So honestly how long before you'd eat dog food?

[Mr Slugger]

Around here (don't know about anywhere else) they play these commercials from time to time from the ad council/dept of homeland security. They go into that people would do incase of an emergency, etc.

One of the actors goes into how the brand of dog food, as well as the cats is edible by humans, and that they could even share the same bowl.

So from what I get from the commercial they appear to be telling people to prepare for a couple of days of no power, help, etc.

And being from Massachusetts I see this alot. You know every time there's a snow storm people buy stuff like they're not going to able to get to the store for weeks.

So just curious based on the food you have in your house how long do you think you'd honestly have food to hold you over before you'd eat the dog/cat food.

For me it would depend whether it was summer or winter. During the winter I'm pretty sure I could keep my deep freezer cold for some time, which would give me at least 2 weeks of food. In all honesty I'd have to worry more about running out of gas for the grill.

During the summer I mean obviously the first day you'd eat everything in the fridge, start on the freezers the next day. And as far as non perishables I have about a 3 week supply. But honestly after 3 weeks if some kind of help hasn't show up I don't think it's coming, and at that point I'd be after finding other sources of food before I'd eat the pet's food.

[iradney]

I wouldn't eat my pet's food - what would he eat then???

[Pagan]

What do you do if you don't have a dog or a cat? Or a pet period?

[Mr Slugger]

What do you do if you don't have a dog or a cat? Or a pet period?

Then the question then maybe should be either how much food do you have until you starve, or how long before you just eat pet food? Take your pick I guess

[Gravekeeper]

I wouldn't eat my pet's food - what would he eat then???

Exactly. How else are you going to fatten him up just in case.....

<ducks>

[Caveat Emptor]

My neighbor and I once ate a couple of his dogs' milk bones. Yeeech.

[draggar]

Merrik's (sp?) dog food is made form 100% human quality ingredients. When you open it up you'd think you were opening up a can of stew - potatoes, carrots, chicken legs, etc..

My wife also makes dog treats - plain dehydrated chicken. We eat them, too (and you can buy the same stuff for a lot more (probabaly lower quality meat, though) at most pet stores for more money.

[dalesys]

Already have done it.

My dad worked at a damaged freight store and was always bringing home distressed cans.

Mom "thought" that the meat loaf was spiced funny...


until my sister checked the fragments of label on the can...

[Boomer]

Four or five shots of Bacardi 151 on my good days (don't ask how I know this). If I was starving... I don't think I'd have a problem with it.

[Aethian]

Did it once on a dare, it was...interesting to say the least. Changed wet food brands after that and the dogs seemed to love me for the change.

[Cat]

I've eaten dry cat food...not a fan.


I had some buddies in college....they had a roomate to regularly ate milkbones.....dipped in peanut butter.

[blas]

I ate baby food when I was in that bad roommate situation to where all my money went to the rent (for both of us because he was refusing to pay his half) and my car payment.

It's not filling in any way, but not bad tasting. And it goes down especially easy

Although it's nowhere near as cheap as it was when I was a baby, it's cheaper than TV dinners, pizzas, and other things that people struggling with money buy. The only thing cheaper is Ramens, which I was also eating at the same time. But you can only eat Ramens for so long before you get sick of them.

[AccountingDrone]

Why the hell would I need to eat kitty crunchies or chicken mash [though I suppose I could add regular flour to the mash and make multigrain bread?]

I buy canned fruits, vegetables of certain types, dried beans, grains and pastas and have certain canned meats [chipped beef, spam, tuna, salmon] and assorted canned soups [comfort food, campbells cream of tomato and chicken noodle soup for when I am sick] I think if I wasnt too concerned about boring food, I could probably manage at least a month before needing to go out again, though I would only be cooking with the dried whole milk as it tastes like ass if you try to drink it, and it doesnt do well in coffee. Id run out of coffee fairly soon, but I have about 400 grams of russian caravan, 200ish grams of a good earl grey, about 150 grams of lapsong souchong, so Im set for a while with tea. I just bought 25 pounds of rice, so we are good for quite a while=) though I probably could go for another 50 lbs flour.

[Food Lady]

I've eaten dog treats that my roommmate made. I came home one night and it smelled like she'd baked some chocolate cookies. I snagged one. It was rather bland. The next morning I asked her if she'd used Splenda instead of sugar in those cookies, since they didn't taste sweet enough, and she laughed, "Those weren't cookies!"

[Jester]

This is really a two part question. 1. How long could you go in an emergency or natural disaster before you'd have to resort to eating pet food or other less than desirable foods? 2. How desperate would you have to be to eat said pet foods?

I don't have a pet, but let's look at this as an academic exercise, in which, for whatever reason, I had in my pantry a supply of pet food in addition to my human food. This actually has some truth to it, as there IS a can of Alpo in my pantry....a leftover joke on a former roommate. (His brother and I were making a comment on his taste in food.) And I have had cats at various times in my life, so it is conceivable.

In any case, my pantry is not all that well stocked with non-perishables. I may be bad like that, especially living in Hurricane Alley as I do, but screw it....I have enough where I could go a few days without starving if I had to. If it was a week or more, I might really be screwed in that department. Unlike my friend Photo Dude and his girlfriend, whose pantry is literally overflowing with canned foods.

As for the second question I see in this, how desperate would I have to be to eat dog food? Honestly, if it was a matter of it being the last food I had, I would definitely eat it. Hell, to survive, I would eat whatever I would have to. In the manner of the movie Alive, I would even eat other people if they died and their flesh would mean my survival. I have no compunction about saying this, and about saying that I would do whatever I needed to do and eat whatever I needed to eat to survive. And I wouldn't blink an eye, either.

Merrik's (sp?) dog food is made form 100% human quality ingredients. When you open it up you'd think you were opening up a can of stew - potatoes, carrots, chicken legs, etc..

Sure, that is good dog food. Maybe even tasty to the average human palate. But not all dog food is created equal. So, if you were faced with something less palatable, would you eat it? That really is the question here.

But you can only eat Ramens for so long before you get sick of them.

This is not a matter of eating food that is interesting or that you like, but of survival. And if that meant eating 100 Ramens in a row or going hungry, trust me, I would eat the Ramen.

I would only be cooking with the dried whole milk

Id run out of coffee fairly soon, but I have ... tea. I just bought 25 pounds of rice, so we are good for quite a while=) though I probably could go for another 50 lbs flour.

You speak of foods you can cook, but in a lot of disasters, catastrophes, emergencies, etc., there is no power. You could not operate your coffeemaker, boil water for your tea, or cook with your evap milk. In other words, what ready to eat canned food do you have on hand? And would you eat pet food when you ran out of it? That's how I see the question at hand, anyways.