Most dogs love chocolate, and like children, have no idea about limitations and so if they see it, they want it – even if they’ve just eaten.  Although eating too much chocolate can be bad for your child’s weight and teeth, it can be much worse for your dog however as chocolate is a toxin to dogs.  It contains something called theobromine which in large enough quantities can poison your dog.  The worst offender surprisingly enough is baking chocolate so even home-baked chocolate muffins and biscuits aren’t safe to share with your pooch either!

When it comes to sharing the Christmas joy, make sure that you have a supply of special canine chocolates and sweet treats to hand so that when you are enjoying your favourite chocolate nibble, you can give your dog one of his own and everyone’ll be healthy – as long as you don’t nibble too often, and remember to clean your teeth –and your dogs!

What would be better however would be to have a supply of rawhide treats, or dog biscuits to give your dog at a time you are likely to be passing around the chocolates. That way they’ll perhaps sulk as they gnaw their way through whatever you’ve given them, but not only will you be ensuring that they aren’t poisoned, but also are helping them to maintain good dental health.

One thing that you must watch out for is gifts that contain chocolate.  Dogs have an amazing ability to sniff out things that attract them, and chocolate attracts them!  If anyone has given you what appears to be chocolates in a container that could be scratched or bitten open, don’t put it under the tree!  Instead place it (and any open chocolates) in a cupboard that’s out of your dog’s reach, otherwise an otherwise nice present could be reduced to a pile of ribbons and paper by a determined dog on a mission to find the source of that enticing smell!

Share This

Having a cat as a part of your family is a great thing for a child.  The cat isn’t just there to play with; it’s also a good learning tool for teaching your child responsibility as you’ll be able to show how your cat depends upon you for such basic things as food and water.  However there are some other things that you must teach your child as soon as the cat becomes part of the household so that neither the cat nor your child gets hurt as a result of misunderstandings.

1.       Respect:  Your child must learn to respect the cat.  It’s not a toy.  A cat can be very independent and there are times when it wants to be by itself, and it doesn’t want to be dressed up in doll clothes (actually, it’s a good rule to teach that no cat likes to be dressed up!).  Your child needs to learn to respect that when the cat’s asleep or eating, they need to leave it alone.  If the cat doesn’t want to play, you need to teach them to walk away.  Failure to do so may result in your child getting scratched which would be bad for both of them as your child will get hurt, and the cat will be in trouble for something that really wasn’t his fault.  Teaching respect when it comes to the cat means that you’ll also be able to transition this into having respect for others later.

2.       Handling:  Show your child how to pick up the cat so that the cat isn’t hurt.  This is especially important in two situations; a large cat and a small child, and a kitten with any child.  Explain to your child how easily it is to hurt the cat if they pick it up the wrong way.  Failure to do could result in your cat being injured and needing veterinary care, as well as your child being scratched if the cat becomes afraid.

3.       Communication:  A cat can’t talk but it uses its body to communicate.  Teach your child that if the cat is wagging his tail, unlike with a dog, this is bad sign and they need to stop what they’re doing with the cat and leave it alone.  If the cat is purring, then it’s happy.  If it’s hissing, then it’s mad!  If the cat is blinking, then it’s content.  If it’s wrapping itself around your (or the child’s) legs, then it wants something.  These are very basic signs but can mean that your child learns more about how to safely interact with your cat.

Adding a cat to your family can be an experience that your child will remember throughout its life, and will probably result in your child becoming best friends with their feline housemate.  By teaching your child the simple rules about how to live with a cat, you’re not just helping to keep harmony in your home; you’re also setting foundations in place that will help your child interact with compassion and thought through all relationships they will encounter in life.

Share This

Cats love shiny things, especially ones that move and so this makes Christmas an especially dangerous time for cats, particular if you have a cat that’s active and full of mischief.  Although you need to ensure that anything that’s potentially harmful to your cat is removed, there are some very basic things that you can do to make sure that your feline friend doesn’t end up at the veterinary centre during the Christmas period.

1.        Secure your Christmas tree.  This is absolutely essential if you’ve got a kitten, or a cat that has decided it doesn’t want to grow up yet!  The baubles, and the way the light hits them, will attract your cat – as will the fact that there’s a tree inside your house – and your cat is destined to run up the middle of it!  A cat isn’t usually fussy whether the tree is real or not.  A tree is a tree and up he’ll go sending your decorations scattering around the room – which will then become cat toys when he finds the tree either topples over or there’s not as much fun in it as he thought!

