Pet Shopping

I'm back home after a long day of shopping around town with my Mom. Most of the shopping was pet related (as usual), although some was also for myself. It's ridiculous how excited I get when I find something new and improved for my pets. Remember how excited I was when I bought the automatic self-cleaning litter box? Today was almost as exciting. What I bought today:

Photo: Walmart

1. Bamboo Eco Potty Pads, with adhesive strips! When Odie is at my parent's house, where they have an easily accessible yard, she is 100% housetrained, no doubt about it. She whines at the door to be let out, and does her business quickly. At home, it's a bit of a different story. We don't have an easily accessible yard. In fact, we have no yard. A trip outside means getting a harness and leash on, and wearing "real" clothes so the neighbours don't think we're weirdos. We are weirdos, but they don't need to know that. We have a covered patio, and we've started to put a house training pad out there. It's still technically outside, and she has to go through a door to use it, so we're hoping it will catch on. We're almost there. We've tried the fake grass system, which Odie loved, but we hated. I would love to grow real grass in a garden box for her, but unfortunately the patio is so well covered that it doesn't get any sun. Because it's outside, and sometimes it gets windy, the adhesive strips are going to come in handy. I also like that the pads are made out of bamboo. 


2. Puppy Love small elk antler chew. I can't wait to give this to Odie! There's some debate on whether or not antler chews are safe for dogs. After some research, i've decided that it sounds safe enough to try. Obviously, I will be supervising her chewing, and I won't leave her alone with it. We recently bought her a bully stick that she LOVES. What exactly is a bully stick? Literally, it's bull penis. Not joking. Apparently they are amazing for a dog's teeth. Even if they weren't, they're incredible enrichment, and keep her busy for hours. 

Photo: HeartyPet

3. Zuke's Clean Apple Crisp Z-Bones. They're pricey, but Ode loves them. One of the things I like about this company, is that a percentage of their sales is donated to The Dog and Cat Cancer Fund yearly. These bones are grain free, and are supposed to "freshen doggy breath". We had a miniature schnauzer, Fritz, that had arthritis. To give him a dose of glucosamine and chondroitin (as well as a treat), we would give him their hip action treats daily. I really feel that they made a difference. Which leads me to my next purchase...

Photo: Zuke's

4. Don't think that I left the cats out! I bought them a new kong toy, and some Zuke's Cat Hip Action soft treats. These are basically the same as their hip action treats for dogs, except for cats. Our cats are definitely not old, but they're approaching what could be considered middle age. We don't give them a lot of treats, but I hope that this one will become a daily ritual to ease them into their retirement. 


And there you have it. I also bought a million (not literally) cans of cat food that I've found that the cats love! In case anyone is wondering, they're now eating B.F.F. and Go! canned cat food, with some Grasslands Acana kibble thrown in to beef it up a little. I chose the Acana kibble, and canned food because of the low ash content, which I'm told is related to bladder crystals, which we would like Lance to NEVER HAVE AGAIN! So far, so good. 

Bison Bison

We made a trip to our favourite pet shop a few days ago, after deciding that a diet change was in order for all of our animals. After chatting to the lovely people over at my favourite chihuahua forum (yeah, I'm one of those people), we've decided to switch to a mostly wet food diet for both Odie and the cats. After being educated on the lack of moisture (which is needed for healthy organs) in kibble, I'm becoming more confident that we're making the right choice. That information was confirmed by our vet, who suggests that cats be switched to an entirely wet food diet as they get older, to support their kidneys. One of our cats has an issue with urinary crystals, and apparently a lack of moisture in a diet can lead to this.


A lot of dog and cat owners are switching to a raw only diet. Some people swear by it, and some against it. Anyway, we're not at the point where we're confident we could balance a raw only diet, which is essential. However, I like the idea of a dog's teeth being cleaned naturally by chewing on a bone. Cooked bones are a definite no, as they can splinter and cause serious health issues or even death.


I'm not familiar with the meat department (I can find the turkey leg stand at Disneyland though), so I thought it might be a good idea to buy something for her from the pet store so it was a sure thing. These were the smallest that we could find, and they're fairly local...

Yummy!

This is probably going to be a weekly thing, and once I learn a bit more about what's safe and what-not,   i'll switch it up a bit. The bison was a definite hit! She LOVED it. At first, we put it on a towel in her kennel, but after she realized it was something worth protecting, she grabbed it and took it onto our rug. Gross! Next, I tried a towel on the ground, but the second a cat came to investigate she took off with it again. Once again, our makeshift gates saved the day.

It kept her contained, and also kept the cats safe. Both of them wanted to check out to see what was going on, and Odie was in full protection mode. We heard her make a sound we've never heard before. She didn't seem to mind when we came by, but look out cats. Yikes.

She seemed to be more interested in what was attached and in the bone, rather than the bone itself. I'm hoping next time she'll get more into it. It might help if we got something a bit smaller. She wasn't a big fan of having to put her paws on it, and was trying to avoid it until there was no other way around it. When she had enough, she started wiping her face on the towel. We have a really clean dog. I was a little worried about the affect of this on her tummy, but there were no issues what-so-ever. It kept her busy for a good 45 minutes--great enrichment! Definitely something we'll do again. 

Thanks, Mom!

H2O

You may have noticed that I'm addicted to buying my pets things. Usually they are things that are necessary, sometimes they're not. Recently, we decided to buy a communal water dish for all the pets. We have a small ottoman that we put the cat's food and water on so Odie can't get it, and Odie's dishes are on the floor. The ottoman also doubles as an unfortunate scratching post, and we'll likely have to find a solution to that in the future, because it's a hideous clawed mess. When we first brought Odie home, we bought her porcelin food and water dishes and thought it would be funny to have them engraved with "food" and "water" in spanish (so she could read it).

Water

The problem is that the dish isn't very deep, and the cats don't just stick to their own water dish. Odie lets us know by whining when it's empty, but if no one is home, then she's out of luck. The food dish is perfect, because chihuahuas don't eat that much. Since the new water dish would be for all three animals, I thought it would be nice to get one with a fountain and filter. I picked up a Petmate Fresh Flow fountain, and I was really impressed with it at first. After about an hour, it sucked. It started making crazy sounds, and Odie was extremely cautious when approaching it. For awhile, she sat a meter away from it and whined. When I would unplug it and plug it back in and wiggle everything inside, it would return to normal. After a couple more hours, it was the crazy sounds again. I followed all the troubleshooting instructions, but it continued. Back it went. I've read some really great reviews of it online, but I didn't feel like getting another one and possibly have to return it too.


Instead of the fancy fountain, I bought a plain jane waterer, and it's great. No, the water isn't flowing, but it does the job. I found it at walmart, in the cat section (all of the ones in the dog section were huge). It's not very pretty, and isn't engraved, but we don't have to worry about anyone going without water. We might upgrade to something different and non-plastic in the future, but this'll do for now.