History Main / DogFoodDiet

A form of TooDesperateToBePicky. The inverse of ImprobableFoodBudget; it tends to pop up in a BrokeEpisode. A form of IAteWhat. Because they're eaten with relish, [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Scooby Snacks]] don't count. Characters even more poor and desperate than this may be ReducedToRatburgers instead. The accidental version is EatingPetFood. EatTheDog cuts out the middleman.

* ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'' uses this more seriously than in most examples, for [[AfterTheEnd obvious]] [[ScavengerWorld reasons]] -- when there's no more food to loot from a particular supermarket, there's still pet food.

* ''Series/HaveYouBeenPayingAttention'': In the 29 June 2023 episode, Tom's [[RunningGag regular]] [[SelfDeprecation self-deprecating]] insert into sponsor Mitsubishi's ad had him eating a can of dog food. Cue several gags from the panel about the cost of living crisis.

Sadly, this is TruthInTelevision --some people are reduced to eating dog food out of desperation. Realistically, depending on what area you live in and what standards you hold, pet food may or may not be more expensive than human food. Pet food is almost universally available in bulk while it can be harder to find human food in such quantities. However, if you have a Sam's Club or whatever near you, chances are you can buy the same amount per ounce of soup or Ramen Noodles as you could buy pet food, especially in a jurisdiction that puts sales tax on pet food but not human food.

The nutritional requirements for humans and dogs are ''very'' similar, so as long as a person added vitamin C tablets to the dog food, they could be perfectly well-nourished eating good-quality dog food. A desperate person probably won't be thinking about this, however, and the lack of Vitamin C would apply equally to someone buying ramen and spam.

Of course, there are significant quality issues. Some pet food companies spend the money for feeding trials and research, and produce foods that are ''more'' nutritious than ramen noodles and spam. However, the minimum standards required by FDA regulations are pretty minimal, and some Veterinary Nutrition professors claim to be able to meet them with an old leather shoe and a can of motor oil — the nutrients have to be present, but the company only has to prove they're digestible and absorbable if they put a claim about feeding trials on the label. Pricing is often much more market-driven than cost-driven, meaning a company may produce a "super premium" food that costs ten or twenty times their low end food, but they could ''both'' be crap, or both be excellent.

Note that there still ''are'' some FDA standards for pet food partly because it was known that human beings do eat pet food sometimes due to cost issues, and because some food-borne illnesses can be passed from pets to people. The official name for some ingredients cover such a wide variety of parts of the animal that it can be impossible to tell from the label alone whether a food contains nutritious organs of the sort predators go for first given the chance, or unhealthy bits humans can't digest even mixed into hot dogs. [[note]]Modern technology makes it even more complicated, as some foods for pets with food allergies use hydrolyzed proteins, broken down into such small fragments that the immune system can't recognize them but the body can still make use of them; this means they can use normally completely indigestible sources of protein such as feathers, and as long as they put the amino acids in the right balance, they can end up with a highly nutritious food that saves the lives of pets that would be euthanized otherwise — but those diets are currently very expensive to make and thus won't be on the menu for this trope![[/note]]

A form of TooDesperateToBePicky. The inverse of ImprobableFoodBudget, and tends to pop up in a BrokeEpisode. A form of IAteWhat. Because they're eaten with relish, [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Scooby Snacks]] don't count. Characters even more poor and desperate than this may be ReducedToRatburgers instead. The accidental version is EatingPetFood. EatTheDog cuts out the middleman.

* In an episode of ''Series/WillAndGrace'', Grace comes in and eats dog food, and actually said it was pretty damn good. However, Will, who is absolutely in love with his boyfriend's dog (more so than the boyfriend himself) is actually cooking the dogs food like a gourmet meal. He was seen putting hot sauce on it, so it's possible she couldn't even actually taste it.

Sadly, this is TruthInTelevision - some people are reduced to eating dog food out of desperation. Realistically, depending on what area you live in and what standards you hold, pet food may or may not be more expensive than human food. Pet food is almost universally available in bulk while it can be harder to find human food in such quantities. However, if you have a Sam's Club or whatever near you, chances are you can buy the same amount per ounce of soup or Ramen Noodles as you could buy pet food, especially in a jurisdiction that puts sales tax on pet food but not human food.

