Month: May 2022

Organic veggies for Guinea pig and rabbit clients

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Due to popular interest, Cats and Hamsters is now pleased to offer rabbit and Guinea pig pet sitting and boarding clients a new daily fresh produce option – Cats and Hamsters’s Special Selection!

This new option will include a species-appropriate vegetable and fruit selection comprising a special selection of:

  • organic produce
  • produce grown by myself from seed in my community garden plot
  • produce from the public markets

I am excited to share that this summer I am trying a local organic farm share, La ferme coop Aux Champs qui Chantent, and will include produce from that share in the daily Special Selection. La ferme coop Aux Champs qui Chantent is a local, organic, worker-owned, worked-run cooperative. Their pick up locations include the Plateau and Petite Patrie. Their philosophy includes offering good, healthy food and making it accessible. So uncollected shares are donated to community organizations and they offer “Solidarity Baskets,” where a weekly basket can be subsidized via donation and members can request a basket at a reduced rate to match economic need.

The original daily fresh produce service for Guinea pig and rabbit clients is still available, and may or may not include some of the same items in the Special Selection.

Clients who prefer to specify a specific list of vegetables and fruit for their Guinea pigs and rabbits can choose the concierge service.

Trim your cat’s nails or get someone else to do it for you

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I saw this great TikTok about overgrown cat nails and what that means for the cat:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMLokDqsM/?k=1

I have posted a number of Facebook Lives and YouTube videos about how to trim cat claws.

Some cat owners think their indoor-only cat can maintain their claws solely via scratching posts, but I’ve repeatedly found this to be ineffective. Cats might be able to sharpen their claws on a scratching surface, but not all cats are able to do this, and the resulting claws end up needle-sharp! If a cat’s nails becomes overgrown, it will continue to grow into a circle until it embeds itself into the cat’s paw pad, which is painful and can lead to infection, as is shown in the TikTok above.

If you are uncomfortable trimming your cat’s nails, then have someone else else do it. Veterinarian clinics, pet stores, pet sitters, groomers, etc. will often offer pet nail trimming. Mobile groomers and pet sitters can come to your home so the cat doesn’t have to go anywhere. I offer this service on its own and I also include it without extra charge when I am cat sitting, because it helps everyone when cat nails are trimmed! If the cat gets very stressed, fearful, aggressive for nail trimming, veterinarians can sedate them for the nail trimming.

Small pet nail trimmers are best for cats and can be very inexpensive, like the model the vet is using in this TikTok. Like nail clippers, nail trimmers need to be sharp in order to cut the nail cleanly, so they will need to be replaced every so often depending on use. Maybe every other year for one cat.

Don’t worry about getting all of the claws at once – it’s perfectly fine to trim a couple and take a break. And giving lots of treats throughout can help to make it a positive experience for everyone!