Portly pets and vegetarian diets


Time for a link dump to catch up on some stuff in the news. Let’s start with:

Study Reports Increase in Portly Pets

If you haven’t gotten enough of the “America’s so fat!” message recently, here’s a study pointing to the increase in the site of our companion animals. The reason I mention the story, though, is that they mention vegetarian diets for cats and dogs:

Cats, the report notes, are descended from carnivores and their digestive system is designed for absorbing nutrients from animal-based proteins and fats.

Cats should not be fed a vegetarian diet because it could result in harmful deficiencies of certain amino acids, fatty acids, and vitamins, the report stresses.

While dogs prefer animal-based food, they can survive on a vegetarian diet as long as it contains sufficient protein and other nutrients, the report adds.

A question for Veg Blog readers: if you’re vegan or vegetarian and have a cat or dog, what do you feed them? I’d like to hear some different thoughts on if and how vegetarians’ beliefs affect how they raise their pet, especially ethical vegetarians.

Pies, Tarts, and Cobblers

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Huyen and I were talking tonight and she asked, “What’s the difference between a pie and cobbler?” In case you we wondering the exact same thing, here’s the answer from iVillage (warning: barrage of ads ahead):

Cobbler is a fruit dessert baked in a deep dish or baking dish that has a topping sprinkled on before baking. A tart is made with a crust formed in a tart pan or a low, straight-walled pan with a removable bottom. A pie, similar to a tart, is baked in a pie pan that has sloping sides. Both a tart and a pie can have the crust prebaked and filled or baked with fruits, custards or chocolate.

Well, there you go!