Holiday Pet Safety Tips
The holidays can be a rough time for our pets, which means it can be a rough time for us. They get yelled at for touching shiny objects, chased away from new places to play, and must spend time running from small children to hide under the safety of the bed. To help you and your pets this holiday season, we’ve compiled this list of holiday pet safety tips.
First, the food:
You know which foods are and aren’t good for your pet, but if you need a reminder just think of it this way: no human food that has been cooked and seasoned for humans is good for your pet. If you feel like they MUST have a human food treat consider boiled, cooled, unseasoned carrots or peas, or even a bit of boiled, unseasoned chicken. A better option is some special treats of their own. Perhaps pick up a new flavor of Old Mother Hubbard treats for the dog and some new CatIt Nibbly treats for your cat.
Next, the decorations:
Decorating with pets is hard. They want to check out the new shiny lights and dangling ornaments on the tree. They see there’s a new water bowl under the tree, and they want to bat at the twinkly lights hanging from the windows. BUT there are ways to combat this.
First, keep pets distracted with toys of their own that are safe for them. If you must, get out the laser pointer for your cat and play an extra game of fetch with Fido. Use a citrus spray or Skout’s Honor boundary spray to help keep cats away from the tree and if that doesn’t work, spray them with water (not in the face) when they get too close to it.
Don’t put any dangling ornaments down low on the tree. This will only make them more curious. If you must use icicles use them only high up on the tree. These can be particularly dangerous to cats if they ingest them. My suggestion would be to just leave the icicles off all together.
As for those twinkling lights in the windows? Place them high up, or outside even, so that the cats can’t get to them.
Finally, the guests:
Parties are a part of the holiday season. Having guests around can be extra stressful for your pets, though. In order to ensure that this is a fun time for them as well, we suggest the following:
First, make sure the pets have a safe, quiet place to go to during the party. If they aren’t particularly social they can go rest in a back bedroom, find their hidey spot under the bed, etc., and know they’ll be safe. This really is for the safety of your pets and your guests as you don’t want a stressed out dog to end up snapping at someone.
Next, make sure your guests know the food rules. Often guests will think the best way to make friends with Manx the cat is to feed him a bit of pie. We know pie isn’t good for Manx…make sure your guests know too.
Finally, make sure to watch the doors when people are arriving or leaving, just in case. Make sure your pets’ tags and microchip information is up to date. This way, should anything happen, you can be assured they’ll be found.
Pets can absolutely be a great part of the holiday season for you, if you just stick to a few rules and keep their health and safety in mind too!
