Foods that make pets goggle

BY NICK BARNETT

As a rule, of course, pets will eat anything. Though sometimes they'll suddenly get picky and decide not to touch the brand of food you've been giving them for years.

But even the most omnivorous and indiscriminate eaters will have things that completely drive them bonkers and turn them into slavering wrecks.

No doubt you know the foods that your pets most crave. Here's how things stand in my household:

Cheese: The presence or smell of cheese in the house is enough to cause a four-legged crowd to form. Try to eat a cheese sandwich, and two dachshunds and a tabby will be watching your every move, their eyes saucering with hope and urgency.

Place a piece of cheese on a cheeseboard, you fool, and soon bites will be taken from it, whatever altitude you place it at.

Which makes cheese an ideal "treat food" for gaining the dogs' attention and training them.

Unluckily, cheese tends not to remain in a manageable state once stored in a pocket or a palm for any length of time. It tends to communicate itself to any nearby clothing.

And one doesn't want one's clothes to reek lastingly of cheese, especially as the dogs will never lose track of that scent and will take a permanent interest in any garment that at some point has contained it. The tasty karma of cheese is never obliterated, from their point of view.

Luncheon Meat: If cheese is the king of foods among my pets, then its queen must be luncheon meat.

My pets can pick it even when it's hermetically wrapped from the supermarket.

My cat Merrick, usually shy and unobtrusive, goes through a Gremlins-type transformation when luncheon meat is around. Suddenly he's pushy and noisy.

Corn chips: All the pets gather round when corn chips are being eaten, and a hospitable bowl of chips on the coffee table is a disaster waiting to happen. Phoebe is tall enough to lay her upper body on the table edge and probe any plate or bowl with a sideways tongue of surprising length. Connor is more spry and direct, and merely jumps on the table via a couch.

I love watching Merrick when he chows down on a bit of corn chip. Being unable to roll his jaw, he has to chew the chip by biting up and down, repeatedly and quickly, so he looks like a ventriloquist's dummy-cat.

Takeaway containers: These are venerated among my pets. Phoebe is driven nuts by an empty Turkish takeaway meal, licking it till it shines and then attacking the polystyrene for any particles of sauce left over.

Wave bottles: These are another of Phoebe's favourites. I once gave her a drink from a Wave bottle, and since then she's had a fixation for both the flavoured milk drink and the bottle it comes in. An empty, capped, de-labelled Wave bottle will keep her silently chewing for a half-hour till she reaches the single droplet of milk remaining.

And the list of fixating foods wouldn't be complete without adding each other's food. No meal is as intriguing as the one someone else is eating.

» Join Four Legs Good on Facebook.