* Taikoubou from ''Manga/SoulHunter'' gets so hungry to the point where he's willing to gorge on GRASS. He gets a stomach ache from this.

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/RedDwarf https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marooned.jpg]]]]

The nutritional requirements for humans and dogs are ''very'' similar, so as long as a person added vitamin C tablets to the dog food, they could be perfectly well-nourished eating a good-quality dog food. A desperate person probably won't be thinking about this, however, and the lack of Vitamin C would apply equally to someone buying ramen and spam.

** In “Holidays of Future Past”, Maggie travels on a dilapidated, crowded airplane where the passengers are offered dog food and suicide pills.

* Discussed on an episode of ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'', when Mrs. Garrett has a financial crisis.
* Subverted in Season 3 of ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010''. The group breaks into a house, looking for supplies. Carl hands Rick a can of dog food and Rick hands it back because ''the apocalypse'' isn't that desperate. Yet.
* Played with in an episode of ''Series/SpinCity'' with Carter's family pet Rags, who eats dogfood that costs more per can than what Paul pays for dresses for Claudia. Paul samples some of Rags' food and, while he finds it tasty, he develops a rash.
* In one episode of ''Series/DualSurvival'', Cody and Dave share a can of dog food because they have nothing else to eat. As they're eating, Cody notes that dog food sales noticeably spike in times of economic hardship and that the US government requires dog food to be made to human consumption standards as a result.
* In an early episode of ''Series/TheGreatestAmericanHero'', the only thing to eat in Ralph's apartment was a half-empty box of dog biscuits, which Bill the FBI agent tucked into with a shrug. He developed a taste for the things that became a RunningGag for the rest of the series.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' deals with the titular character worrying about looking like a fool at his upcoming high school reunion, especially since he had been recently fired from his job. He is out purchasing dog food for Eddie while dressed in dirty casual clothes (he had been cleaning his oven and didn't have time to change) and runs into an old classmate, who thinks that Frasier's homeless and that the dog food is for him.
** Another example in "Agents in America, Part III," has Bebe being incredibly condescending to Daphne, who brings her a ridiculously complicated cup of tea and a biscuit while meeting with Frasier. When Bebe comments the cookie tastes like meat, Daphne simply responds, "Yes, and it'll remove tartar and give you a nice shiny coat!"
* One of the plot points of an episode of ''Series/{{Family}}'' is the preteen daughter Leticia ("Peaches") giving money to an elderly woman who is buying cat food for herself because it is all she can afford.
* The ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'' episode "George Uses His Vato Power to Save Dinero Que La" involves the couple searching for ways to cut down on spending, but it eventually backfires with the breaking point being when they end up daring each other to eat expired cat food. [[spoiler:George later reveals that he was just eating tuna, while Angie ended up with the actual cat food.]]
* The IAteWhat version happens in ''Series/Titans2018''. Hank helps himself to some kind of meat product that Gar made up. Dick informs him that Gar made it for Krypto the Superdog. Hank wordlessly puts the container back in the fridge.
* ''Series/HaveYouBeenPayingAttention'': In the 29 June 2023 episode, Tom's [[RunningGag regular]] [[SelfDeprecation self-deprecating]] insert into sponsor Mitsubishi's ad had him eating a can of dog food. Cue several gags from the panel about the cost of living crisis.
* Nasubi of ''Series/SusunuDenpaShonen'' (during a challenge where his is allowed only to survive on things he wins in write-in contests) is forced to subside on dog food that he has won for a couple of weeks.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} 2020'' has kibble listed under "groceries" and described as tending to "look, smell and taste like the dry pet food it takes its name from." Then again, a week of fresh food costs almost as much as a scooter, so...

%%* This is encountered in the Wall Market in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''.
%%* The ''VideoGame/TexMurphy'' games.
* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' has "cat food" that you can purchase from food vendors. It can be used to draw out Nibbles the cat so you can adopt them, but there is nothing stopping you from eating it and applying the Nourishment buff to yourself.
* In ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'', BJ is not picky with food: he is able to eat dog food to recover 4% of his health, and if his health drops below 10%, he will [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty drink pools of human blood]] to stay alive. A plate of human food is preferable if there's any available, as it heals 10%, two and a half times that of dog food.
* Cooking any recipe with Repede in ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' results in creating dog food. Which is eaten by the entire party.

