Sunday, July 8, 2012

Cooking for Critters

Rabbit Treats


A couple of weeks ago I found a recipe online for rabbit treats, and I decided to try it out. Munchkin and Cici loved them so I thought I would do a post about how I made them.


I did things a little differently from the original recipe to suit what I had in my kitchen, so I will tell you what I did, and I will include the link to the original recipe at the bottom of the page.






Ingredients


baby carrots
an apple
1/4 cup rabbit pellets
1/4 cup ground oats
1 tbsp. honey




First, preheat the oven to 325. While it preheats, grind up oats and rabbit pellets in a food processor or coffee grinder. ( I used a coffee grinder). Puree, or finely chop a hand full of baby carrots, and a handful of apple slices in a food processor. Mix the oats, pellets, carrots, and apple together in a bowl. Mix in the honey.


Next, roll the dough into a ball and roll out to about 1/4 inch thick. Then either slice into pieces, or use a small cookie cutter (I found that using a small cookie cutter was easier and less messy than slicing into pieces) (I used a small circle cookie cutter). Place treats on parchment paper on a baking sheets.








Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, and then turn off the oven and let the treats sit in the oven for about an hour.


Let them cool, and give them to your bunnies to enjoy!





The treats have Munchkin and Cici's approval! They love them!

Here is the link to the original recipe:










Weekly Tip

This week's tip is for anyone who works or wants to work at an animal shelter or rescue. This is something that I figured out pretty quickly, and that is to always have....




LOTION!

Part of working at an animal shelter is cleaning cages, doing dishes, doing laundry, basically a lot of cleaning. You also have to wash your hands. A lot. Whenever you handle a cat without gloves or a sick animals, or dirty dishes or laundry, you need to wash your hands. I quickly realized that after just a few days on the job, my hands were getting really dry. So I know have some heavy duty lotion that I keep in my purse and make sure to always bring with me to work. And my hands are definitely thanking me!

updates

So the poll I put up is now closed, and when I looked at all the votes, I found out it was a tie between a "cooking for critters" post and a "Munchkin and Cici's Diary" post. So I am going to do a "cooking for critters" post, and then I will do a post in Munchkin and Cici's diary after. There is also a new weekly tip coming soon. (I realize I did miss a week. oops :) ). 


Unfortunately for updates I have some very heartbreaking news. As you all may know my cat had a cancerous tumor and she had to be put down recently. She was fifteen years old. I will miss her so much. I also just lost my dog, Sheba. I'm not going to go into details yet because I'm still really upset about it.


On a happier note, Munchkin got his last shot of ivermectin, and his ear mites seem to be gone now, and his ears are just about free of debri. I plan on doing a post about dealing with ear mites in rabbits soon.


I also had Cici get the ivermectin shots too. She wasn't showing any signs of ear mites, but because Munchkin had them and they are contagious I just decided to get her done too, just as a precaution. So she still needs one more shot.


So I will put up some new posts soon, and I am working on putting together cage tour videos for both Ninja and the bunnies.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Tips For Keeping Pets Cool in Hot Weather

I already did a Weekly Tips post, but the weather around here has been pretty hot and humid, and Animal Gram mentioned in the comments that she would like to see weather related tips, so I decided to do this post.


Obviously having air conditioning in your house would keep your pets cool, but if you don't have AC, or if you do and your pets are still hot here are some tips to keep them cool.




Give Dogs Ice Cubes


Most dogs love to eat ice cubes. So if your pet is feeling warm give him/her a cool snack in the form of ice cubes. You can even put treats or things like peanut butter and yogurt (just regular fat free plain yogurt) inside the cubes when you freeze them to make them even more fun. 


You can also put ice cubes in their water dish to keep the water cool and some dogs may enjoy fishing the ice cubes out.


Some pet stores do sell special dog toys that you fill with water and freeze and give to the dog to chew, so you can always do that instead of ice cubes too.


Set up a small plastic pool.


If your dog (or maybe even your cat) likes water, fill up a small, shallow plastic pool meant for kids with water and toys, and let your pet play.


Some rats like swimming so if you have rats you can fill up a small plastic tub or a bathtub with a shallow amount of water and let your rats play in it. Just be sure to supervise them at all times in their little "swimming pool".


*the only small pet you should follow this tip for is rats. Rabbits and guinea pigs don't like to get wet, and gerbils, mice, hamsters, should not get wet. Don't do this tip for chinchillas either. They should NEVER get fully wet. (they are likely to lose their fur and get sick)


Place a bag of ice in front of a fan.


This creates a flow of cool air that can cool any pet down.


For caged pets place a bottle or container of frozen water up against their cage.


