my bf feeds his dog pasta

[pastadog]

hi namechanged. i don’t live with my bf btw!
when i go round his house, i obviously see him feeding his dogs. most of the time, he has pots of uneaten pasta from the night before. this will usually have meat, tomato sauce etc on it. he puts a lot on top of their usual dog food, they seem healthy enough and i guess ‘back then’ people would feed their dogs their scraps, but this just seems a bit wrong?
not looking for advice etc just wanted to know if i’m right in thinking he shouldn’t do this?

Depends on breed of the dog.
I have a small breed and it only gets fed dry dog food and either cooked chicken or turkey.
I was told by my original vet when I took her to get her vaccines and chipped that that food was all she needed.
Like many small dogs we have to be careful as she has a delicate gut. By the way she never eats poo or anything like it.
Op I think you are right to be concerned.

@Heyha

No but if you have meat in your fridge, prepare it in the same kitchen etc that's enough of a contamination risk. Officially, again I know it seems a stretch but them's the rules, they work to the lowest common denominator of people that don't operate good food hygiene for the humans involved never mind the birds.

The only way to guarantee no contamination is no meat in the house, that's why there's the vegan household exception. Or don't let the veg in the house (garden waste, or separate cooking space elsewhere like a camping stove), that's the tiger thing that's ok.

Mealworms as a problem is because they are reared on god knows what in many cases (don't look it up if your squeamish) and therefore have the same problem of them being fed potentially contaminated meat and passing to your birds who then pass it on...and so on. There is/was somewhere in the UK that is regulated and produces food grade mealworms but I can't for the life of me think what it's called at the moment.

If you are referring to my comment I’m vegetarian.

Dogs eat other animals shit.

I'm sure they appreciate some nice pasta.

Ok thanks, I'd have thought it obvious to only give them fruit, veg, peelings etc but obviously not.

I wouldn't feed chickens meat, I'd give that to the dogs (cats too if I had them). I'd have thought that's common sense.

don’t know if i already mentioned it but his dogs are big dogs, can’t say breeds as don’t want to give too much info out lol but they are large dogs (one is a mix with german shepherd!)

@SchrodingersImmigrant

I feed mealworms to my backyard sparrows😳 No idea if they are defra approved.

Back garden sparrows don't count because they're not a farmed animal, so you're safe there.

Knew there was the vegan exception to the rule with chickens, although many vegans go the route of feeding eggs back to their chickens to replace lost nutrients. Guess that’s not in the rules!

I think it’s a particular joy to lob leftovers at the girls who then run like a sprinter for them, and before anyone says we don’t eat meat, the girls are un contaminated!

@DobbyTheHouseElk I was just saying generally but that's an interesting one about vegetarian- because you would have eggs and presumably dairy products in your kitchen they are classed as animal by-products as well so are treated the same as meat.

It's so complicated and it comes up often enough that I think they need to review how they put this across now tbh, I noticed there are moves in the EU to return to approving some animal by-products back into the food chain ..😬 www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/22/eu-to-lift-its-ban-on-feeding-animal-remains-to-domestic-livestock

I had a Jack Russell that lived to 17, that ate our leftovers along with his own food, all of his life. Fit and healthy, was never unwell.

[quote Heyha]@DobbyTheHouseElk I was just saying generally but that's an interesting one about vegetarian- because you would have eggs and presumably dairy products in your kitchen they are classed as animal by-products as well so are treated the same as meat.

It's so complicated and it comes up often enough that I think they need to review how they put this across now tbh, I noticed there are moves in the EU to return to approving some animal by-products back into the food chain ..😬 www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/22/eu-to-lift-its-ban-on-feeding-animal-remains-to-domestic-livestock[/quote]
I can tell you now, I’m not stopping what I’m doing. I don’t think you are living in the real world.

@TheVolturi

I had a Jack Russell that lived to 17, that ate our leftovers along with his own food, all of his life. Fit and healthy, was never unwell.

Yes I have two dogs, 13 and 14, both healthy and energetic, they get all our leftovers unless there is a lot of onions or garlic (although my terriers favourite food ever is pasta with tomotao sauce and garlic leftovers , I even put grated cheese on top for him)

@VeganVeal

My neighbour feeds his Great Dane boiled eggs, madness. You can imagine the stench

My dog loves eggs, I don’t think it makes her stinky I make her scrambled eggs for breakfast every day.

Back garden sparrows don't count because they're not a farmed animal, so you're safe there.

Well yeah but if mealworms can be dangerous for spread of illnesses that it doesn't matter which bird it is, isn't it👀

@SchrodingersImmigrant I agree with you to be honest! But then birds eat maggots from roadkill as well don't they and that's another potential risk...

All those of us posting about the rules are doing is sharing the current status and facts, I wouldn't be able to say hand on heart that I completely see the sense in and agree with each of them. But in my opinion when you take on an animal you have to work within the frameworks that exist at the time, like them or not.

It's just that most animals people have as pets are only really covered by the Animal Welfare Act which is pretty easy to understand, explain and defend because it really only sets out the commons sense basics. Pet livestock sit in a strange limbo between two worlds, really, and that's what leads to some of the things not making a great deal of sense, certainly at face value, anyway.