Boredom

Sleepy Bean

With many all over the world home more now, what are you doing to combat boredom for yourself, and your pets? Our dog is definitely getting walked more often. She’s also enjoying more time on her own in the yard when the weather is nice. Yesterday she went out and sprawled out on the deck in the sunshine.

Cali got a hair cut and bath a couple of days ago. She’s looking better, but I still need to even up her face a little bit and get those stray hairs away from her eyes. I hate when she has hair over her eyes.

The dragon is getting more out of cage time. Sometimes she sits on my shoulder while I’m working. It hasn’t been warm enough to take her outside for some sunshine yet, but hopefully soon.  Unfortunately, floor time is tough for her with three cats in the house. I did bring her upstairs with me when I folded laundry yesterday. I was able to let her run around a bit in the closed laundry room, cat-free! Well, not quite cat-free, I kept seeing paws appear under the door.

Hector D. Byrd is having a great time! I open her cage when I get up in the morning, and it is only closed for short periods of time when I have to go upstairs  or outside. Yesterday while I was on my computer she climbed down to the floor and started running around (she doesn’t fly) and laughing. The second I would turn to look at her, she would freeze and look at me.

Hector Plays Yahtzee

A couple of nights ago, Hector joined us for family game night. She likes to be part of things.  Another thing she likes to take part in is family dinner. We have been having family dinners pretty much every night since we are all home together now. Our dinner table is just a couple of feet from Hector’s cage, and she loves when we have dinner at the table. Since birds are social creatures, they love to eat with their flock. Hector will usually go eat something when we have food. She always has pellets in her cage, and depending on what we are eating for dinner, I will save her some veggies, or potatoes or very occasionally a baked french fry. Last night while we were eating, Hector was chirping and whistling and hanging out. My son left dinner a little early for an online meeting, and after he left Hector got down from her cage and walked over to me. I picked her up, put her on the back of my son’s chair, and she hung out with us and ate a fry. She was so happy! Our daughter was less happy. She is not a fan of birds!

The Baby Bean

The cats have been bringing their toys all over the house, Bean loves to chase anything that makes noise, ping pong balls, bell balls, and especially a toy mouse that makes a weird electronic chirping noise. That last one wakes up the entire house when he decides to play with it in the middle of the night! We have been trying to teach Bean to play Fetch, Puck plays, but Bean just grabs the toy and takes off with it. He can’t seem to figure out the bringing it back part.

I’m trying to come up with new ways for the cats, and especially Bean, the kitten, to amuse themselves. I’ve seen some interesting cat feeders lately where the cat has to do something to get the food out of the feeder. I found a brand called Catit that has some really interesting looking feeders. I’m hoping they will send me a unit or two to review. I’ll keep you posted.

Speaking of the cats, Puck seems to be doing well.  He is acting normally and not spending extra time in the litter box. I’m feeding them canned food formulated for urinary health twice per day, and they also have dry food that is for urinary health now. I’m glad the little guy seems to be getting some relief. He is such a sweet kitty!

Little Pucky Boo Boo

Is there any cat owner that doesn’t hate the litter box? With three cats and four litter boxes, it has been a battle lately. The Breeze box I have upstairs is OK. I made the mistake of buying some Amazon pads instead of the Breeze brand ones, and they don’t contain the smell nearly as well. I will use them up to not waste them, but I have to change them twice as often as the Breeze ones. I’ll be happy when I run out!

My other three litter boxes are just regular boxes with clumping litter. I don’t know what is going on with them lately, but there is so much cat litter on the floor! The cats are tracking it everywhere. I’m thinking of switching to pine litter to see if the bigger chunks spread around less. Either that or I need to find a new kind of box. Something has to change because I’m finding myself vacuuming almost every day to deal with all the litter.

Stay safe everyone. Enjoy the extra time with your pets, and let me know what you are doing to keep them and yourselves entertained.

Extra Time to Write

Bean has been checking his crystal ball, but no news on when the Corona virus will clear up. We all hope everyone is staying safe and well. On a positive note, I’m hoping the extra time at home will give me more time to update this blog. Let me know if there is a topic you would like covered.

Before I get into an update on my own creature friends, just a note to spread the word that reliable sources say pets can not carry Corona virus. I’m seeing to many stories about pets being dumped at shelters because people are scared. Keep your pets close and let’s get through this together.