I do this for my hamster sometimes. It creates a cool spot in your pets cage. 


If your rabbits are warm you can mist their ears.


Rabbits get rid of excess body heat through their ears. You can use a spray bottle of cool water to lightly mist a rabbits ears if he/she is hot. Just make sure that the spray bottle hasn't been used for any harmful chemicals or anything toxic.


If you rabbits are warm definitely be sure to have a fan and some frozen water bottles around to keep them cool in addition to misting their ears. Rabbits overheat very easily.


Fortunately my rabbits cage is located in my finished basement, and it stays at just the right temperature for them (60-70) throughout the summer, so I don't really have to worry about keeping them cool, and the room that they play in is air conditioned.


For fish tanks, put ice cubes in the water, turn off the light, and place frozen water bottles up against the tank.


If your fish tank overheats you can cool it down by one of these fish tank tips. Just make sure to watch the temperature and not cool it down too much. 




And with any pet make sure they have plenty of fresh cool water at all times especially when it is hot out! 


And don't leave pets unattended in a hot car, they can quickly get heat exhaustion.


I hope you all liked the tips, and if you have any tips that I didn't mention here, feel free to leave a tip in the comments below, and I will do a post with all of the tips from the comments on this post.

Updates: Munchkin's vet visit, and new job

So I have a few more updates for you this week. The first one is that Munchkin had to go to the vet this morning. A couple days ago I was doing my regular health check that I do with the bunnies where I just look in their ears, through their fur, at their teeth etc, and make sure everything is okay. And when I looked in Munchkin's ears with a flashlight, there was some debris down there, so I cleaned it out gently, and when I did I looked in with the flashlight and saw some tiny white things crawling around. 


So after completely freaking out, I made a vet appointment for him, and took him to the vet this morning. The vet did confirm that he has ear mites, I caught it very early, if I hadn't looked with a flashlight so far down, I wouldn't have found them. 


The vet gave him an injection of Ivermectin, and he has to go back next week and the week after two get to more shots, and then it should hopefully be cleared up.


Next week I'll be bringing Cici along too, so the vet can make sure that she doesn't have any, which it doesn't appear that she does, but we want to be sure. 


Munchkin did not like the drive, but he had fun exploring the examination room while we were waiting for results. He hopped all around and explored and rubbed his chin on everything. It was cute.


My next update is that this week I started my first job at my local animal shelter. I am a dog technician so I got to clean the dog kennels, help with feedings, and I also helped out cleaning cat cages, and medicating cats, and I learned how to give the cats health evaluations. 


I'll also get to learn how to temperament test the dogs, and how to do adoption showings, so I can't wait to learn those.


So far I love this job. I get to be with animals all day, and it is a very rewarding job, helping the animals.


next post: Tips for keeping pets cool in hot weather!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Weekly Tip












That's right, that is a picture of a toothbrush. This week's tip for pet owners is to keep a few extra toothbrushes around! 


I use toothbrushes for cleaning my fish tank (it cleans algae out of corners, off the grooved ends of the heater, out of hard to reach places, the filter, off of plants, and ornaments). It is a cheap and easy cleaning tool for fish tank use.


I also use toothbrushes for cleaning out my hamsters water bottle, cleaning cage bars on my hamsters and rabbits cage, and just for anything difficult to reach/ clean out.


Just make sure that it hasn't been used to brush teeth, and if you are going to use it for a fish tank, make sure that that brush is used only for that purpose to avoid contaminating your fish tank with anything.

poll

I have a new poll up! You can vote on what you want the next post to be! The poll is on the top right-hand side of my blog's homepage.

more updates!

Since I haven't made any posts for a while, you all are probably wondering how my pets are doing so here is an update on all of them.


Munchkin and Cici are doing great, they are still loving living together, they have now become a trouble-making team! Cici did have a medical problem, she had a bald scabby spot on her head, so I took her to the vet. They vet ruled out mites or lice, and she says it is most likely a fungal or bacterial infection or an allergic reaction to something. She gave me a treatment lotion to apply to the spot twice a day. The medicine has stuff to kill fungal and bacterial infections and it has soothing ingredients. I have been giving it to Cici for over a week, and most of the spot is all cleared up and new hair is growing back.


Squirt is doing well, he was under the weather for a while, but he is back to his usual self. A few weeks ago I seriously thought he was going to die. He was lethargic, losing color, and had no appetite, and was behaving oddly. I couldn't find any other specific symptom of illnesses, he only had general stress symptoms which he could have with any illness, and his tank water was clean, so I don't know what the problem was. Whatever it was one day he suddenly got better and now he is active and happy. He is blowing a bubble nest while I am typing this.


