Feliway diffuser

Our little Jelly hasnt been herself recently! When I stay away for the night she is sick in my bedroom and has a bald tail and belly. 

We've been to the vets who told us apart from giving her a steroid injection there wasnt much she could do, saying it was probably due to stress. 

Now I've heard of the 'Feliway' series of products and i did use this one a couple years ago when we introduced our little kitten Boulle (who is not so little AT ALL any more) into the family, but it is very difficult to tell if it made a difference when there wasn't a problem really to begin with. It says it can take up to 2 months to work (which is a whopping £70 later) but we have to try something for our little baldy! I'll post again then with progress! ☺️

Snowflake bedding (for small animals)

Ive been trying out different bedding with the rabbits and guinea pigs for a few months now, and ive decided the best one is snowflake. Its easy to carry (compared to other big sacks of different shapes), its soft on your hands to drag out of the bag (no splinters like bedmax!), only cost £8.99, and last me a good month with 8 little ones in 3 sheds on it! I dont know if its just me, but i personally love the smell of a fresh bed. With other beds i find you have to spray a cage fresh on them to get such a fresh smell but snowflake just has that natural woody smell, despite it being dust extracted. I think that is another bonus because theres no cloud left in the shed that i worry about letting the buns in to breath it all in! They all look comfy because its as soft on their feet as it is on my hands and thats the most important thing, aswell as being super absorbant (its designed for horses so it would have to be). But overall its my favourite bedding to use and i wont be swapping and changing with out a need to! 

Summer huf gel (Effol)

So this might sound mad,but a lady at work last week told me its not only excellent for putting moisture back into horses hooves, its actually really good for human nails! So ive been trying it on MY nails for the last week and have to say i have yet to see an improvement, but we'll see what it does for my weak little tips :(

Rosewood cat collar

Before christmas i bought boulle a new collar from the pet shop i work in (Pulfords of Dunmow). It cost about £5.30 which is the more expensive end  of a collar, but i thought he deserved a little treat for christmas! So far its been really good quality, none of the crystals have fallen off, and despite the  scratching and licking (that cats will do on ANY collar) its stayed together perfectly! I also think it looks very cute but maybe thats down to opinion😜

Harriet the hedgehog

Ive had an African pygmy hedgehog since february now, and though she has to be THE grumpiest animal i have ever met, she does love a bath and a tickle.

Syrian vs Russian!

So theres a lot of debate about which breed of hamster is best, which is why when I asked for a hamster, (for my 19th birthday- grown up i know ;) ) my mum bought me both breeds!

Syrians have to be housed alone, and apparently russians can be paired together, but the pair I had attacked each other and one died, the night before I got them. Which left me with one Syrian (Mollie) and one Russian (John), in separate cages.

I have to say that Mollie is really very friendly, she comes up to the bars as soon as you come in the room, crawls straight into your hand and is quite happy to just run around your lap.

John is just as friendly, really inquisitive, but less easy to handle. I let him run over my hands in the cage but he really is too quick to just freely hold.

They really are both lovely, so I would say its down to a) personal preference and b) experience/age

If its for a child, I would definitely say a syrian is a better choice, but if you want something a little bit more challenging to train and really funny to look after, try a pair or triplet of russians out :)

So as the summer months are coming (she says hopefully) I went out and bought a new run for my rabbits. I decided on a wooden frame design from pets at home, as it looks nice and wasn't too expensive (£40 when I got it)

It's called the 'Rose' by pets at home, comes as a flat pack and (for my dad) was fairly easy to put together! (I cannot use a power drill to save my life as you can see from the picture below)

However, once it was up and together, it looks pretty good, sturdy, and tall enough for my large lionheads.

Good points-

• The lid of the run is sturdy enough that a rabbit would definitely not push it open, and has 2 clips to hold it down
• The mesh is a good quality, thick metal, so it should last
• on two sides there are mesh panels you can remove, so you can atatch it to a hutch, or to another run (see below picture for what I did and ignore the mess!) 

Bad points-

• Only half the lid actually opens, so its a bit of a struggle to get smaller ones out of the corner of the run (my guineas are particularly good at this!)
• One of the pieces of wood has actually snapped on the bottom of one of the panels, and because i've lost my receipt, I'm going to have to fix this some how :(
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Overall, I like the design ideas, but the actual run is poor quality