From the Editor

Welcome to the winter issue of CritterNews from CritterHobbyist.com! We'd like to wish all of you a very happy Holiday Season and New Year.

Our holiday contest is in full swing, with users on a mad scavenger hunt for the pieces of the holiday puzzle! If you need clues, they are listed (along with all the information you need to enter) on our 12 Days of Christmas Contest page!

The holidays are a wonderful time for families, but they can be rough on our family pets. PH BunRab has some ideas for making the holidays easier on our small critters, and even making them fun for them. And if you're looking for ideas for toys for your small pets, she has lots of those, too!

Have a great New Year, and we hope you'll visit our chats (the weekly schedule is at the end of this newsletter) and our message boards! See you online!

Holidays and Pet Loss

The holidays can be a time of joy,but for those of us who have recently lost a pet to death, or who are reminded by the holiday season of a pet no longer with us, they can also be a time of sorrow. We try our very best at PetHobbyist.com to always help you in your time of grief, with special pet loss chats and message boards. And even though our regular chats are canceled during the holidays, our pet loss chats will be hosted and run as scheduled, even on December 25. You can find the schedule and links to the chats, as well as our pet loss message boards, in our Pet Loss Forum. No matter what kind of pet you have lost, you are always welcome in all our Pet Loss support chats

There is also an up-to-date list of nationwide pet loss hotlines at VeterinaryPartner.com.

Sharing the Holidays with your Pets
By PHBunRab

One of my friends just called me - she set up a barrier around her Christmas tree, so that the rabbits couldn't get at the gifts, the tree, or the wires. But they looked so sad at being denied their fun, that she went and got some wrapping paper and put it around an empty cardboard box, and put it in the middle of the floor, so that her bunnies could still have fun. There are many ways besides this to share the holidays safely with your pet. By now you've heard all the warnings - keep them from swallowing tinsel, don't let them chew on light cords, etc. - but there is fun in the holidays as well as caution.

For example, the holidays usually involve lots of food. Now, you know you can't give your pets chocolate, or alcohol. But look at all those cranberries! They are high in vitamin C, for guinea pigs and chinchillas, and many rabbits like them also. Don't forget to freeze a few, also, for use in the summer- a frozen cranberry is a hot-weather treat many small pets love. Sweet potatoes are another veggie that's safe for most small pets - rabbits, guinea pigs, small rodents of all sorts - and full of vitamins. We slice it about half an inch thick, then cut that into squares, and give everyone little pieces. Don't forget your birds, if you have them - a cockatiel or parrot will enjoy some sweet potato. As you're slicing up veggies for that holiday party vegetable platter, share the red bell peppers and the carrots with the pets, and broccoli too.

Want to let your pet play with some of the paper stuff? Look in eco-stores, health food stores, etc. for "natural" style Christmas wrapping paper, made with non-toxic dyes - it will be safe to let your pets rip, chew and shred at that for a little while. Hedgehogs will also enjoy burrowing under crumpled up paper, and dragging around ribbons (unlike the rodents and lagomorphs, the hedgies won't try to eat the ribbons). Save the cardboard boxes that your mail-order or internet-order gifts came in; everyone from rats to cats will enjoy playing with a plain cardboard box.

You don't want your pet chewing on Christmas ornaments, but plain plastic round ornaments are safe for them to bat around (remove the metal cap, if there is one) - a white plastic bulb with sparkly stripes on it will provide lots of amusement for a cat. Those clear plastic ornaments sold in crafts stores are great too - they are made to put your own decorations on AND IN so you can fill them with a few dried beans or a few of those ubiquitous jingle bells, for cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, or rats to bat at and push around, making noise.

Share the Christmas music with your pets, too. Both guinea pigs and birds seem to enjoy music; make sure they can hear some of the many holiday CDs you'll be playing, or leave a radio tuned to a holiday program for them while you're at work during the day.