2.       Don’t hang tinsel on the tree, or if you must make sure that you secure both ends of it, and that it’s not looped in such a way that he can hook his paw around it and pull!  Even with the tree firmly secured, if your cat is able to pull the tinsel, he’s going to do damage to the baubles. 

3.       Never use stringy tinsel.  It looks pretty and makes any tree look festive, but unfortunately it’s potentially fatal to your cat if he manages to eat any of it.  It can get looped around his internal organs and could kill him.

4.       Similarly don’t finish off the packages under the tree with curling ribbon.  There’s the same possibility as with the stingy tinsel.  Parcels that are beautifully wrapped and have matching ribbons look professional, but if you’ve got a cat, they’re something to avoid.

Remember that a cat is by nature curious and playful, and Christmas is a time full of glittering new “playthings” to explore.  Keep to the steps above, and be watchful of any other potential feline hazards amongst your Christmas decorations, and you and kitty will have an exciting festive season.

Share This

Dogs need exercise.  The younger and/or larger the dog, generally speaking the more exercise they need, and the more energy their owner is going to need!  If you are considering adding a dog to your family then you need to assess how much spare energy you have and choose a breed of dog that matches!

If you are someone who loves being outdoors and have an abundance of energy, then you’ll be fine with a larger breed dog.  Even those that are high maintenance in the grooming department shouldn’t be too stressful for you – although you need to take into account how much grooming time you have available as even though you’ve got plenty of energy, you may be short on the amount of time you have for brushing your dog and keeping his coat healthy.  You also need to think about how you would lift a full size dog of this breed if you needed to – if he were sick for example.

For someone who hasn’t much energy, a smaller dog is a much better choice – better still, a smaller older dog that is already past its puppy exuberance stage and is now settled into a more sedate middle age!  This kind of dog will allow you to get out and exercise, but won’t turn each walk into a cardiovascular workout!  A short haired dog needs to be brushed, but nowhere near as vigorously as a longer haired breed and so again is easier on your physical energy.  Smaller, shorter haired dogs are usually a better choice for anyone with a busy schedule also, as they are much lower maintenance all round – shorter walks, less grooming, etc – although they do need as much affection as their higher maintenance larger friends!

When considering which breed you want to buy, don’t be lured by a pair of sad brown eyes, or a cute fluffy fur-ball – check out what size the breed usually grows to, and what kind of coat it has as an adult (fur-balls don’t always stay that way!), and then seriously consider if he’s going to fit into your lifestyle, and just as importantly, if you are fit enough for his!

Share This

Having a dog with bad breath is no laughing matter – especially if your dog is one for panting lovingly in your face when you go anywhere near it!  There are things you can do however that can improve the situation and as they are more about changing habits of various kinds, they don’t take a lot of additional maintenance.

The main cause of smelly dog breath is because to poor dental hygiene.  Fragments of food from your dog’s meal get lodged in his teeth and decay creating the smell.  Soft dog meat such as canned foods are the biggest culprits for this and so changing your dog’s diet to dry dog meal instead of canned is an easy step towards improving his breath.  Many of these dry dog foods are enriched with supplementary vitamins so it’s also good for his overall well being.  When using dry dog food however make sure that you always leave a good supply of fresh water for him to drink as dry food tends to make a dog thirstier than tinned dog food.

Things that your dog can chew on will also work on any remaining plaque on his teeth.  Dogs usually love to gnaw on rawhide type snacks and so giving him one of these will not only keep him busy for a while, it’ll also help him improve his dental hygiene!   If you usually give him dog biscuits as a treat instead of raw hide ones, then try to ensure that you give him a black one every day (just one though, too many could cause other problems) as these contain charcoal which helps with the digestive system and therefore diminishes any bad odours that are around that area.

Of course what you should also do is to incorporate a regular tooth brushing session into your dog’s grooming schedule.  This isn’t easy to start, especially with a dog who is a little older and hasn’t experienced this before, but if you start very slowly to first introduce the toothbrush to your dog, and then get it close to his mouth – do this for a few times over the course of a couple of weeks, and then try to insert it into his mouth.   When he’s comfortable with this, try putting some water on it and see if he’s going to accept you rubbing the water on his teeth.  Once he is, try a tiny bit of dog toothpaste – NOT your toothpaste, special dog toothpaste – and see how he reacts to it.  You could even try introducing the toothpaste on your finger first, and then combine toothbrush and toothpaste together.  If you can’t seem to get him to accept it, talk to your veterinary at your dog’s next schedule check-up and see if he can suggest something that will work.

