For many, this time of year is full of hustle and bustle, finishing up at work, spending weekends with family and friends, planning an extravagant feast (or two!) and there’s always the last minute gift shopping. For some reason this side of winter, the one that comes before December 31st, seems to have so much cheer. It makes the cold and the snow that much more bearable. Have you noticed, our animals also tend to get a bit more cuddly in the winter? Cats are more prone to curling up in our lap while we’re relaxing, dogs may try to sleep in a bit longer when they can. Or maybe you have a Husky or other Nordic breed and this is their best time of year! This time of year we naturally tend to gravitate towards more social settings; not everyone enjoys being outside and the lack of natural sunlight can be a bit gloomy. One of the best ways to counteract this is to get together with others, indulge in yummy foods and decorate our spaces with lots of lights and sparkles. Our animals don’t understand holidays, or why there may be a sudden change in weekend activities but that doesn’t mean that we can’t involve them in the festivities! What we do need to remember as the caretakers of our furry friends, is that they do not always have the same threshold for large groups of people that we do. They also don’t understand the health risks that come with chewing on all the shiny new “toys” decorating the house, or when to stop overeating those rich tasting foods. It’s our job to keep an eye on our animals' mental and physical health so that they can enjoy this time of year with us.  If your household is the type to give gifts during the holidays, you don’t have to exclude your pets but you do have to watch what you wrap these gifts in! New plush toys, stockings with individually wrapped chews, catnip toys, toys that squeak, rustle or jiggle all add to our animals excitement during the holidays and it’s fun to wrap these items up because, let's be honest, our animals love tearing up paper almost as much as they love getting to the item inside the paper! However, we don’t recommend using brightly colored, sparkly wrapping paper. The paper we are used to seeing in stores for our own gift wrapping can be tinted with harmful dyes, coated in microplastic glitter and because our animals use their mouths for 90% of opening their gifts, you are better off using repurposed brown paper bags from the grocery store. You can still dress these up with cute ribbons to keep with an esthetic, just make sure you remove any ribbons before giving the gifts to your animals to open, especially cats, who may chew off and swallow harmful pieces. The bonus of using brown paper bags is that you can purchase catnip spray and spritz the outside of the bag to further entice your cat (or even dog!) to tear into it. Another fun way to wrap small, loose treats is to tuck them into toilet paper or paper towel rolls. We have a reel to our instagram account showing you how we did this. If gift giving isn’t your thing, there are still fun activities you can involve your pets in. One of the most popular things to do in the month of December in Edmonton is to take a stroll down Candy Cane Lane. Bundling up and taking a warm drink to go for a walk and look at all the lights is always a great way to spend an evening. We know that our dogs are better adapted to dealing with the cold than we are; they're covered in fur coats! But not all fur is made equally and not all dogs are as protected from the elements. And even the thickest double coated dog can still get cold feet, and little chunks of ice built up between their toes. It’s always a good idea to consider outfitting your pup with a set of boots and maybe a winter jacket, depending on how thick his coat is. We know that some dogs can be uncomfortable wearing apparel, which is why it's a good idea to start when your animal is young, if you can. Trying items on in the comfort of the house and being patient with you pup as he adapts to the new weight on his feet while he wears boots the first few times can really save you some frustrations later on. It can be quite hard to dig those little chunks of ice out mid-walk!  We have included a couple of recipes that you can make for your pets this holiday season so that they can enjoy a tasty warm treat as well. While both recipes mention to be refrigerated for storage, both can be gently warmed up to be fed to our pets. Test the temperature by placing a small droplet on the inside of your wrist; if the heat stings a bit, cool it down a bit before feeding to your cat or dog. While it is recommended to stick with a well rounded and balanced diet day to day, there are foods that are perfectly safe to be fed to our pets during the holiday feasting, in small portions as treats. Lean cuts of mildly seasoned meat, steamed vegetables with no fats added, the last of the canned pumpkin that the Pumpkin Pie recipe didn’t need. These foods will not overload an animal's system with unnecessary carbohydrates or grease, and if fed in small amounts, will not lead to digest upset. As a safety precaution, I have to state, never feed your animals cooked bones. These can splinter and cause damage to the trachea, stomach and intestines. If you are ever interested in feeding bones to your animals for dental health, always feed raw and always feed the appropriate size for your animal. We can help you discover the best options in store, we all deserve holiday fun and safety with our pets ! The holidays are always a whirlwind and they are often gone as quickly as they come. We hope that everyone has an enjoyable season and that you are able to spoil your loved ones and your pets with the thing they truly want most; time with you.