* In ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' you might find different containers of dog food, which raise your HP by one heart. Said food not only has flies surrounding it, it's also named "Lunch," "Dessert" and "Dinner." Which casts a rather disturbing light on just what kind of childhood the poor kid actually had.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLongDark'' dog food is one of the available food items you can find. It's bulky for its calorie value and has a higher chance of giving you food poisoning, but if you don't have anything else and no way to hunt or fish like in the early game, it's an option.

* ''VideoGame/MadMax2015'': Taking its cue from ''The Road Warrior'', dog food is the ''most'' palatable food in the game. The other options are varmints that Max steps on and ''maggots.''

* In ''VideoGame/RimWorld'', your colonists will eat kibble if there's nothing else available, but they won't be happy about it.
* In ''VideoGame/DeathRoadToCanada'', sometimes characters will comment on cat food not tasting too bad after it's heated up. Considering food is very generic as pickups during gameplay with no distinction of their nature, and with the game taking place during a ZombieApocalypse far removed from the usual CozyCatastrophe, this is hardly unlikely.

* Subverted in [[http://nedroid.com/2010/03/dinner-plans/ one strip]] of '' WebComic/{{Nedroid}}'', Reginald wins $20 and is excited at the prospect of not having to eat dog food anymore, but ends up deciding to buy it anyway because it tastes good.

* Happens on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' with a twist - they were just trying to save money. And it wasn't dog food, but something else even more absurd - Canned Plankton bought at the '33 cents store'. Plankton that expired two years before according to the ''Mexican'' Council of Food, and gave people "red tide poisoning". Their money-saving adviser steals the scraps from their backyard, calling them fat-cats for wasting it.
** In “Holidays of Future Past”, Maggie travels on a dilapidated, crowded airplane where the passengers are offered dog food and suicide pills.
** When Gil Gunderson got involved in a car accident, he was happy at the notion of, with help from insurance money, eating ''food''. He didn't even mind being on fire.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePJs'', Thurgood sees Mrs. Avery eating dog food and thinks she can't afford to eat... more so than the other people in the projects, I mean. It turns out she could, but she had a lifetime supply of dog food from winning on a game show and didn't know what else to do with it. She ends up taking in a dog to whom she names Lucky (after she shot at him twice and missed), because she can feed it for free.

* Chester on ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' has been known to eat cat food due to being poor, however he seems to enjoy it. When Mr Turner quit his job in one episode, Timmy was fed shoes - but don't worry, when they opened up a Bed and Breakfast and earned some money, Mrs Turner happily exclaimed that they could now get much more expensive shoes to eat.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'':
** In "[[Recap/RugratsS1E01TommysFirstBirthday Tommy's First Birthday]]", Tommy wants desperately to eat some of the dog food laid out for his dog Spike, after seeing a commercial for it on television. When he tries, Grandpa Lou stops him, and then says, "Hmm...I see your point..." upon looking at a bowl of strained carrots. Thus Tommy goes on a mission to get some dog food.
** In "[[Recap/RugratsS2E23KingTenPinRunawayAngelica Runaway Angelica]]", Angelica's desperation for cookies forces the babies to use the box of biscuits in Spike's dog food bowl. Prior to the discovery, Angelica thought they were not half bad. Later, the babies wondered if they could partake the rest of the biscuits themselves, however Spike already ate them all.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had an episode where Meg passes herself off as a single mother to obtain a job at a pancake restaurant. She made up a sob story about feeding Stewie, posing as her son, dog food to obtain tips from patrons who pitied her. Unfortunately, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome social services gets involved when they get word about an infant being fed dog food]] and also didn't help that one of their members got their testimonies on Peter's neighbors who were locked in a jealousy-fueled rivalry and used them as slanders without realizing it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "The Horn Of Plenty", Gargamel tries to eat Azrael's cat food when there's hardly any food left in his house.
* Subverted in ''WebAnimation/BeeAndPuppycat'', Bee got Puppycat some presents for him, among them are dog and cat food. When Bee's [[GrowlingGut stomach growls]] and she realizes she has no money to buy food, Puppycat guards his food but she ensure him that she won't eat his food.
* Jim from ''WesternAnimation/MissionHill'' at one point eats Stogie's dog food instead of feeding him, though in his case it's not because of poverty, but because he thought it tasted good.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' has Fred, near starvation due to being put on a strict diet for a game show competition, trying to take Dino's dog food. Dino, of course, doesn't let him near it.
* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'' Helen accidentally eats Martha's dog food instead of the alphabet soup she was making herself for lunch.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1438255368047416100
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[[quoteright:350:[[Series/RedDwarf https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marooned.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Still better than [[DoesNotLikeSpam pot noodles]].]]