Once you fix your dog’s mouth hygiene, you’ll find that while his breath may not be as “minty fresh” as you’d like, it’s still a vast improvement on how it used to be.

Share This

Your cat having fleas is no great surprise if she goes outside, but what you need to know if that she doesn’t need to keep them!  Nor does she need to keep getting them because although you can’t stop fleas from jumping onto your cat when she’s outside, what you can do is to take appropriate measures to stop any fleas that do get into her from reproducing and making her life a misery.

Fleas feed on blood, and just as we get irritated with a place where a mosquito has bitten us, so cats scratch when a flea has bitten them.  Not only is it uncomfortable for them, but it can also create other health conditions – for example, some cats are actually allergic to fleas and this can reveal itself by your cat showing signs of skin problems. 

So what can you do?  Well the first thing is to ensure that your cat is flea free.  Make time every day if possible, but at least every few days especially during the summer when you spend 5 minutes combing her with a flea comb.  This will alert you to any flea problem she may have, and also remove any fleas that have jumped onto her that day.  Next she needs to have some form of protection, such as a flea collar.  This will help deter the fleas from hopping on in the first place.  Once they are on, one of the best things you can do is to have your cat protected with some form of medication that can be applied once every month or so into the back of her neck, and this produces a chemical which will kill any flea that then takes her blood.  It doesn’t stop that flea from making the bite, but it stops it biting and producing any offspring! 

Further action you can take is to try to bath your cat.  This isn’t a fun job – in fact it’s rather a thankless one for most cat owners, but if you’re up to it, then bathing your cat using a specially formulated shampoo will not only kill any fleas still on her, but will also leave a scent that the fleas outside will avoid for a short while at least. 

Lastly, make sure that you keep her bedding clean.  Launder this every week or so, and also every time that you apply a flea treatment on your cat.  If you are using a flea spray to de-flea an infested cat, use the same spray on her bedding to ensure that any flea that jumps off her into the bedding doesn’t live to jump back on! 

Fleas can make summer a miserable time for your cat so get onto it as the Spring ends, and find out what treatment will work best for your cat, fix a schedule for ensuring that she’s flea-free and you should all have an itch-less summer!

Share This

Cats should not eat Fish

It is ok to give your cat a fishy treat once in a while. However, it should not become a regular part of their daily diet. Giving a cat too much fish can lead to something called the Yellow Fat Disease, which is caused by Vitamin E deficiency. Fish does not contain enough taurine, which is what cats depend on their diet.

Cats will not inbreed

Yes, they will. They do not have the same limits as their wild cousins. They will mate with any cat, including their siblings and parents. It is strongly suggested that you get all your cats spayed/neutered before the age of 6 months.

Every male cat sprays

No, not all males spray. Most male cats are much more likely to spray than neutered ones, which is another good reason to your cats fixed. Female cats can also spray but it is not as common as in male cats.

Share This

You are preventing your cat from contributing to the very serious over population of kittens and cats if get him or her spayed or neutered. Male cats are at risk to develop testicular cancer, abscesses that are caused by fighting, being hit by a car, or contract FIV (Feline Aids) & FeLV.

Female cats run a greater risk of breast cancer and can also develop infections of the uterus, and she can contract FIV & FeLV from an infected male as well or fall victim to a car accident. Females will often stop eating when they come into heat, which can happen a few times a year. Males will stray through the neighborhood looking for a female to mate with. A fixed cat will not gain weight as a result of the surgery, but he/she may lose weight because of the lack of food intake and increased straying.

By getting your cat fixed your cat is no longer on the never-ending search for a partner and can shift his/her attention towards you.

Share This

Are you pregnant or plan to become pregnant and own one or more cats? Then please read on, it might save your baby’s life!

Toxoplasmosis is what you need to learn about. If you have not had an exposure to Toxoplasmosis before your pregnancy, Toxoplasmosis can harm your unborn baby. Cats can be the natural host; however you can also catch the bacteria from undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables or even while out in your garden planting flowers.

You can get tested during your pregnancy, just to make sure.

Avoid cleaning the litter box(es) while you are pregnant, because this where the bacteria lives, or wear at least some gloves. Also make sure you cook your meat thoroughly, wash your veggies and fruits, and also wear gloves while gardening.

Share This