I use a lot of fresh turmeric, one of our dogs has candida issues, and turmeric is terrific in her anti-yeast diet.
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We actually had three snapping turtles! Two as a pair, and one named “Pokey” like slow poke, haha. They did not snap at us as children and were quite friendly and docile =)
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I had to stop taking Turmeric as it strips iron from your blood and caused me to have severe anaemia…..
Sat for a pig once. She got a whole bowl of fresh-popped popcorn every evening.
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The supermarket we use in France has a section in the butcher area where they have beef, pork and chicken scraps packaged and labeled “viande pour petits animaux” (with drawing of a dog and cat on the label). A lot of it is very good quality, just small chunks of meat that is too close to the sell-by date. We feed that to our dog for one of his meals. But for the sitters I portion it out in ziplock bags and freeze it so they don’t have to handle it.
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Cute name, slow Poke became Pokey. Your mom sounds like an interesting and fun mom to grow up with.
Not a TH sit, but my late sister’s Pekingese. I had to cut up kidneys–beef? I never asked–and hand-feed the dog. I’m vegetarian but have never imposed that on another being. But I did not enjoy having to touch the meat. Beef heart is somehow worse, though, so you have my sympathy.
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Love people with a great sense of humor. It was on the news as a fluff piece that a woman was taking care of her friend’s dog while she was out of town. She started filming the dog to show her friend that he would not move from a sit position to eat although he was drooling. She kept saying OK and using hand signals to let the dog know it was OK to eat what was in front of him. Finally her friend
Called her back and She said, I can’t get him to eat! He then started eating. Her friend said that was the word ( eat) to use but forgot to give it to her. The little video of her trying to get the dog to eat was on the news as the dog was drooling and she was trying so hard to get him to eat. It was quite funny to watch.
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We once did a sit with two beautiful Norwegian Forest rescue cats. They’d been starving slowly, refusing all different foods, before their owners discovered, by accident, that they were attracted to the organic rump steak they occasionally had for dinner. So they offered them some. From then on it was the only thing the cats would eat and then only if fed by hand!! So this was an interesting first for us! The owners said the cats diet cost more than their own! But they absolutely adored them (and soon so did we!
)
On another sit we had 3 dogs whose one meal a day consisted of frozen chicken drumstucks mixed with tinned sardines in tomato sauce! The owner was a wealthy, but eccentric, elderly man living alone in a beautiful country mansion. Despite his wealth the dog food was all bought in bulk from Lidl (cheapest supermarket in UK!)
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Was there a story I read here that a sitter was requested to pre-chew fillet steak for the little darling doggies…. possibly in New York City?
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Are you thinking of this @BonnyinBrighton ?
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I fed my cat raw meat (although not exclusively) for most of her life, at times, especially in the early years, this included raw hearts, livers, and even other organ meats. She had a lot of digestive issues and other health challenges so finding foods that were both healthy and digestible was a huge challenge that got harder with time. After my previous kitty passed from CRF I was determined to not make the same mistakes with my next kitty. I learned about the benefits of raw meat diets for many cats. As obligate carnivores who are designed to live off of mostly the organs of small prey, a diet of organ and other raw meats makes a lot of sense, if you can stomach it, no pun intended! Lol!
It was hard for me. I definitely cringed some while preparing her food AND the hygiene aspect was intense, but I would do it again if I believed it would mean having a healthy, happy cat. All of that is to say, it’s not weird at all to me, but I can also understand that many people wouldn’t want to do it. It’s probably not super realistic to expect a sitter to feed raw, but you can always hope to find that sitter that gets it or even has experience with it, gross factor notwithstanding! 
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OMG I love bearded dragons AND strawberries!!! Dream sit! 
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I’m from New York, that’s not weird at all. 
I used clam juice a few times as enticement. Must have seen it on the internet. Didn’t work at all. My cat wasn’t into clams.
Agreed! Beef heart is much worse! I only did that once and never again! Even the cat didn’t appreciate it!
Whoah! I’m not even sure that’s funny. That’s scary! Poor doggie!
Yes, I’m vegetarian too, so this was doubly-unpleasant!
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I also took care of a vegan family’s dogs/cats in an upmarket area of London. The dogs seemed fine with their vegan diet, but (as the owner explained to me) the cats refused to eat it. The owner had to compromise with half/half ‘normal’ cat food and vegan food.
@Rhe Oh my goodness, cats are obligate carnivores! They were wise animals indeed to refuse to eat the vegan diet. I could not have kept my mouth shut, and would have lost the job for sure, explaining to the pet parent that cats cannot be vegetarian nor vegan. Though I don’t want to eat animals myself, that can’t be imposed on anyone, especially not creatures who must eat meat to get the correct nutrition.
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We once sat for a Shetland pony and had to give it a throat lozenge twice a day.
The owner assured us that it was nothing too serious, just that the pony was a little horse
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