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[[folder:{{Advertising}}]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Nasubi of ''DenpaShonen'' (during a challenge where his is allowed only to survive on things he wins in write-in contests) is forced to subside on dog food that he has won for a couple of weeks.
* Train and Sven from ''Manga/BlackCat'' get to this point many times, relying on the waitress' kindness of giving them bread crusts.

* Although it's never shown, it's subtly hinted that Manga/{{Inuyasha}} may eat dog food. Makes sense, since he's half dog-demon.
* In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', in the BadFuture Future Trunks comes from, there's a scene where Future Trunks and Mai snack on some canned meat and express joy that it's not dog food for once.
* In ''[[Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka GTO: 14 Days in Shonan]]'', Ikuko's [[AbusiveParents abusive mother]], aside from beating her and [[CigaretteBurns burning her with cigarettes]], also forces her to eat nothing but cat food.
* In ''Anime/AttackOnTitanJuniorHigh'', Hange desperately tries to get Levi to lend her money to buy food, since she's been wasting her cash on her crazy lab experiments and feeding her Titans. Levi gives her a bag of dog biscuits so she can feed the Titans with it. She's so hungry she quickly starts eating them.

* ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'' uses this more seriously than in most examples, for [[AfterTheEnd obvious]] [[ScavengerWorld reasons]] -- when there's no more food to loot from a particular supermarket, there's still pet food.

* ''Startoons'' (a collection of Franchise/StarWars parody comics) had a panel where Han is at the dinner table, munching on a bowl of something and commenting to Chewbacca that it was pretty good stuff. Chewy is holding a 50 pound bag labelled "Burina Humanoid Chow"

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* The homeless killer from ''Film/OpenHouse'' is shown eating cans of dog food.
* ''Film/TheLoveBug'' (the first one) has Jim Douglas rooting through the cabinets looking for something to eat. He wonders why they have birdfood when they don't even own a bird. He ends up eating pressed kelp. To his credit it apparently doesn't taste THAT bad...
* In ''Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior'', Max shares a can of dog food with his dog while the captive gyrocopter pilot looks on hungrily.

* In the first (Dutch) ''Film/{{Flodder}}'' movie, the mother gives the dog some food... and then eats a bit from the can herself. (Understandable if you see the food she's usually cooking which manages to look even more disgusting, but still.)
* Occurs in ''Film/{{District 9}}'' where the partially transformed Wikus eats a can of cat food because it's one of the only things he can get inside the alien ghetto. In this movie, cat food is considered a drug for the alien "Prawns".

* Within Disney's ''Son of Flubber'', the sequel to ''Film/TheAbsentMindedProfessor'', the eponymous professor is reduced to poverty and considers a can of dog food until his dog whines piteously and receives the food instead.
* In ''Film/ProblemChild 2,'' Debbie Claukinski's ex-husband Voytek is in his rathole apartment eating Chow Down when Junior calls. Chow Down, which comes in Beef, Chicken, and Horse and made Nippy take a dump three times his size.

