Pet owners: Do you let your pets eat off your plates and utensils?

I didn’t consider it “eating off of”; I considered it a pre-wash.

No, they aren’t allowed to eat human food.

@YARNLADY: It could be pet food but on human plates.

Rarely, if I’ve cooked something that doesn’t have any “no-no” foods on it, I’ll let Russell lick the plate before I wash it. He’s really sensitive to wheat, too, so no bread crusts, either.

They have their own bowls. However, I might feed them scraps that are left off one of our plates. It’s going in the dishwasher afterwards.

Our dog ate our scraps but not off the plate.

I have 2 cats and just the other night I let my little female siamese have a lick or 4 of some ice cream off my spoon. Other than this very occasional moment, no. Dog slobber is gross, haha, it does not wash ff, it is like snail slime. The cats can lick my ice cream spoon but no dog slime, just no. I do not own a dog, I have owned dogs, but they are not my pet of choice. cat, bird and horse woman here.

The only thing I can think of is when I fill his kong up with peanut butter, I’ll let him lick the spoon clean (I don’t want to waste the extra pb, but I’m certainly not going to eat it after it’s been in contact with the kong!).

Otherwise, never. If something is on a plate or in a cup, it is not for him, and he knows that. But it’s not about the dishes so much—those can always get washed. It’s that I can leave plates of food on the ground next to him, walk out of the room, and know he won’t touch them. This is especially good since I frequently eat things that will make him sick—chocolate, raisins, avocados, etc.—but even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t want to have to be safeguarding my food from him.

He does know how to let me know he’d like what is on my plate, and when we’re out of the house he knows how to ask me for water from my water bottle (we’ve got quite a cute routine, if I do say so). But he waits for me to give it to him. The food and water are always from my hands, or put in his bowls.

@janbb I with you.

Only if I have finished using the plate or bowl and after the dog it goes straight to the washing pile. Off spoons and forks? No.

@YARNLADY, no human food whatsoever?

The current dog has a very sensitive stomach, and when she eats any food that is not the prescribed dog food, she throws up.

I’m wish the Little Penguin on this also. :-)
The dishes are then washed, as they would have been anyway.

“Human food” can describe food that dogs would naturally eat anyway. My old dog is thriving now on some meals with eggs, some with peanut butter, some with chicken. There is dog food in there as well. He gets pills in cheese.
Cheetos and waffles? Not so much. :-p

@YARNLADY: Do you let the pets eat on your plates?

I was just at a friend’s house and her cat jumped on the counter and started eating off a plate and fork left from someone eating a piece of cake. It disgusted me. I started to say something, then remembered that the last time I was there I mentioned that the cat was drinking out of the coffee cup on the counter and I was met with, “Oh, that’s their cup.”

I’ve never owned a pet that was allowed on the counter, table, or appliance tops. I’m not saying they didn’t do, it, I’m just saying it wasn’t allowed in the presence of a human. They ate their food from their dish on the floor. Of course, I didn’t have a dishwasher then.

My cat eats on a side table in my living room, to keep the dog off his dish, but they’re not permitted to beg for food while we’re eating.

My cats are not allowed in the kitchen counters. They do it when I’m not around, but if I’m there, they know better. They do go on the dining room table, but I don’t use it for eating. I will in the future, but not at this point. They do eat off my plates on occasion, for example if I have eggs easy over I’ll let them lick the plate. I will also let them lick the spoon if I’m eating ice cream or yogurt. I will use the same spoon. I know a lot of people think that’s horrendous.

Same as @janbb, but I put my dish down by theirs. They know not to ever get up on my dining table. That would result in a flying cat.

@Espiritus_Corvus Oh – nobody ate or begged at the table except for us. My cocker would wait under the table until we were done and then get some scraps or to lick the plate. Frodo actually never got served people food and didn’t look for it.

@jca I don’t let the pets eat off my plate, but some other people in my family do. I always make sure the dishes they use get an extra wash in the dishwasher. I try not to let it bother me. We live, sleep and breathe animal dust.

I’m of the (occasional) pre-wash persuasion.

So much of what we eat is basically dog food ingredients – rice with veggies and chicken, pasta with meat sauce… plates that have had that kind of food on them are sometimes given to the dog/s for a pre-wash. Our late, dearly missed, Mr. Bailey was a superb plate and fork cleaner. It was often hard to tell plates he’d cleaned from ones that had gone through the dishwasher. He could make plates shine. He also ate well from chopsticks.

@YARNLADY: I figure once in the dishwasher with the excessive heat and bleachy detergent is going to kill any germs off the plates if they eat off them. Not that it makes a difference for me, since they’ll eat off my spoons and then I’ll follow.

I don’t let my cats eat off my plates. But that is mostly because I eat garbage and care too much about them to share my diet with them. At this rate they will outlive me.

At which point, trapped alone with your dead body, they will be forced into an unhealthy diet, @johnpowell?

Good point. I should install a cat-door for them.

Absolutely no. I scarcely even grace my dogs with droppings.
They get spoiled with human food enough mixed in with their dog food which my mother initiated. It’s gotten to the point that they turn their noses up at straight kibble.

They could – but they don’t eat from bowls or plates at all, actually.

They lick spoons occasionally. Honey or vegetable oil, for example.