Would you?

 

Would you?

                            Marnie , aged 15, with a feline patient

Mary from‘ In the Corner of My Eye’ commented that dog food is said to be fit for human consumption. It reminded me of the time my eldest granddaughter stayed with us while she had some work experience locally. Work experience gives students in year 10 or 11, that is, children of 15 or 16, an opportunity to find out a little about the so-called ‘world of work’. 

At that time, Marnie thought she would like to become a vet and so applied to our veterinary surgery for the opportunity to gain insight into the profession. She had and still has excellent interpersonal skills and great empathy with animals. Every day she reported for duty and got on very well with Nadia-the-Vet and the rest of the staff.

                                    Cat under anaesthetic

Though they are not specialist animal nutritionists and only a very small fraction of their training is devoted to diet, vets in general practice will often suggest a change of diet for pets, particularly if an animal is not thriving or has particular problems, like renal failure or a propensity to hairballs, for example. 

There is a wide choice of pet food in the market, but most veterinary practices carry only the more recognisable ‘scientific’ brands.  Nadia-the-Vet and Marnie decided to taste test the dog and cat ‘wet’ food and found the different recipes quite palatable.

                                Marnie with a puppy patient

There are professional animal food testers and the video clip gives a taste (groan – sorry!) of their dedication to duty.

When I was a child, there was not a great variety of commercial animal food but I used to enjoy munching dog biscuits occasionally. I found them quite tasty. The food our cats have looks quite attractive and, judging by the smell, is highly flavoured, but I am not tempted to taste it.

Would you?