When you are invited to a friend’s house, decorum requires you not to do certain things. And one of them involves the animals in the house.
Dog, cat, rabbit, parakeet, turtle… If you love animals, there is no doubt that you love interacting with those of your friends when you visit them. There are certain rules to follow to ensure that everything goes well, such as asking before touching the animal (because you never know how it will react), not letting it go out without permission, encroaching on its space, waking it up. he is sleeping… But there is also this gesture that many people make, because they really want to please the animal. Except that this can be very frowned upon, and above all dangerous.
Even with the best of intentions, you should never feed someone else’s pet without their permission. Give the leftovers of the meal to the dog? It’s no. Slip a piece of ham under the table to the cat? It’s still no. Hand a carrot stick to the rabbit during the aperitif? It’s always no.
There are several reasons for this, and the first is obviously not to disrupt the animal’s diet. His human is probably careful to follow the instructions so that he is in good health, so we are not going to give him extra things. We can say to ourselves that “it doesn’t matter, it’s just once”, but that’s not the right reasoning (plus, imagine if everyone did the same thing) and it can really be annoying. Suzanne, who has a cat, confirms this to us: “One day we were talking with friends about training our animals. I explained that having grown up with a cat who was very insistent on eating our food, I was careful not to give mine bad habits and so, that I gave her nothing other than cat food Everyone agreed, but, a few minutes later, I see one who gives the fat of her ham to my cat! ‘annoy, that gave me the impression that I had spoken into a void.”
Furthermore, we can unwittingly give something bad for the animal, whether because the food (or the form in which it is presented) is dangerous for its species, because it is allergic to it without whether you know it, or because he has a health problem requiring a specific diet and any deviation may have consequences. Finally, on the host’s side, he could also be offended to see you get rid of the good meal he prepared for you by slipping it under the table…