That dog, Anne, is very cute.

I grew up with a cocker spaniel who LOVED carrots--raw.
She would also eat corn on the cob... we'd give her the left overs,
you know how corn cobs are... and she'd nibble them clean!
In those days, 50 yrs ago, pet foods were not so nutritionally balanced
as today. She developed cancer and died.. probably due to the poor
quality of the pet food. I don't recall kibble at our house either. Was there
kibble then? hmmmm...it was only the smelly canned stuff. Things are so much better today.

Our Oreo loves whipped cream. The home she was born into, had small children, who gave her alot of dairy. I adopted her in the fall, and when Thanksgiving came, I had some pumpkin pie with whipped cream on it, and she jumped up
on the table (which we don't allow), and she actually pulled the dish over
to herself with her paw. Not so subtle...LOL So we give her a small portion
each day as a treat. This turned out to be a Godsend, since she was attacked by a wild animal 3 yrs ago up North, and had a painful tail injury. I ground up the Clavamox (kitty Augmentin) and prednisone and hid them both in the whipped cream and she just snarfed it up...no battles with pilling the cat!
Those of you with cats understand THAT...giving meds to kitties is a supreme challenge. You should see her run around after the whipped cream! We finally figured it was due to the Nitrous gas that it uses... an NO high!
Our oldest cat gets quality shrimp for her treat. This I started when meds were necessary for her arthritis, she accepts the pill, when a shrimp follows.
Tippy prefers turkey.
.


I also read that gerbils need supplementary foods...so I used to cruise around office plazas when
doing errands and pick pine cones that were ripe but not open yet for them right off the trees. I'd open them in the
oven ( a trick I learned making pine cone wreaths years ago)..and feed them the newly opened
cones..they'd chew thru to the seeds..gerbils need to chew... and get the nutrients from the
fresh seeds. I also used to pick sorrel, dandelion leaves, clover, etc for them too. We live in a small
wooded area, where this was possible. We rarely gave them gerbil food, but mostly fresh stuff..and
they lived 2 yrs past the average for gerbils, I found out later. I still fondly remember them reaching up
for their goodies... very eager for the new food additions.