Hey,

Happy Wednesday. 

I went to visit my parents last week. It's always an interesting event, pet-wise, because they've always had cats — and my dog hates cats. (And foxes, squirrels, and pigeons.) It’s weird because he was totally fine with the first cat he met but after that, each one has been a mortal enemy.

However, he doesn't hate cat food. 

My parents currently have a rescue cat called River. She's very sweet and, despite his bravado, I'm pretty sure my dog is terrified of her, despite being four times her size.

She can be fussy with her food, which means, rather than regular meal times, food is left out so she can graze. My mum also leaves cat food out for hedgehogs.

But when my gluttonous lad is in town, it has to be barricaded away in a cat-only zone. It took a few visits to notice that a fussy cat's food had been disappearing in one go, but hardly needed Miss Marple to work out why. 

When we found this had happened, we brushed it off. His poop might be suboptimal the next day but there were no other ill effects.

Or were there? 

This was a rare misdemeanor, but could it have done my dog damage? What about people who feed cat food to their dogs every day thinking it’s pretty much the same as dog food?

Bear in mind, cats and dogs are completely different species. 

We spoke to our in-house nutritionist, Laura Ward, to ask her the question: Can dogs eat cat food? 

There’s much to be learned by reading the article but, if your dog has occasionally vacuumed up some species-inappropriate food, the bottom line is don’t worry too much.

If, however, you’re feeding your dog a regular diet of cat food, you could be building up all manner of health issues. Like I say, have a read.