The dogs are their usual selves not much to say about them. They haven't had any medical issues, although Lacey is going in for surgery soon to have a growth on her foot removed. She has had it for years, but it has been getting bigger lately, so we are going to remove it before it becomes problematic.


The cat unfortunately isn't doing so well. She has had a cancerous growth for a few months now, and it seems to be bothering her now. It has gotten bigger and it is starting to get uncomfortable for her I think, and she has lost a little bit of her agility (she has trouble jumping very high and loses her balance every once in a while). She is an indoor cat now for two reasons; her growth, and a cat in our neighborhood that is causing fights. She has had a couple of screaming sessions with the other cat, but she didn't get hurt. So she stays inside now. I have been hearing other cats fighting with the new cat in our neighborhood at least a few times a week. 


And finally Ninja is happy and healthy and adjusted to his new life here. I think he is the friendliest hamster on the planet, he has never nipped or bitten anyone in the entire time I have had him. He just loves people. I am going to be uploading a video of him soon.


I hope you enjoyed the update, I apologize if it was rather long, I haven't done one of these posts in a while so I had a lot of updates.

more updates

I just thought I would let you all know that I finally updated my "My Pets" and my "Pet Profiles" pages, so the profiles are up to date, and both pages now include Ninja.

updates

If you follow both of my blogs, you may have seen this on my other blog. I have decided to not have two blogs anymore, it is to complicated and confusing, so I am moving my Critter Care posts to this blog.


Over the summer I am planning on doing some more blogging and I have a bunch of new posts planned. I also have some blog "series" planned, and I will make a page for each one so that any old posts in that "series" will be easy to find.


My new "series" are:


Weekly Tips


Each week I will do a post or video about a pet care tip.


"Cooking for Critters" 


I like to make treats for my pets, so whenever I try out a new recipe I will make a post for it.


"Critter Crafts"


This one isn't new, but I do have some new craft posts planned!


"Shelter Tales"


This isn't really new either, it is just my new name for the shelter pet profiles that I like to make of  some of the animals at the Kennebec Valley Humane Society.


"Munchkin and Cici's Diary"


I am going to make a "diary" of sorts. Sort of a day in the life of my rabbits. So every once in a while I will do a post about what my rabbits have been doing.


"Critter Care"


This series will be all the posts about pet care that I would normally put on my old Critter Care blog.


Reviews


I am planning on make some videos and posts to review some of the new pet care products that I have tried or have been using.







Friday, May 11, 2012

New Video



I realize that you all have probably already seen about my new hamster, I put that in the video for my youtube subscribers that don't follow my blog. Hope you enjoyed the video! :)

My new hamster!

So, as you may have seen in my post yesterday, I got a new hamster!!! 

His name is Ninja, and he is a black syrian hamster, with a few little white spots. I adopted him yesterday from the shelter. 

Ninja is very sweet, he loves to be petted. He likes to be the center of attention and when I don't pay attention to him he likes to rattle his cage bars until I pet him or hold him, or let him run around. 

He loves his wheel and his exercise ball, I have a feeling those will be getting a lot of miles!

I'll do a tour of his cage and get some videos of him up soon!

I am also going to be putting up some syrian hamster care posts and videos on my other blog, Critter Care.

In the meantime here are a few more pictures of Ninja:




Sorry some of them are blurry he didn't want to hold still :)




This one above is a picture that ninja took on my ipod :) It was cute. He is a little photographer now.


This is Ninja's cage


Thursday, May 10, 2012

I'm back... with a surprise!!!

So I haven't been blogging for a while, but I am back and I have a surprise!!!


Here is a sneak peak:




Check back tomorrow to hear all about him!



Wednesday, April 11, 2012

updates

Hey everyone! 


So I am way behind on all the blogging I planned to do, but in the next few weeks I am planning on putting up some more posts and making some videos.


The bunnies are now moved in together and I expanded the cage so you can expect a cage tour soon. 


I also have TONS of cute photos of the two of them, so I am probably going to do a video with all of the pictures in it. 


So new posts and videos will be coming soon and in the meantime here is a shelter profile:




This shelter profile is of one of the shelters newest arrivals, a cockatiel named Sunshine.


Sunshine was surrendered to the shelter a week or two ago and was in pretty bad shape. The cage was so dirty it could not even be salvaged. 


Sunshine was missing most of his feathers due to stress and his unclean environment. He still has some bald spots but his feathers are starting to grow back. 


Sunshine is a lutino cockatiel, he has mostly yellow and white feathers, with the characteristic orange circles on his cheeks. He is very cute.


