My small breed bitch is 5 weeks pregnant and has been off her food for a week, not unusual I believe at this stage, but she seems desperate to steal the cat's tinned meat dinner.  She is fed Royal Canin normally and is now on R C Mother and Baby Dog in the run up to the birth of her puppies.  I have tried tempting her by adding tasty morsels to the kibble but with little success.  On the few occasions she has managed to steal the cat food she has gulped it down with gusto.  Now tonight, to my horror, I caught her eating something in the garden and on investigation realised that she had found some cat poo and was eating it with relish. Yak!  She has never been a poo eater in her life but there's obviously something very attractive surrounding that cat and his food/poo.  In desperation I gave her a bowl of tinned cat food and she wolfed it down like there was no tomorrow.  What's going on?  Is tinned cat meat safe for a dog?  I might add that I do not intend feeding her on cat food, but there's definitely something in it that she is holding out for in the hope that I'll give in and feed her some, or maybe if she's crafty enough she can steal it!

There's nothing in cat food that will harm her -unless one of the more expensive foods it just a small amount of meat and a lot of cereal. Dogs can live on cat food but not vice versa. If I was you I'd switch her to a wet dog food if that is what she prefers (something good like Nature Diet or Natures Menu for instance) -she will need to start being fed more soon now.

We always say that cat food is fine for dogs but dog food is not any good for cats, not that it would harm them it is just not the correct combination of ingredients for cats and dog food should not be fed to cats on a prolonged basis - cat food for dogs though is OK although it is probably too high in protein (could be wrong about the protein as the details escape me was a long while ago)

The main thing is cat food has taurine added which cats must have to live, dog food does not. Your average supermarket canned cat food only has about 7 or 8 % protein so it's nothing really.

Thankyou all for setting my mind at rest.  I will endeavour to get her back onto dog food - don't want these puppies coming out meowing!

I would not worry if she likes a bit of cat food then let her have it, not as her main food of course however puppy food would be better.

Taking the point that non of mine are pregnant particulalry as whispa is a boy lol however they all adore cat food and will turn cartwheels to get some although they actually get very little as the cats are fed on a worksurface to avoid this they seem fine. My flat coat however is a poo eater and loves cat poo  yukky girl amd everyone seems fine