Friday, August 24, 2007

Watching Food

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine had given me his pet guinea pig. One thing to understand is this friend was probably eleven or twelve at the time. His mother would not let him have more than one pet at a time, and he wanted a snake.

Cookie was a good guinea pig and got along well with a rabbit I had. However, I must not have had her more than a month before, one day, she could not walk and, within a couple of hours, died. I could not easily explain this incident, though small animals seem to die rather suddenly, she was not old.

I was told later that my friend had fed Cookie an unusual foreign candy. I cannot precisely connect the untimely death of Cookie with this candy, but I do think it played a role; Along with not being able to walk, she also had extremely aromatic diarrhea, indicating the possibility of having eaten something less than healthy. I had been feeding her guinea pig food and timothy hay, both of which I have been praised for feeding my guinea pigs.

Pets, especially dogs and cats, can get into everything. Foods are not universally good for all creatures. I have heard of dogs eating pounds of chocolate and didn't get sick, but this is not always the case. Keep an eye on people food.

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