DWQA QuestionsCategory: Animal IssuesA viewer asks: “My dog is going to be 12 years old and I can tell he’s slowing down a bit, and for some reason, he has become obsessed with human food. He waits until we finish eating dinner and sits and whines for me to clear the table and feed him the leftovers. He also has no interest in the dog food, he eats it as a last resort. He lets it sit for a day and a half until he’s really hungry before he eats it. I’m not feeding him a lot of table food, only when there are leftovers. I realize this is normal behavior for dogs to want good food but, in this case, he seems worse than ever before, and he’s not eating his dog food. Before he would eat his dog food and also beg for table food. Now, it seems like he has a craving ONLY for table food. I have also changed the dog food several times to see if there’s one he likes best but nothing changed, he’s showing the same behavior no matter what brand or flavor. So, I’m thinking that perhaps it’s a deficiency that can’t be fulfilled with the dog food. I’m thinking of switching him to human food or a mix of both human food and dog food. First of all, could I include the Texas Superfood dietary supplement into the food I give the dog? Is this supplement safe for animals like it is for humans?” What is Creator’s perspective?
Nicola Staff asked 8 months ago
This supplement would be safe for animals, as true for humans, but that is not the same thing as providing essential nutritional depth and variety needed by humans who are omnivores versus canines that are carnivores and simply do not need much vegetable matter, or any, for normal health maintenance. This is a behavioral problem, not a nutritional deficiency problem. Your dog has become conditioned over time to be exposed to human foods of various kinds and has developed a special preference and cravings for those human foods it finds particularly tasty without regard to their impact on the wellbeing of the animal because animals have no conscious awareness of these matters. Like humans, they will crave what they are missing most, but that is both on a natural level as well as on a conditioned behavioral level of awareness of what they might be missing, and want again to have those special treats of human delicacies, at least in comparison to pet food and its sameness.