If you’ve played a hunter past level 10, then you’ve experienced pets, feeding, and happiness. When your pet gets unhappy, he gets hungry… and you’d better feed him.

The first time I leveled a hunter (a 29 twink on the Alliance side), I always wondered why my pet used to eat a lot of food and never gain happiness. After he died and became neutral or unhappy, I would spam “Feed Pet” and shove a half dozen pieces of meat down his throat.

As it turns out, this isn’t how to properly feed your pet.

Chew Each Bite Before Taking Another

Your mother probably told you when you were little to finishing chewing one bite of food before you take another. This is the same way you should approach feeding your pet.

It’s not immediately clear how pet feeding works. It’s logical to think it works kind of like potions. You give the pet food, he gets an instant jolt of happiness, and you can immediately continue.

While this is intuitive enough, it is definitely not the way feeding works. Feeding your pet is like casting a HoT on him – except instead of “Heal Over Time,” it’s “Happiness Over Time.” When you feed your pet, he gains a buff. Every two seconds, he gains happiness until the buff wears off.

If you try to feed your pet before the first buff has expired, the new buff will just over-ride it. So if you spam “Feed Pet” six times, the first five feedings will effectively do nothing – and it will be as if you only fed your pet once.

To avoid wasting food, watch your combat log or your pet’s portrait to see when the “Feed Pet” buff wears off. Then you can give him another piece.

Wait Fifteen Minutes Before Swimming

Here’s enough tip that applies to your pet. Never feed your pet and then rush into physical activity – like combat.

Why? The minute your pet engages in combat, the “Feed Pet” buff disappears. If you feed your pet some food, wait two seconds, and engage an enemy, you’ve effectively wasted 90% of that food. It takes 20 seconds for your pet to get the full benefit of the food.

I don’t like downtime while grinding, so it helps to strategically feed your pet. If you have to sit down to eat and drink, it’s a good time to feed your pet.

Otherwise, I’ll feed him some cheap food in between fights. After a few ticks, I send him into combat. He does lose part of the food’s value, but I only do this with cheap food I pick up from mobs.

Keep in mind that any kind of damage will wipe off the buff, just like entering combat. Never feed your pet when he’s poisoned. It’ll be a terrible waste of food.

Eat Right – Get Appropriate Level Food

When you feed your pet, he can earn 8, 17, or 35 happiness per tick.

How much happiness your pet gains depends on his level vis-a-vis the food’s level. Since lower level food costs a lot less than higher level food, it might seem cheaper to feed your pet low level food. However, it is a big time sink. It takes four times as long for a pet to gain the same amount of happiness from the lowest level food as the highest level food.

As a rule, I start selling food when it drops below the middle mark – 17 points per tick. If you feed your pet regularly, using this lower level food can be time and cost effective. It simply takes too long to eat enough of the low level food.

Although I’m not exactly sure of the formula yet, it appears that the amount of happiness is determined by the food’s item level vis-a-vis your pet’s level. As the food’s item level gets lower, it moves into the second or third tier of food.

This is important, because sometimes cooking a food will make a difference – and sometimes it won’t. For example, White Spider Meat is the same item level as Spider Sausage. Cooking the White Spider Meat would be a waste. On the other hand, Ravager Flesh is level 60 and Ravager Dog is level 65. If that five levels makes a difference, it would be advantageous to cook the food.

Just remember. Feed your pet the way your mother fed you. Make sure he’s done chewing before you give him more food, don’t let him rush into any physical activity right after eating, and make sure he eats high quality, nutritious food.