Hector is a bit tired of having people around all the time. While she likes attention and activity, she is a little upset that her routine has been messed with. She is dealing with our later breakfast time, but she would definitely like some more quiet time. I’m often finding her with her head curled up trying to nap on top of her cage.

Wena, the bearded dragon, is doing well.  She’s been shedding like crazy and eating a ton. Thankfully I can still get live insect shipments delivered for her. Her body has mostly shed, but her head, back legs, and tail still need to go,  lots of baths for her.

Bean AND Logan

Bean isn’t always nice to Logan, but Logan can also be the cranky old lady. I do still catch Bean chasing her at times, but the other day I caught the two of them snuggling. Logan didn’t seem to mind Bean using her as a pillow. Nice to see them getting along!

 

Cali and Bean love to greet me when I come in the house even if I’ve only been gone a few minutes to grab the mail or put out the trash. Both are VERY happy to have people around all the time.

 

Our sweet boy Puck isn’t doing very well right now.  I feel so bad for him. He still seems to be suffering the effects of the cystitis he was diagnosed with a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it is my fault. I’ve been trying some non-prescription urinary health cat foods, but not the prescription one, after yesterday when I had to call the vet again, I’ve got him on the prescription diet, and now he is also on pain killers again.

The problem is that we have three cats in the house, and the prescription food is super expensive. One tiny little 3oz can costs about $1.50. The other problem is that Puck doesn’t love canned food.  He will eat a bit, then leave. This morning I mixed his canned food with a little extra water, and he actually seemed to really like that, and the extra water is supposed to be good for him. I invested in the prescription dry food as well, but it really isn’t sustainable to keep all three cats on this prescription food. The dry food is $40 for a 7lb bag, vs. about $20 for the 7 pound bags I used to buy.

This morning, Puck got his special prescription canned food, and the other two cats split a big can of the non-prescription urinary health food. Puck seemed to eat as much as he wanted before he left. Someone suggested a chip-reading feeder. I’m thinking about trying one, and setting it up so that Bean and Logan could eat from it, but not Puck, and then I can try to keep Puck eating only his prescription canned food. Of course the chip-reading feeders are also pretty expensive.  Maybe I can find a couple of them to review and check out.

If anyone has any other ideas on keeping Puck healthy without spending quite so much on prescription cat food, I’d love any new ideas.

Stay well everyone, and enjoy your pets!

Home Again

I always get a little stressed about leaving the pets behind when I head off on vacation.  I quickly let it go once I’m away from the house, but before I leave, I make lists and prep food, and make sure to leave emergency numbers, etc. This time, my son was taking care of all the babies, so I wanted to make it as simple for him as I could.

I left dog food in individual containers so an allergy pill could be added in the morning, and the containers could just be fed to the dog. No mixing of wet and dry food required, easy!

Hector D. Byrd’s food was made up and in the fridge, a scoop in her bowl, and she was all set.

The Dragon’s salad was ready to go, and the cats had a big dispenser of dry food.

Bean grew!

Cali decided not to eat while I was away. Well, she ate, but left enough food in her bowl to show my son she was displeased that I was away. Hector loves my son, so I’m pretty sure she didn’t even miss me.

Bean was naughty. He destroyed the new cover my husband and son made for the dragon tank. The one that was designed to keep him and Puck from hanging out on top of the tank. He also went into my son’s room at night and meowed at him to wake him up, then curled up on the bed and went to sleep. I guess he just wanted my son to know that he had arrived.

Cali and Puck were waiting for treats as usual, spoiled babies.

What else is new? I’m still trying to sort out Cali’s allergies.  Even though we increased her Apoquel, she is still itching, and it’s expensive.  She is due to see the vet in a couple of weeks, so I’ll go over the allergy thing with him then and see what new ideas we can come up with.

Logan the cat has been throwing up. It took me a little while to figure out which cat was throwing up.  With three in the house, it isn’t easy to narrow this stuff down. I’ve started added a bit of pumpkin to her diet to see if that helps fix the problem. The cats are currently getting a mix of dry food with half dental care formula, and half hairball remedy, then they get a little bit of canned food mixed with pumpkin once a day. Hopefully the pumpkin will help.

The Breeze litter box is still working out really well. I’m not convinced I would want all four of my boxes to be Breeze based on the cost of the pads and pellets, but the single one upstairs is working out really well. There is no odor at all, and really no work to it. The cats mostly use it to pee, so I just change the pad once a week and it is good to go. I still want to check out an automated litter box, but haven’t decided which one to invest in yet.

