Do You Make These Mistakes When Feeding Your  Small Pet?

So, you’ve got the ideal housing, you’ve purchased the best quality timothy hay, you ensure that your pet rabbit, guinea pig, chinchilla (or other small animal) has plenty of toys for stimulation, not to mention regular playtime and attention to keep him (or her) happy, and you ensure that you do your daily and weekly health checks to ensure he’s in the best condition possible.

But did you know that some of the most common mistakes pet owners make when feeding their pets are some of the easiest to avoid?  And these are not mistakes that we make knowingly – after all, we’d never intentionally do anything that isn’t in the very best interest of the smallest members of our families.

Mistake 1: Running out of timothy hay or pellets suddenly

Now, this might not sound such a big deal, because you can always nip down to the local pet store and pick up more, right?  Well, yes that’s certainly true.  But one thing that’s really important is not to make any changes in diet suddenly.  And, surprisingly enough, that means not changing to a new batch of hay or different brand of pellets in one go.

In other words, always try to ensure that order more food, be it pellets or timothy hay BEFORE you get to the end of the last batch.  That way you can mix the two lots together to ensure that you’re pet doesn’t have any adverse reaction to the change.  After all, different brands of pellets have slightly different ingredients, and different batches of timothy hay will come from different fields, slightly different growing condition and will have a slightly different nutritional content.

 Mistake 2: Is he getting his fair share?

Animals are not like humans – they don’t reason as we do.  Just because food arrives today, they don’t know that it’s going to arrive tomorrow.  And when you have more than one animal that lives together, they’ll always be one who’s ‘the boss.’  And by that, read that ‘he gets more than his fair share of food…’  He’ll always be the one who picks out the juiciest stalks of timothy hay, as well as getting the prime sleeping spot wherever and whenever he wants it.

Because of this, it’s essential to check that all your pets are getting their share of the food.  And if one isn’t, then he probably needs to be separated, just when he’s eating – so he get’s enough grub to keep him in good health.

Mistake 3:  Water: the key to your pet’s good health

Now, you might not think of water as a food, but what it does do is unlock the ability for your pet to gain the nutrition from his food.  Without water no living thing can survive.  And even a mild level of dehydration can inhibit a pet’s ability to full digest his food.

Because of this, it’s essential to supply your pet with more than one water source, just in case one gets knocked over or contaminated.

Mistake 4:  Not feeding your pet at consistent times each day.

Now, we humans can cope with going a little past our meal time (or even, in the case of some of us, missing out a meal or two on occasion).  But that’s our choice.  Our pets don’t have that choice, and rely on us totally to provide them with food and timothy hay, each and every day at approximately the same time.  And in the case of small pets, it’s

Mistake 5:  Too many treats.

Yep, one thing that’s the most difficult not to be guilty of, because we all love giving our pets treats.  And they know the exact way to make us feel guilty if we don’t respond to their needs…

There’s nothing wrong with giving treats every once in awhile, just make sure to you limit it.  The other thing you can do is try giving healthy treats or mixing in different kinds of hays from time to time.

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