With summer coming to an end, many of our schedules are starting to ramp up. Gone are the relaxing days spent outside, be it at the pool, the lake, a friends BBQ or even just the extended walks down at the off leash park. Getting back into the full swing of work, school and sports, with the holidays looming on the horizon, you may find yourself pressed for time. As most of our summer activities can and usually do involve our companion animals, they can be greatly affected by this lack of time and energy we may now have for them. Sometimes this can lead to a few behaviors rearing up that we are not used to seeing; damaging items in the house, excessive barking at outdoor stimulus, chewing on paws or licking at the forearms, whining or yowling at night and digging (looking at you, Huskies) are just a few. As many pet parents are not able to put a full stop to their increasingly busy schedules, we would like to recommend some tools and solutions you can add into your animal's feeding routine that can greatly impact their digestive and mental health.  The first items we would like to recommend are puzzle toys that can be used to dispense treats, or even whole portions of food. Our favorite this summer has been the Toppl by West Paw. This deep bowl style toy can be filled with raw or canned or even softened kibble. Pet parents can layer them with food, liquid additions like goats milk or bone broth, fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables and then choose to feed them as is, or freeze them for a few hours to add an additional element come feeding time. Karlsson (pictured) took a whopping 47 minutes to finish his Toppl! By having your animal lick, chew, and have to problem solve how to get all the last little bits of their meal out, you are engaging certain instincts that they may otherwise be left untouched. Though it is a bit morbid, our domesticated animals still have many of the same instincts as their wild cousins, who catch and break down their prey.  A second highly beneficial tool we think pet parents should have in their arsenal (whether you have dogs, cats, ferrets or even rabbits) is a snuffle mat. These come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and skill levels. The main goal of a snuffle mat is to provide different textures and layers of fabric in which treats and food can be hidden. By choosing to feed your animal part or all of their meal concealed in the many pockets and rivets within the snuffle mat, this triggers your animal's foraging instinct. As you may know, our animals have a significantly better sense of smell than we do; while humans experience much of our world visually first, our animals often rely more on their noses. Experts have stated that 20 minutes of sniffling/snuffling can be equivalent to an hour-long walk in terms of mental enrichment. This is not to say that we believe you can skip walks or playtime all together, but snuffle mats are a great solution to when you are running low on time certain days of the week and you need a way to keep your four legged friend distracted for a while.  Our final recommendation is for the animals who inhale their meals. If you have one, you know what we mean; you can barely set the dish down and step back before your animal has dove in, only to finish eating in record time. This is incredibly unhealthy for your animal for a variety of reasons. Animals who eat like this are more likely to have unhealthy weight gain, which can lead to joint pain as they age. Another common issue when an animal eats too quickly is that their stomach actually rejects the meal and they end up throwing it all up again. Purging is different from vomiting and is often due to the speed at which an animal eats. A slow feeder bowl or a lick mat will be your best friend in these situations. With different grooves and nooks, food can be spread, smeared or scattered in the dish or on the mat. Animals then must lick at their meal, preventing them from getting large mouthfuls.  Our animals have much simpler lives than we do; their days are focused around observing the world from windows, napping, eating, spending quality time with us and spending some time outside, exercising and playing. Whether you find yourself short on time, lacking the energy to go for a walk or play vigorously, or if the weather is interfering with being outside (from heat domes to below -40), finding new and interesting ways to feed your animals their daily meals can greatly enrich their lives and take some of the pressure off of you. We’d love to help with that.

Here are some feeding tips for helping you transition your cat to a new diet, introducing a different flavour from their current or different brand, or to simply elevate their current diet. Every cat has taste preferences, just like we do, so don’t be discouraged if after you feel like you have tried everything, they still are not interested. That being said, cats can also be very stubborn and hesitant to change their diet, so here are some pointers that have helped in the past. Raw If your cat eats canned food, try mixing it with a small portion of raw food. Slowly increase the amount while decreasing the canned food until your cat is eating an exclusively raw diet. If your cat eats kibble, try offering the raw food on its own, and outside of mealtime. This can reduce the pressure to immediately eat the new food. Freeze Dried/Air Dried Offer it as a treat either rehydrated or not, if using Freeze Dried, but make sure if freeze dried is the source of the meal to rehydrate it. Canned Try mixing a small amount of their new food into their favourite old food, this will help them get a little taste of the new food, without being overwhelmed by it; slowly increase the amount until your cat is excited by the new food. Kibble Offer as a treat outside of mealtime; it reduces the pressure to immediately eat, and allows them time to investigate Mixing a small amount with their current food, and slowly increasing until they are eating mostly their new food.