Sunshine is friendly although not very hand-tame. So he doesn't like being handled much right now, but he doesn't seem to want to bite or anything.


I think he could easily be trained as he is curious and friendly. He could probably be taught to say a few words, he already imitates some whistle sounds.


He seems like he may have some arthritis in one of his feet, but with a better diet, a proper nail trim, and some special perches I think that it wouldn't bother him. 


There aren't any pictures of him on the shelters website but I did find some pictures of a lutino cockatiel like Sunshine:


http://www.cockatiels.org/main/ncs-photo-gallery/lutino-cockatiels/

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Critter Crafts: "Cardboard Kabobs"

Here is a new craft: Cardboard Kabobs


I make these for the bunnies from time to time. They are great for rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, and mice.


Here is what you will need:

cardboard pieces and paper towel/ toilet paper tubes:

wooden sticks* ( I use willow):

hole-punch:

scissors:


*only use pet safe wood, not just any wood or stick from outside. It needs to be non-toxic because your pet will chew it. You can get willow and applewood sticks meant for rodents to chew at pretty much any pet store. You'll probably want willow sticks, because applewood sticks are often too thick to do this project easily.




How to make cardboard kabobs:

Step 1:


Cut up cardboard sheets and tubes into pieces.



Step 2:

Punch holes on the pieces using a hole punch. 




Step 3:

Put a willow stick through the holes in the cardboard pieces:



 If the stick is too skinny and the pieces slide off, you can use scissors to make a smaller hole for two cardboard pieces and put these on each end of the stick. This will keep the rest from falling off:




Step 4:

Give the cardboard kabob to your pet and watch them enjoy it. 


You can make all kinds of designs for you pet, here are three that I made:




The one with just the cardboard tubes on it was the bunnies favorite.




Friday, March 9, 2012

Some new shelter profiles

I haven't done any shelter profiles for a little while, so here are some new ones:


My first profile is of a dog named Henry:


Henry is a five year old terrier mix. He came to the shelter all the way from Alabama a couple of weeks ago. He is super cute with a super sweet personality to match. He loves to cuddle and hang out with his human buddies. He loves to go for walks, and enjoys jumping up and down like a pogo stick. He also loves to play with his toys, especially squeaky ones. He likes other animals so he would do great in a multi-pet household.


Too see pictures of Henry check out his petfinder page: http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/22362818


My next profile is a cat named Stardust:


Stardust is a seven- year- old tabby. She has been at the shelter for a while, ever since she came in as a stray. She loves treats (maybe a little too much!), especially Greenies. She likes to play with her toys, and she enjoys playing through her cage with the cat in the cage below her. (it is the cutest thing). She is very sweet, but she absolutely 100% HATES to be picked up. Once she is picked up she lets out the loudest and most pitiful howl, and may get nasty when you put her back down. So she is not the world's most cuddly cat, although she does like to be pet and to have your attention. I am not sure how she is with dogs, but she does seem to like other cats from what I have seen. At any rate she likes Stevey, the cat who lives in the cage below hers.


To see pictures of Stardust check out her petfinder page:
http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/21723613



And last but not least, is a profile of a rabbit named Roger:


Roger is a black medium sized rabbit. He came in as a stray a while back. He does not seem very used to being handled, but I have been trying to get him a little more used to it. He does not like to be picked up and does kick a bit, but once you are holding him securely he calms down. He would do best in a home where he wouldn't need to be picked up very often. He likes to be pet between his ears. He is very curious and likes to be able to get out of his cage and explore. He likes to have treats, toys, and something comfy to sleep in. His favorite pastime is shredding things, whether it is cardboard, paper, or newspaper. He seems to like other bunnies pretty well. I introduced him to Munchkin a while back and he seemed to like him. He also seems to like the rabbits in the cage next to his. 


To see a picture of Roger check out his petfinder page:
http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/22311411

Friday, March 2, 2012

updates

Hi everyone,

Unfortunately I have some sad updates. My little Pipsqueak passed away a couple weeks ago. I will miss her very much.

I will be getting back to some more blogging, the past few weeks have been a little crazy and a little sad, but I am going to try to do some more posts now.

My other update is that Stacy has needed a some extra post-operation care, and she is getting pain meds (she is weird, she LOVES pain meds, as soon as she sees the syringe (its an oral syringe) she gets very excited). Anyway she is starting to feel better now, but it has put off my bonding a little bit.