* In ''The Egg and I'' by Betty [=MacDonald=], the author recalls that, during her childhood, she knew children who ate dog biscuits.
** In ''Literature/TheUnadulteratedCat'' by Creator/TerryPratchett, the author recalls doing so himself.
---> Whatever happened to those dog biscuits? They were ''real'' dog biscuits, not the anaemic things you get in boxes today; they were red and green and black and came in various interesting shapes. The black ones tasted of charcoal.
* The FutureSlang glossary at the back of ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresTransit Transit]]'' includes "Petfood Monster" for an extremely poor person.

* In both the book and the movie of ''Literature/RunningWithScissors'', the main character sees his mother eat dried dog food out of curiosity. She admits to him that it's not bad.
** In the book, it's not his mother who eats it, but Agnes, Dr. Finch's wife.
** Likewise, in ''The [[strike:Worst]] Best School Year Ever'', the narrator mentions that for a while her little brother had a particular fondness for a certain brand of puppy treats.

* Logan Mountstuart, of ''AnyHumanHeart'', calls his retirement "The Dog Food Years".
* Played with in ''Literature/TheTruth'', where Otto the vampire is brought back to life with bloody meat he identifies as "fine steak". ''After'' he finds out it was meant to be fed to a dog (the owner being a very rich woman with a very pampered dog), he starts complaining, making it clear that sometimes the DogFoodDiet is a matter of perception.
* In the ''A Dog Called Himself'' novels by Kenneth Bird, when Timothy goes on holiday to Spain, he's not allowed to bring his dog, who smuggles Himself in Timothy's luggage without his knowledge. So Timothy has to buy dog food, but a suspicious policeman catches him. When Timothy claims this trope, the policeman [[KickTheDog makes him eat the dog food right then.]]
* In ''Literature/{{Borgel}}'': Melvin and the dog Fafner are trapped at an interdimensional root-beer stand with nothing to eat but rootbeer floats for a month to their increasing despair. When they find a bag of dog kibble in the car, both are overjoyed to subsist on the dog food. Melvin describes it as nutritious and excellent with root beer.

* In a ''Series/GoodTimes'' episode, the Evans family has dinner with a nice old lady who is known to eat dog food for economy purposes. This creates a comically awkward moment when she brings a meatloaf for the occasion, which they naturally assume is dog food. As a result, the Evans frantically pass the dish around on the slightest excuses, desperate to avoid eating it. In the end, she calls them on it, admitting that while she does eat dog food herself, she would never bring it to dinner with friends.
-->'''JJ''': ''(saying grace)'' The Lord is my German shepherd...
* An episode of ''Series/NightCourt'' had Harry tasked with finding someone to gift with a winning lottery ticket; the entire episode was a parade of people with more or less blatantly made up sob stories, including an old woman up before him for shoplifting catfood to eat. When Harry asked why she didn't shoplift 'real' food, she started to say 'Catfood was more...' and trailed off. Harry finished '...pathetic. Next case!'
** Which is a call out to a PSA for a New York food pantry which showed an elderly woman buying nothing but cat food at the grocery with the caption "This woman has no cat" appearing on the bottom of the page.
* In one episode of ''Series/TheColbertReport'', Colbert mocked Americans who couldn't tell dog food from pâté. According to a recent study, 83% of participants mistook the low-grade animal food for the French delicacy, prompting Colbert to blame high-fructose corn syrup. He went on to say that when he wants pâté, he only chooses the fanciest of feasts. He then proceeded to whip out a can of Fancy Feast cat food and eat it. [[http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/227428/may-11-2009/stephen-s-fancy-feast]]

* On The ([[UsefulNotes/AustralianRulesFootball AFL]]) Footy Show had Sam Newman eating of Whiskas cat food from a can, washed down with a glass of Jack Daniels. [[SarcasmMode Mmm, delicious]]
* On an episode of ''Series/{{Speeders}}'', a cop pulled over a guy snacking on dog biscuits. The driver said that he had the munchies and he was offered these. He said it taste like chicken.
* The Bundys of ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' had eaten Buck's dog food a few times. In fact, in one episode, Al had eaten so much dog food that he started acting like a dog.
* In ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', Charlie and Frank scarf down cat food and huff paint so they can pass out at night and aren't woken by the hundreds of cats yowling outside their window. Dee points out that there might not be so many cats if Charlie didn't leave half-eaten cans of cat food around. Charlie counters that the cats are more interested in the thousands of ''rats'' that also plague the area. He's not ''stupid!''