Hector is quiet today, the cats aren’t around at the moment, and Cali is napping. Time to get some work done.

Leave a comment and let me know what you do with your pets when you travel.

 

Post Holidays

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, or Hanukah, or just some nice family time, whatever you are celebrating. We certainly enjoyed the festivities here. It was wonderful to be home, and to have the whole family together.

After finding the kitties playing in the Christmas tree again last night, I think we will be rushing to take the tree down this year before the kitties do it for us! The kitties also got a new climbing tree for Christmas, but we are waiting to set it up until the tree is gone so we have enough room for it. Hopefully we can get the holiday tree packed up and the cat tree set up over the weekend.

Did your pets get holiday treats? Puck, Bean and Logan have plenty of new toys, Cali has new treats, toys, and a new jacket. We even managed to find my daughter a jacket to match Cali’s. The only thing I can’t figure out is why I find hoods on dog coats so often. They never work!

Hector loves to open presents. She spent most of the afternoon working on this package until all the paper was sufficiently shredded. So far, she has been much less interested in the toys that were inside the package than she was with the package. Next year maybe I’ll just wrap some empty boxes for her.

The lizard didn’t really need much for Christmas, so she got some new greenery for her tank. I just got it set up this morning. I think it makes her tank look nicer, but she hasn’t shown any interest in it at all yet.

Weena is way in the back right hand corner behind the tree trunk.

What did your pet-friends get for the holidays?

Coming up soon on the blog, I’ll be testing out a new litter box with the cats. It’s the TidyCat Breeze litter box. It has a pad system and it supposed to be low litter tracking, so I want to try it out in my laundry room where the extra cat box there is causing some litter mess. I also have some more treat reviews coming, and I still need to get my Pet Fountain review written up. Let me know if there is any kind of product you would like me to check out, or if there is a product you love that I should take a look at.

If anyone is interested in feeding outside birds, I found an article about safe human foods to feed them that you might find valuable: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/feeding-birds/safe-food-for-birds/household-scraps-for-birds/

Purrs, barks, and tweets!

 

 

Holiday Season

Do you include your pets in your holiday festivities? My pets have been involving themselves! Boxes everywhere, and everyone loves them! The cats hide in them, and Hector chews them.

The cats think that putting up the Christmas tree was the best thing we have ever done for them. Little Bean loves to knock the ornaments off the tree, and Puck has been caught trying to climb it more than once. Hector D. Byrd HATES change. She is very thankful the tree is no where near her cage, but she does seem to enjoy holiday music with all the bells.

Cali needs a haircut!

As I started to get a few presents wrapped an under the tree, I realized that none of my packages were going to have pretty bows this year. Bean thinks bows are toys, and I’ve just been finding them all over the house.

We will be home for Christmas, which is perfect because I really prefer to share the holidays with all my pet-babies. Everyone will have presents under the tree. Cali sometimes likes to open her own presents.  Hector definitely enjoys opening gifts.

I don’t usually do anything big/expensive for gifts, unless there is something a pet needs that I was able to time right and purchase for the holidays.  This year, Hector is getting a couple of new toys, Dragon is getting a new vine decoration for her tank, Cali is getting some treats and a toy, and the kitties also have treats and a couple of little toys. Since Bean is new to our house and Bean LOVES to climb, I did splurge a little this Christmas, and got the cats a new cat tree. It’s 72″ tall and has platforms and scratching posts. I think the kitties are going to be very excited!

How are you going to celebrate the holidays with your pets?

Reviews are coming!

I’m really excited to let everyone know that I’ve got some new reviews in the works! I have a couple of sample products from Stella & Chewy’s that I’m really excited about.  They seem like a great company that has some high quality food products.  I’ll be filling you in on their Freeze-Dried Raw Wild Weenies, and Meal Mixers very soon!

I’ve also got some Hemp Oil treats from Pet Ness to check out. I’ve been using CBD Oil with my dog for a while, I’m very interested to see how these treats work. Cali will soon be sampling “Happy” and “Calm” can’t wait!

And there’s more! I’ve got a cool product called a Wag Tag that I’m testing out, and reviews of TWO PetSafe Water Fountains.  It’s going to be a busy week!

Stella and Chewy’s:  http://<https://www.stellaandchewys.com>

Pet Ness:  http://<https://petness.com>

Wagtag:   <https://tinyurl.com/y5beevus>

PetSafe:  http://<https://www.petsafe.net>