Halloween is just around the corner. Ah yes, the spooky decorations and kids dressed up as Mickey Mouse or Caption Jack Sparrow, going door to door for some candy. With all this chaos going around we tend to forget about our little furry friends. If you have a small pet such as a rabbit or a hamster or like me, a chinchilla, you are going to want to read this. Unlike most articles on the internet that talk about dog or cat safety tips, I will talk about rabbits and other small animal safety tips.
To start things off, keep your pets away from the door. Your small animals will not like all the chaos and commotion that is going on at the front door. They will be immediately scared and run for cover. If you have a bird, the bird could even fly out the door! So try to keep your rabbits and other small animals away from the door. They will not enjoy being close to it!
Secondly, Jack O’lanterns, candles and holiday decor could easily get knocked over by your curious pet. Rabbits love light and could very easily hurt themselves by getting close to a candle. You also have to be extremely careful with birds because open flames can endanger them and birds could fly into a Jack O’Lantern (something that you don’t want happening). Lastly many chinchillas and rabbits and other animals love pumpkins, so try to keep those Jack O’Lanterns outside until Halloween is over. After you have used your pumpkin for Halloween, throw it away because it is not safe for your small furry friends to eat the pumpkin.
Thirdly, if you have to dress up your small pets then try to be careful and make sure they are comfortable. I would strongly not recommend you dressing up rabbits, chinchillas or birds. But if you do dress them up, please keep a watch on them when they have it on. The problem with putting a costume on your small pet is that it is not exactly exited to be wearing a costume in the first place. Your pet will become scared because it can’t move normally and will start knocking things down.Your pets can even get tangled in it or start chewing on it, causing GI issues and sometimes even choking. They can really injure themselves, so my advice would be no costumes for your small pets, they really hate it.
Lets not for get about electrical cords and decorations. If you are going to have cords all over the place durning Halloween then be extra careful with your small pets. They will be tempted to chew them and as we all know small pets are notorious for that. You don’t want your small pet to get an electric shock or start a fire. Also be careful with fake spider webs, as many animals can get tangled in them and start to eat them causing some serious intestinal problems. So please be careful with wires and spider webs.
Last but not least, the shiny warps from candy or plastic bags can cause bad intestinal problems and are very dangerous for birds and rabbits, because they are attracted to them. Keep your small pets away from the candy bags and the candy bowl. They obviously cannot eat those items. Also remember to make sure everyone properly disposes of all the candy wrappers. If someone forgets to dispose of them then your small furry pet can get sick from ingesting left over candy or plastic foil wrappers. And lastly, if you have kids make sure your small pets stay away from you child’s bag that is full of candy!
I hope these little safety tips for your furry little friends help you! Every pet deserves to be safe for Halloween. Unfortunately I was shocked to see how very few articles there are on small pets. I certainly learned somethings from doing research on this and will be extra careful with my chinchilla this Halloween!
Heather Bechtel , “Halloween Pet Safety Tips” The Rabbit Haven