->''"Do you know what dog food tastes like? Do ya? It tastes just like it smells...delicious!"''

* An episode of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' showed Faye eating dog food while trying to ignore the looks she was getting from Ein ([[TeamPet a dog]]).
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'s'' Team Rocket (specifically Meowth) were reduced to this level ever since James bought Magikarp... yet they still have enough money for mechas. It's implied that it's ''because'' of the mechas that they're constantly reduced to this level - that and the fact that they keep ''wrecking'' the mechas. If they could just go with something less flashy, they'd probably have enough money left over to eat decently most of the time. Also, we occasionally see Ash and co. eating like this, too (or without food at all) due to being wandering trainers - and thus having no regular source of income.

* Although it's never shown, it's subtly hinted that Manga/InuYasha may eat dog food. Makes sense since he's half dog-demon.

* ''Comicbook/YTheLastMan'' uses this more seriously than in most examples, for [[AfterTheEnd obvious]] [[ScavengerWorld reasons]]--when there's no more food to loot from a particular supermarket, there's still pet food.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** Episode "Marooned". Lister, stranded on a freezing planet with almost no supplies must eat a can. However, he chose dog food over a [[DoesNotLikeSpam Pot Noodle]]. According to the DVD commentary, that really was dog food. The "Smeg-Ups" special, however, claims it was actually ''cat'' food.
--->'''Lister''': And you can take that look off your face, like I'm doing something disgusting. I'm just trying to stay alive.\\
'''Rimmer''': ''[nauseated]'' You're going to eat the dog food.\\
'''Lister''': Yeah. Yeah! I haven't eaten for six days. I'm gonna eat the dog food.\\
'''Rimmer''': I'm sure the dog food will be lovely.\\
'''Lister''': Rimmer, this isn't dog food. It's a piece of prime fillet steak in blue cheese sauce. It's been charcoal broiled in garlic butter, and it's going to taste delicious. Delicious. Delicious.\\
''(He pops it into his mouth and swallows it.)''\\
'''Lister''': ...Now I know why dogs lick their testicles. It's to take away the taste of their food.

* Subverted in Season 3 of ''Series/TheWalkingDead''. The group breaks into a house, looking for supplies. Carl hands Rick a can of dog food and Rick hands it back because ''the apocalypse'' isn't that desperate. Yet.
* PlayedWith in an episode of ''Series/SpinCity'' with Carter's family pet Rags, who eats dogfood that costs more per can than what Paul pays for dresses for Claudia. Paul samples some of Rags' food and, while he finds it tasty, he develops a rash.

* The IAteWhat version happens in ''Series/Titans2018''. Hank helps himself to some kind of meat product that Gar made up. Dick informs him that Gar made it for ComicBook/KryptoTheSuperdog. Hank wordlessly puts the container back in the fridge.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' has canned dog food as a consumable. Labeled "Doghouse beef stew dog feed" Nate/Nora can eat it for 10 hitpoints and +2 radiation, or they can use it as intended with the Wasteland Workshop DLC and use it to bait dog cages. Nowhere in the game can you give it to ''your'' dog, however; [[LegacyCharacter Dogmeat]] can only be given stimpaks.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 76}}'' brings it back, but makes it significantly more common than many other pre-war food products and offers it as a quest reward more commonly than other foodstuffs. It even includes a perk that triples its effectiveness as a foodstuff and healing item.

* ''VideoGame/MadMax'': Taking its cue from ''The Road Warrior'', dog food is the ''most'' palatable food in the game. The other options are varmints that Max steps on and ''maggots.''

* Done as a BaitAndSwitch in ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'', uplifted dog Sweetheart is shown dragging a bag of dog chow in the first couple panels, then she tells her zombie roommate her dinner is ready and eats [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/tip-listened-politely/ a tv dinner.]]

[[folder:Web Video]]

* One of the plot points of an episode of ''Series/Family'' is the preteen daughter Leticia ("Peaches") giving money to an elderly woman who is buying cat food for herself because it is all she can afford.