The bonding so far has been great, I am just getting bunnies to work a few things out. I have had to postpone any more bonding sessions though for a while until Cici is all better. I do have some bonding videos that I will be posting soon though. Once Cici is all better, I will do some more bonding and then hopefully it won't be long before they are ready to move in together.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

New video

I already did a post on here about Stacy getting spayed, but I made a video of it as well, for my youtube subscribers, and I put in a little more information, so here it is:





I meant to mention in the video what her pain medications were. The vet gave me Buprenex (buprenorphine) to give Stacy. She got a .15 ml. dose twice a day, for three days after the surgery.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Updates!

I have a few updates for you all!


So first off is some really good news! Patriot, who I did a shelter profile on recently, found a home this week! I got to see a picture of him with his new family and he looks really happy, and they seem like an active family, which is great for Patriot. 




And my next update is that Cici got spayed! She got spayed on Wednesday this week. She did great and she is recovering really well. She has some pain meds to help and she is already perking right up and being her usual self! 


Munchkin was very cute that day. Cici was at the vet most of the day, and Munchkin was not happy that she wasn't around. He just stayed near his door staring at Cici's cage and chewing on his bars for most of the day. When she came back he did a bunny flop and laid down all squished into the side of his cage as close to Cici as he could possibly get. It was adorable. Now that Cici is spayed she just has to have a few weeks to fully recover and then I can bond them and hopefully  get them living in the same cage soon.


I will do a post soon with more details about getting rabbits spayed and the special care involved.





Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Pictures

I may have put these up before, but I don't think I did, so here are some new pictures:





















Friday, January 20, 2012

Shelter Profile

I haven't done a profile of any of the shelter animals in a while, so I thought I would do one of a very special dog at the shelter right now named Patriot. (I love all the dogs, but Patriot is one of my favorites)


Patriot is a male pit bull. He was seized by the police or animal control, and brought to the shelter.  There was some domestic violence where he lived and in the midst of it, one of his owners stabbed Patriot in the neck with a knife. 


So Patriot was brought to the shelter and they gave him the medical attention that he needed. 


Patriot is recovered now and waiting to be adopted. He is a really fun-loving dog, and he has no fear of people at all despite what he went through. He just loves everybody!!! 


He can be a bit crazy, so he needs someone active who can take him on long walks and play with him to get all of his energy out. He is also very strong on the leash, so he needs someone who can handle that. 


He loves everybody but because he is so rambunctious, a home with young children would not be the best fit for Patriot. He would love them, but he isn't really aware of how big or strong he is, so he could easily knock some little ones down accidentally. 


He likes dogs of his own size, but he gets annoyed with small dogs.  


I am not sure how he is with cats, but I have the feeling he would think they were incredibly fun to chase around... all day. :)


When he isn't running around and playing, he is also a big cuddler. He likes to sit in my lap and he loves to give kisses. 


He also loves treats and toys, but he just loves being with people the best!


He knows how to sit, however he deems all of that information unimportant so his knowledge of commands is buried deep in his mind behind all of the more exciting things, so he does not always sit right away. 


He is recovered from his injury, but he still wears a shoulder harness instead of a collar, because his neck can still be a bit sensitive, especially if he was pulling on the leash or something, making the collar pull on his neck. 


Also just a note, because Patriot has been around for a while and is very special to the staff and volunteers and they want him to get a home, he has no adoption fee, so he is free!


For pictures of Patriot check out his petfinder page:


http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/21228858









Saturday, January 14, 2012

Bunny updates/ pictures of Cici

I have had Stacy for over a week now, so I thought you all would like some updates on how she is settling in..


She is quite comfortable now in her new cage. She keeps "re-decorating" it by moving all of her stuff to different places. 


I have been working on litter box training her. She has taken to it very quickly, and already does the majority of her business in there. Since she isn't spayed yet, she still does some territorial marking, but she is already doing less of that. 


Her and Munchkin LOVE each other. Since she isn't spayed yet, I haven't begun bonding them yet, but since their cages are near each other they are already paying a lot of attention to each other. They like to do things at the same time. They eat at the same time, play at the same time, nap at the same time, groom at the same time. It is really cute! 


Whenever I let Stacy out of her cage, she runs over to Munchkins cage and sticks her nose through the bars, and he runs over and they lay down with their noses pressed together, and they will just lay like that for a really long time. It is adorable! Sometimes they lick each other's faces through the bars. I'm going to try to get some pictures the next time they do that so you all can see!


As for getting Stacy spayed, she has an appointment with my vet. It isn't until the first of February though. I had been hoping to get her in sooner, but my vet is booked all through January. After she is spayed she will need at least three weeks for her incision to fully heal, and then i will begin bonding the bunnies. So by the end of February I will be starting to bond them. 


I also have a few new pictures of Cici for you: