Tuesday, May 13, 2014
New blog
As most of you who check out this blog may have guessed by that fact that I haven't done a post in 2 years (wow!) I have pretty much retired this blog, however I decided I would like to get back into blogging so I now have a new blog: The Bunny Beat dedicated to all things rabbit :). If any of you who read this blog are bunny lovers then be sure to check it out! The web address is www.thebunnybeat.blogspot.com
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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