4 ms·

> Maybe no other animal is just that stupid. Have you ever owned a cat or dog? My experience is that a percentage of them will overeat unless constantly monito

> Maybe no other animal is just that stupid. Have you ever owned a cat or dog? My experience is that a percentage of them will overeat unless constantly monitored, eat things that are outright dangerous, etc. What is it that makes humans the stupid ones, here?

chosenbreed37 7y ago
I wonder whether or not we should distinguish between domesticated animals and wild ones
- masklinn 7y ago
  It would be an interesting (if difficult) experiment but from what I know wild animals will absolutely gorge themselves if they can. The difference is that in the wild, this is tends to be quickly followed by a resource crash from a normal cycle (e.g. winter crash after summer glut) and / or population explosion. I don't know that any organism has had evolutionary-scale periods over which to psychologically integrate an access to essentially unlimited (in time and quantity both) resources.
  - humanrebar 7y ago
    I have seen wild geese eat too much seed from bird feeders and practically lose the ability to fly. I suspect the correcting mechanism for that is generally predation.
Retra 7y ago
Labradors usually have a genetic disorder that causes them to gorge themselves, so they are highly prone to obesity. They are also very popular breeds in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador_Retriever#Inherited_disorders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador_Retriever#Inherited_d...
ci5er 7y ago
This is interesting. Growing up, we had chickens, sheep, goats, cows, horses, dogs, cats and rabbits. And an unfortunate sampling of salamanders, frogs, horny toads, chipmunks, gophers, wild-rabbits, foxes, coyotes, hawks (various types), eagles (a few types), skunks, deer, antelope, raccoons and badgers. (I'm probably missing a few - and I've certainly left out small birds, which require their own reading as do snakes) Left to their own devices (they weren't each individually heavily supervised - especially when on the range), of the domesticated ones, the only ones that would gorge themselves to death were the horses (when they thought they were getting away with something), with the minor exception of the dogs (who might eat the other animal's grain-based food out of jealousy, and explode their gut because they ate the wrong food because of stupidity) I did not find that, unmonitored, most animals would eat too much of the wrong type of food for too long (loco-weed for cows might be an exception - but that didn't kill them).

chosenbreed37 7y ago

I wonder whether or not we should distinguish between domesticated animals and wild ones

masklinn 7y ago
It would be an interesting (if difficult) experiment but from what I know wild animals will absolutely gorge themselves if they can. The difference is that in the wild, this is tends to be quickly followed by a resource crash from a normal cycle (e.g. winter crash after summer glut) and / or population explosion. I don't know that any organism has had evolutionary-scale periods over which to psychologically integrate an access to essentially unlimited (in time and quantity both) resources.
- humanrebar 7y ago
  I have seen wild geese eat too much seed from bird feeders and practically lose the ability to fly. I suspect the correcting mechanism for that is generally predation.

Retra 7y ago

Labradors usually have a genetic disorder that causes them to gorge themselves, so they are highly prone to obesity. They are also very popular breeds in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador_Retriever#Inherited_disorders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador_Retriever#Inherited_d...

ci5er 7y ago

This is interesting. Growing up, we had chickens, sheep, goats, cows, horses, dogs, cats and rabbits. And an unfortunate sampling of salamanders, frogs, horny toads, chipmunks, gophers, wild-rabbits, foxes, coyotes, hawks (various types), eagles (a few types), skunks, deer, antelope, raccoons and badgers. (I'm probably missing a few - and I've certainly left out small birds, which require their own reading as do snakes) Left to their own devices (they weren't each individually heavily supervised - especially when on the range), of the domesticated ones, the only ones that would gorge themselves to death were the horses (when they thought they were getting away with something), with the minor exception of the dogs (who might eat the other animal's grain-based food out of jealousy, and explode their gut because they ate the wrong food because of stupidity) I did not find that, unmonitored, most animals would eat too much of the wrong type of food for too long (loco-weed for cows might be an exception - but that didn't kill them).