Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties are synonymous with family reunions, gifts, abundant dinners, fireworks and joy. To enjoy these holidays to the fullest, but safely for your pets, from Best for Pets we leave you the following recommendations:
Wraps are not gifts for your pet
Although it may not seem like it, gift wrapping can be very dangerous for your pet. Ribbons or ribbon rosettes can be ingested (particularly by dogs) or can accidentally choke the pet (particularly cats). Pay attention to the small wires that hold the objects inside their packaging, the boxes and cardboard parts, the small plastic hooks or any other object that may attract your pet’s attention.
Best for Pets tip: When opening gifts, bring two garbage containers, one for the paper or cardboard and one for the plastic parts. This will keep your pets safe, get everything tidy right away, and finally you can take all that extra holiday trash to a recycling point and help the environment.
Many families enjoy dressing up or “accessorizing” their pet during the holidays. Whether you put on an Easter hat, elk antlers, party favors or a costume, keep in mind that it will not necessarily be liked by your cat or dog.
Make sure that it is comfortable, that it does not have parts that could choke him (for example, the elastic of the hats), that it does not cause him too much heat or prevent him from moving. Remember that a pet that is uncomfortable, sore, or less able to move can react unpredictably or even aggressively to something as harmless as a caress.
Best for Pets Advice: If your dog is a “fabric glutton” or your cat goes crazy with strings and other similar objects, resign yourself and avoid putting things that can end up in his stomach and incidentally, with your celebrations, for having to run to the veterinary clinic.
Be careful with the decorations
With the passing of the years and globalization, in Chile there is an increasing production of Christmas decorations for the home, making this activity one of the most anticipated panoramas of the season. The Christmas tree, the little booties hanging on the fireplace (well…in the Bosca turned off, but it counts the same), the mistletoe on the threshold of the door, the pendant lights, scented candles and a wide etc… count as potential dangers to your pet.
The flickering of lights or the flicker of a burning candle in the dim light can be too interesting to ignore. Since no one wants power outages or worse, fires from inappropriate interactions with these items, keep them on only when someone can supervise your pets. You have to take into account that many decorative tree tassels are made of glass and inside they have a metal hook, that is, “drama, drama” in case your pet throws them away, they break when they fall to the ground and then eat them .
Best for Pets Tip: If your cat is the victim of the God-level gravitational pull of a Christmas tree, put one or two wells with lemon zest and/or peel at the base so that the smell bothers him when approaching and also try to hold the tree with fishing line or another similar to a hook on the roof so that, if it supports its legs, it does not bounce.
Anti fireworks bunker
Who could not enjoy the fireworks at the end of the year??? Well, anyone with more sensitive hearing than humans, for example, ALL cats and dogs (and horses, too, by the way). It is true that some of them can learn to tolerate them better than others, but surely there is no animal that “enjoys” them.
Just because your pet hasn’t exhibited signs of stress in the face of fireworks, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention to her behavior during these events. Even more so, if your cat or dog already becomes very nervous or aggressive, tries to escape, hides, loses control of his sphincters or vocalizes excessively, it is NOT recommended to try to “get him used to it”, because you will surely aggravate things.
Fears and phobias must be treated with the utmost care and with professional advice. Prevent your pet from developing or suffering a crisis of anxiety, fear or even phobia of fires by leaving it in a “bunker room”, which must meet the following requirements:
Safety: Check that the room does not have objects that could harm your pet, for example, if you leave it in a bathroom, remove the towels, the soap (and/or the ceramic soap dish), the curtain, etc… The idea is that If you get very nervous, do not have an object that you can break or ingest.
Noise isolation: The room can be acoustically isolated or you can put a background noise that masks the shots.
Entertaining: Leave him something to entertain himself if he’s not panicking. You can leave him a stuffed toy with something very tasty and/or his favorite toy.
Low light: in general, the penumbra produces more tranquility than a very lit place, therefore ideally leave your pet in a dimly lit place or with the light turned off