Tuesday, November 18, 2008

strange side-effects.

Does anyone else ever get the strange (and most likely irrational) fear that your poor eating habits may have rubbed off on your pet..

Just me? Oh well..

6 comments:

ghost girl said...

Not exactly, but I was afraid that I may unintentionally not feed my dog enough...or i just worried about feeding her in general... Like is this too much? is this not enough? is this too many treats?...Like my brain is just programmed to freak out about food, even if it is not for me, but for something i'm responsible for. My friend always comment that i have more dog food in my cabinets that i do human food. I was kind of embarrassed that my food weirdness extended to feeding my dog,but i read that taking care of something often reflects how you take care of yourself. I know this detoured from your post a little but "pets and food" sparked something I have been thinking about lately. Hey..your posts always do that!!

Cammy said...

YES. I have a big, tough-looking dog, but he is an extremely finicky eater and will go off his food and lose weight very fast when he is stressed, when our routine is disrupted, when a cloud passes over the sun the wrong way, etc etc... Also, there is a direct correlation between how much I walk him and how much he eats, if he doesn't get walked he will completely skip meals. I know it's just his system regulating energy balance, but my big recovery challenge right now is cutting back exercise without decreasing my food, and I have to admit I wish he'd help set a better example for me. ;)

Tiptoe said...

My dogs have no problems eating, however, things I do notice that I at least do is I measure everything they get. I know a lot of people who just don't, and to me that seems unfathomable. No doubt, they would love it if I gave them more, but then I'd fear them, well, becoming pudgy.

For the most part, my dogs' diet is probably better than mine overall.

emmy. said...

saa, that's more of what i meant. not that he was picking up my habits, but that mine are rubbing off. do i feed him too little? do i overfeed him? ..which i guess isn't possible because, unlike people, animals just know to eat when they're hungry & stop when they're not.
And the last part of your comment made me laugh :) I actually have a direct connection with your thoughts.. that's where I get my post ideas ;) Creeeperrrrrrr..

We probably *could* learn something from animals.. they're so.. intuitive. We never lose that.. we just stop listening. We should start again :P

KC said...

oh yes! I have diagnosed my cat as a purging anorexic...I hope that is not offensive to anyone, as I don't mean to make light of EDs. But I do worry about her nutrition. Sometimes, though, I wonder if my worrying about her weight is just a way to transfer worrying about MY weight.

emmy. said...

no, for the record, cats CAN have eating disorders. ironically, 2 of the 3 that i know of (2 anorexic, 1 bulimic) belonged to staff members at Walden.

i'd get them to the vet if you think yours might.