5 Animals Forever Linked With Food They Shouldn’t Eat
I doubt I need to say this, but you should never base your standards of animal care off media — especially cartoons. If you do, you’ll be wondering why your hedgehog, unlike Sonic, seems to be made very much weaker by ingesting chili dogs.
Regardless of actual health benefits, though, some animals have been forever paired with a certain food. Picture books and Looney Tunes have made us think they go together like peanut butter and jelly. Or, more accurately, maybe like a depressed adult man and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In some cases, those foods aren’t, in fact, a preferred meal.
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Here are five examples…
Rabbits and Carrots
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For shame, Bugs Bunny. Your antics may have inspired decades of highly unhealthy rabbit feeding habits. His penchant for carrots, after all, isn’t based on his species at all, but on Hollywood legend Clark Gable. Despite carrots being practically a required inclusion in any illustration of a happy bunny, they really shouldn’t eat full carrots, much less mow through a couple in a row. According to veterinarians, carrots should be, because of their sugar content, only an occasional treat. It’s enough of an issue that they’ve literally pleaded with rabbit owners to cut down on the carrots.
Birds and Bread
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As bad as I feel taking away the single simple joy of that old man at the park, he’s doing those pigeons no favors. Whether it’s ducks, pigeons or some other common bird, you’d think that bread had been a staple of their diet since some neanderthal left wet gruel near a fire. First and foremost, bread just isn’t very nutritious, being pretty much straight carbs. It’s made worse by the fact that when birds fill up on it, they don’t have space for nutritious food they actually need. High-carb diets (read: daily bread binges) can even cause a deformity called “angel wing” that causes their feathers to point away from the body instead of flat against it, and can cause difficulties flying.
Cats and Milk
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If you stumble across a wayward kitten, popular thought would have you running for a saucer and a jug of milk with which to nurse it back to full strength. Whether it’s cartoons or an aunt’s weird velvet paintings, cats lapping happily away at a saucer of milk is a classic trope. As for whether they should actually drink milk? The answer is only yes if it’s cat milk, which I doubt you have in your refrigerator. Cow’s milk is not only high in fat, but the fact is that many cats can’t process lactase, meaning they're lactose intolerant. Unless you're trying to punish their litter box and possibly your rugs, it’s not an advisable treat.
Bears and Honey
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Bears do indeed love honey. Now, is it bad for them? As bad as pure sugar is for any creature that’s not a little nectar-drinking machine like a hummingbird. There’s tales of the original inspiration for Winnie the Pooh, living in the London Zoo, ending up with severe gum disease and tooth decay after being fed a constant stream of honey by well-meaning children. What’s interesting is what kicked off the myth, which is that some bears do hunt beehives in the wild. It turns out that the honey isn’t the ultimate goal here, however: The bears actually eat the entire beehive, and it's the bees and bee larvae in particular that's an easy, plentiful source of protein.
Cats and Lasagna
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Garfield would be dead in real life. It’s no wonder Jon’s at the vet so often.