I believe in offering your pets the best food available for their species. No added chemicals. No dyes. No junk.
But I also believe no commercial food – no matter how well formulated – can provide every nutrient an animal might need. And that healthful variety is the spice of life.
Hence, my pets have learned I will offer them safe “real food” treats. They just think it should be done on their schedule. Not mine.
As I stumble around the kitchen creating a late morning post-Turkey Day omelette, three watchful sets of eyes are following my every move.
One set, big, brown and hopeful, belong to my border collie, Twirley Jane. She is shadowing my sluggish cooking efforts, hoping against hope that the dregs of last night’s tryptophan-induced food coma will have a deleterious effect upon my motor skills.
The other two sets of beady peepers belong to my parrots. They can’t shadow my moves in hopes of snabbling a dropped morsel. They are stuck inside their cages - because the rule at my house is no birdies outside the cage when Mom (or anyone) is cooking.
Frustrated from a direct assault, they engage my attention by demanding their goodies, loud and long - and in plain English.
“Want some! Want some!” hollers my African Gray.
Not content with her vocalizations, Gaia is hanging upside down, clanging away at her toy bell like an old time metal triangle. ”Y’all come to supper now!”
Little Goose, the cockatiel, is less obstreperous. But no less eager for his share of goodies.
“Hello! Hello! Gooser! Gooser!” he calls, lest I have forgotten his name and location.
As the two-egg cheese and veggie omelette slips onto a plate, the kitchen falls silent. But the eyes are still watching as the goodness is portioned. Half the omelette is mine. Half of the other half is Twirley’s. The remaining quarter is split, the larger portion to Gaia. The smallest to little Goose.
I’ve always thought there is something vaguely cannibalistic about a bird eating what comes from an egg. But as long as they don’t hold my chicken eating against me. I try not to judge their egg-loving ways. Besides, Goose won’t really eat his egg. He’s more of a broccoli man.
How about you? Do you feed only commercial? Add some home-cookin’? Or, like a few of my friends, feed only what is grown in your gardens and cooked in your kitchens? Or do you favor a raw diet?