The holidays are also the season to take great pictures of your pets. See if your local pet store is having a "pictures with Santa" special - many of them are benefits for local shelters and rescue groups, so that the money you pay goes to a good cause. The pictures you take this year can be your holiday cards next year. Check crafts stores for Santa hats made for dolls, which may fit your ferret, guinea pig, or rabbit. (Most will only put up with such costumes for a short time, so snap those pictures fast!) Check your local photo developers, too, to see if they make photo calendars - wouldn't you love to have Squeaky, Thumper, and Rags' pictures on your office wall year round? This is the time of year to get that done.

Last but not least, don't forget to share your family quality time with your pets. If your holiday traditions include cracking nuts, and peeling tangerines, share a tangerine slice with a guinea pig or a filbert with a rat. When you're gathered around the VCR watching that video of Miracle on 34th Street for the twentieth time, let the pets join you. As you make popcorn, leave some of it unsalted and unbuttered, so it's safe to give your rabbit, guinea pig, or rodent a piece.

Come New Year's eve, your pets will be less frightened of fireworks going off, and noisemakers everywhere, if they are with you. Have them join the family to watch the Times Square countdown, rather than leaving them alone. And on Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, remember the myth that the animals can speak on that night. Be sure to give them a special treat, so that they'll say nice things about you!

Toys for your Small Pet
By PHBunRab

When you get a pet rabbit, guinea pig, or hedgehog, you want to give it a good home -- a nice cage, the right food -- and lots of toys. A pet that has something fun to do is happier, gets more exercise, and probably will live longer.

But many pet stores don't have a section called "rabbit toys" or "hedgehog toys." So what do you do? You look in other areas -- cat toys, dog toys, even bird toys!

First, for pets that gnaw, such as rabbits, guinea pigs, and chinchillas, you can get wooden toys. There are some small wooden chew toys, usually sold for hamsters and gerbils. Other pets can use these. However, these small toys often get lost, or get damp and smelly in the bedding or litter. A better choice of wooden toys is bird toys. Made for cockatiels and parrots and parakeets, there are many bird toys which are blocks of colored wood hanging on a chain, with a bell at the bottom. These have rings or hooks to hang them from the wire sides of a cage. Hang them so that the bell is a little above the floor or the litter. For guinea pigs, get the kind that have pieces about an inch across; for chinchillas and rabbits, you can get bigger toys, such as the ones made for large parrots or cockatoos. Make sure, when you get them, that they do NOT have any "mineral cookies" on them, as those have too much calcium for rabbits or rodents. Plastic beads are OK; they are too big for the guinea pigs or rabbits to chew them off.

After bird toys, the next place to look is cat toys. A plastic cat ball with a bell in it can be a great toy for almost any pet. (Not for chinchillas, though; they can chew through the plastic and hurt themselves on the bell!) Make sure that the pet can't get the metal bell out and hurt herself on it! The smallest cat balls, about 1 inch across, aren't as much fun as larger ones. There's a two-inch size that guinea pigs and hedgehogs will like, and there are 5 or 6 inch Cat-a-Balls out there which rabbits will love. If you don't see them in your local pet store, try an on-line vendor.

Another fun toy for small pets is a simple piece of PVC pipe. This is the very hard white plastic sold in hardware and home stores for serious plumbing. The 4-inch diameter PVC is the right size for hedgehogs and guinea pigs to run through. You can buy a short piece with three openings called a Y-joint or a T-joint, or just a foot-long tube. For a rabbit, buy a piece that is about 6 inches long, such as the rings that connect two pieces of PVC. They can pick these up with their teeth and toss them around, as well as kick them and nudge them with their nose.

Of course, the most fun toy for your pet is YOU. Playing with you is the best exercise your pet can get. If you buy one or two of the toys mentioned, make sure you play with your pet sometimes too! Some people put out layouts of several pieces of PVC on the floor, for their guinea pigs or hedgehogs to explore, and lie down at the end so that the pet can find them when they go through the pipe. Other people will save a large cat ball for playtime with their rabbit, to roll to the rabbit and watch the rabbit scoot the ball around the floor. Sharing these toys with your pet is a great way to grow closer, and to increase the human-animal bond.

Come Chat With Us!

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