reasons as to why you need to stop feeding your food to your pet:

To modify behavior

Animals need to be trained for them to fit into a family setting. While you may put a lot of effort into suppressing the aggressive responses in your animal, food may also become a problematic behavior. Every time you feed your pet with human food is an opportunity to reinforce a habit that might be hard to change. 

Notice that if you are consistent with feeding him human food, at one point, he will turn down commercial animal food. Worse, every time some humans are gathered eating, your dog will start demanding for food and sit at the table as the people. This means that anytime you are holding a plate, cooking or serving a guest, your dog will start barking, whining, staring, jumping up, running around, and demanding for a treat. This is not the kind of behavior you want to entertain with your dog, because it is usually quite hard to break.

Raising picky eaters

If you want to breed a picky eater, then let your pet feed on human food a little too long. Human food is prepared differently from animal food, which explains why the taste would be different. Once you make your pet think that it is okay to eat human food, then he will always be expecting something better on the menu, other than mere commercial animal food. Soon enough, your dog will never want to eat dog food, because he knows that human food is way much better in flavor than his own. If that is not enough, your pet may not want to eat from his bowl or on his corner on the floor. He too will demand a seat on the table with the big guys, not to mention, human food served on a plate.

Health issues

If you check pupped.com, you will understand that puppies and other pets need to be cared for health-wise if at all they are to be functional. Feeding your pet with human food undermines their health considerably. Animals that are fond of eating human food are more likely to consume toxic foods. Ideally, human food has spices and ingredients that do not work well with animals. If you are not cautious with what you feed him, then your pet will suffer some health issues thanks to human food.

Besides, animal feeds are customized for the health of the bones, teeth, and fur of the pet. Human food, on the contrary, is rich in fats and carbs that will do more as to pose threats of diabetes, obesity, and other health issues on your pet. Very few families are consistent with serving healthy meals every day. In such an environment, even your pet is subject to the same unhealthy lifestyle as the rest of your family. 

Fortunately, several human foods could work well for pets. However, before you change up diets from animal to human food, talk to your vet for tips on how to go about it.