With Easter right around the corner, it’s a great time to start thinking about how you can ensure your pet has a safe and fun Easter! The human treat-filled holiday may be fun for us, but a lot of what is consumed during this time can be harmful to animals. Recognising these risky foods can ensure you have a vet-free holiday and will have more time to enjoy your long weekend with family and friends.
See below for harmful food to look out for and a bonus DIY game our pets can enjoy this Easter:
Pet Foods To Avoid: Chocolate
Most of us will know that chocolate is extremely harmful to pets, but some might not know exactly why. Chocolate contains a chemical compound called ‘theobromine’ which causes a significant slow in an animal’s metabolism, causing health issues. Signs to look out for if you believe a dog, cat or even bird has consumed chocolate are vomiting, diarrhea, hyperactivity, and even seizures.
Pet Foods To Avoid: Hot Cross Buns
The popular Australian Easter treat can contain not only chocolate but also raisins, which are highly toxic to our furry friends. Raisins and grapes can cause kidney failure, so it’s best to keep all types of these buns away from animals. If you believe your pet has eaten raisins, look out for lethargy, reduced urination, vomiting and tremors.
Pet Foods To Avoid: Bones
You may think that leftover bones are a good idea for your pets to chew on instead of throwing them out; however, cooked bones should not be given to animals big and small. The cooked bones lose their moisture during the cooking process, causing them to possibly splinter. These small splinters can get stuck in an animal’s throat, which can be very painful and may need to be removed via surgery. A better alternative would be large raw bones from a butcher. Unsure which size to purchase? Aim for about the same size as your pet’s head.
Pet Dangers To Avoid
A good thing to remember is to keep easter decorations away from our pets as they could be a potential choking hazard or toxic. Always check if flowers should be kept away from animals. For the best safety, wrappers should be collected off the floor immediately.
Let’s play a pet game!
Easter can be a stressful time for our beloved pets; having a crowd coming through their domain might be frightening to them, so enrichment tasks, like games to boost cognitive function, can be a great way to distract our pets and keep them calm during the Easter season.
How to set up a pet-friendly Easter Egg hunt!
Choose a pet-safe treat
We recommend browsing through our ‘treats’ category on our website to find our selection. New registered customers can use the code ‘NEW’ for 5% off their first shop.
Remove the pet from the search area
Hide all treats, taking note of how many you have placed and where. We recommend areas that are accessible to your pet but not too easy, we want our pets to have to work for their treats.
DIY containers
A great way to hide some treats is inside a bath towel! Lay a bath towel flat whilst placing treats on the towel and spreading them evenly around on the left-hand side. You can then fold the right side of the towel over the left side and roll from the bottom up, creating a large towel roll
Unleash the Beast!
Show your pet some of the hiding areas to encourage participation, and then they will sniff out the remaining treats.
Make Easter Spectacular With PetNest
