Current Events > Has anyone ever heard this "common myth" about cats and dogs?

(+) Yeah! (+)

See there's another topic on this board about cats and dogs, which was just a coincidence.
I've heard people say this at least a few times, can someone confirm if this is true or not, cause i certainly can't. I've heard that dogs are very prone to seriously overeating, even to the point of death if a whole bunch of food is placed in front of them with no supervision at all from a human being. It's like they can't tell how hungry or full they are. Is this true of most dogs? I'm not sure. I've also heard that cats are much less prone to this problem though.

I'd believe it

It's far more common for cats to have an always-full food bowl than it is for a dog, maybe that's part of the reason
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Ive always fed my dogs ad libitum. 2/3 have been overweight when theyre older though so maybe not the best practice but they dont gorge themselves like that

bump

Tbh no.
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Idk man I keep my cats bowl full and he overeats. Think it's stress eating though.

But I have yet to see a dog who doesn't eat an entire bowl of food at once.
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Yes these animals will keep eating if there's food available. It's animal instinct.
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Depends on the breed and usually is more on how an individual dog eats. Labs are notorious over eaters, but most dogs will just throw up if they eat too much
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I'd use to leave out full bowls of food for my dog and I wouldn't have to put more food in there for like a day or two. It depends on the food and it depends on the dog.
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Cats will get fat if you let them graze all the time and they don't exercise, pretty much like most animals, but they generally never overeat to the point of sickness or death.
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AirJordan2345 posted...

See there's another topic on this board about cats and dogs, which was just a coincidence.
I've heard people say this at least a few times, can someone confirm if this is true or not, cause i certainly can't. I've heard that dogs are very prone to seriously overeating, even to the point of death if a whole bunch of food is placed in front of them with no supervision at all from a human being. It's like they can't tell how hungry or full they are. Is this true of most dogs? I'm not sure. I've also heard that cats are much less prone to this problem though.

Not true

But most dogs will gladly overeat and become overweight

Most pet dogs are grossly overweight
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n=2, but I keep my cats' food bowls topped off. They self-regulate pretty well because they aren't overweight.
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my old cat had an endless pit of a stomach and would eat whatever was in front of it no matter how much he had eaten beforehand. he was fat as hell.
current cat however is great with food, even if i give her a small portion, she'll eat maybe half of it and save the other half for later. I guess it just varies from animal to animal. they have personalities too.
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It varies from cat to cat a lot. Even between siblings. My cat (rest in piece q.q) needed to have feeding times, but that was never as much of an issue with their sibling. But we had to do it for both of them. Now we just have a bowl for her and it's fine.
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