Pets are one of those wonderful natural healers. They can fix a bad day or a severe mood swing, and are even beginning to be brought around to campuses and businesses nationwide as volunteer therapy animals for the people who go to school/work in these sometimes stressful environments.
While pets are healers themselves, it’s important that if you’re thinking of getting one yourself that you know how to take care of your new friend. Because while you may depend on them as a source of love, joy, and companionship, they depend on you to take care of them and make sure they are healthy!
So, here are some things to think about to incorporate a new pet into your home, and keep their health and beauty routines as natural as your own!
Natural Grooming
We like to be beautiful, and I feel like for our animal companions the same thing must be at least a little true! Our furry friends like dogs and cats require things like natural shampoos and conditioners that keep their fur soft and smooth without drying out their skin. Brands like Earthbath make it a priority that their ingredients are good for both our pets and us to be exposed to during bath time, and still leave them smelling fresh and clean!
For our more reptilian friends, like turtles and lizards, little to no grooming is usually required! However, it is important to keep their tanks clean, especially if it is around molting season. And, if you’re feeling like pampering your reptilian companion, a simple “bath” with lukewarm water and a toothbrush for light scrubbing is sure to do the trick!
Natural Feeding
Giving our pets both what they want in a diet and what they need in a diet is very important, and this can be both challenging and exciting to tackle for pet owners. For cats, this involves a lot of protein and not a lot of things like grain meal and corn gluten, which are present in a surprising number of cat foods! Freshpet makes all natural cat food that doesn’t break the bank and keeps friendly felines well fed!
Dogs need lots of protein, fats, vitamins and minerals, and similar to cats they should avoid gluten-rich foods as much as possible. Snakes typically consume their prey, which are usually mice, whole, and it doesn’t get much more natural than that I suppose! Other reptiles like turtles like to be fed dark leafy greens, so things like kale and spinach are easy ones to keep these little guys going strong. You have the option to get food pellets to additionally nourish reptiles like lizards and turtles, but be sure that these pellets contain things mostly along the lines of herbs and leafy plants.
Natural Aging
Just like people, animals age, and the effects of getting older can hit our animal friends pretty hard if we’re not keeping up with a little extra care for them everyday.
Some common issues for animals as they age can be vision loss, limited liver function, and diabetes development. The vision loss sounds like the scariest, but actually many animals can adjust pretty quickly to life with limited or no vision. Since many pets are very in-tune with their owners’ emotions, the best thing you can do for your pet if they experience vision loss is stay calm and do your best to maintain an upbeat attitude! Some physical things to do to help prevent vision loss include treating eye infections promptly and keeping a close eye on the clarity of your animals’ eyes.
Reduced liver function is another common problem for aging pets, but is often easily fixed through the use of supplements like those made by Pet Wellbeing or PetAlive. The key here is catching the symptoms early! In dogs, this can be things like a suddenly limited appetite, vomiting and jaundice in the eyes, nose and ears.
Finally, the best thing to do about those tricky hip problems in large dogs, or arthritis in cats, or really any bone issue is make the house or apartment you live in more safe for your pet. Things like Natural Area Rugs animal stair treads can help make one of the biggest obstacles in a home for a bone-challenged animal (the stairs) a little less daunting or unsafe!