Dog won't stop eating cat food

[Carol Bulger]

I have a poddle that loves cat food but it makes her fat as a pig which is not good for such a small dog, she's a toy poodle. The vet told me to definately keep her away from it. Animals are like people, not healthy to be over weight.

[Canis-Lupess]

Cat food is high protein which generally does not do dogs any favours...anything from weight gain, hyperactivity, skin problems, even to liver and kidney problems and these are all things I've heard of dogs suffering from when on higher protien diets so allowing a dog to eat too much cat food isn't a great idea. Even active working dogs can end up skittish and not perform properly on a high protien diet. I was reading where one guy who has a farm with dozens of working BCs and he trials them etc..mentioning how one dog was too pushy and forward and difficult to control until somebody mentioned his protein intake and when it was reduced, he improved loads and won his first trial the season after....and he was an active working Border collie. You don't get any more energy demanding than that in a dog.

The others have mentioned the Taurine issue anyway.

[Freedom]

I was going to add what Canis Lupess just said.

Cat food is high in protein. THAT is why dogs love the taste. However, their body can't use all that protein, so the kidneys work overtime getting it all out of the blood stream, and out of the system. This means the kidneys will fail over time. They can't keep up that high work load.

Dog food is . . . dunno. My cats eat it, too. Don't know why they like it, they aren't supposed to!

I feed everyone in different rooms. Food goes down, doors get closed. With this many pets, I am using 3 bedrooms, one bath and one hall. By the time I get the last one down, the first ones have had their time limit so I just keep going around opening doors and lifting up dishes again. No one is on free feeding, except Ruffles overnight. She sleeps in a bedroom by herself with a full dish. Sometimes she eats half, sometimes 3/4. During the daytime, she gets fed anytime she asks, in a room by herself.

It is musical doors around here. Everyone has different food, as well. Light cat, regular cat, senior cat, kitten kibble, and z/d low allergen. Two dogs are on soft food which has to be made up specially (2 different types, naturally ) and 2 dogs are on dry kibble.