How To Keep Your Pets Safe During Holiday Celebrations

Celebrating the holidays is fun not just for your friends and family but also for your pets. Giving your dogs a new chew toy or dressing up your cat in festive gear can make them feel the joy of the holiday spirit. Like any yearly celebration, these events call for parties full of people and food options.

Sharing meals is almost mandatory for every seasonal celebration. For this reason, house parties can lead to fridges and cabinets full of leftovers from the night before. Although it can be tempting to give your pets an extra helping from your holiday feasts, some food items can be harmful and even deadly for them. This and other potential interactions with holiday décor and food items can be a cause for alarm.

Making your Home a Pet-Friendly Place
During the Holidays

It’s necessary to be extra cautious about how your holiday decorations and feasts can harm your pets. Since every animal will have unique reactions to different hazards, you'll need to attend to their specific needs and vulnerabilities.

If you want to ensure your pets’ safety during the holidays, here are three safety precautions you should remember:

1. Be careful of the food you feed your pets

As most dog owners know, chocolate is toxic to dogs. Although you may not be giving 100% chocolate goodies to your pets, what you feed them may contain some percentage of the sugary treat. Additionally, dried fruit can also be hazardous to dogs. Grapes, raisins, and currants are particularly harmful to dogs. Be extra mindful when feeding desserts like brownies, cakes, or pies.

If you haven't already, check out our blog section, which has detailed information on holiday-themed foods that are pet-safe and others that should be avoided.

2. Hang your decorations off the ground

For cats and small rodents, you might have more issues with your décor than food options. Felines are mischievous creatures that enjoy jumping from one platform to another. Although this won't be an issue with stable cabinets and shelves, your Christmas tree and holiday lights may end up falling in place. Additionally, these items could have high metal content, making their playful biting or chewing a health hazard. This danger also applies to smaller critters like guinea pigs and rabbits.

It's best for these small animals to stay in their hutch so that they'll avoid interacting with dangerous metals in decorations. It's better if you can keep them inside their enclosure or remove any decoration around their living areas.

To keep their mind off the shiny new decorations, how about you keep your dog entertained with a new dog toy? Can't forget about gifts for your pets this holiday season, and they'll love an engaging canine enrichment toy such as these:

Shop All Dog Toys

3. Keep your Christmas tree away from birds

If you're bringing an authentic pine tree in your home for the holidays, you should keep it away from your pets. Although it's technically all-organic, it can still contain insecticides that can make curious animals sick. Free-flying birds that don't have clipped wings might think that a natural tree in your home is a safe place to land on. However, the tree's sap can cause their feathers to get stuck on the tree.

Besides your decorations, leaving your snacks with high salt content for your pets to nibble on will require you to bring them to the vet. It's best to keep your birds in their cages to ensure that they won't interact with harmful substances.

Conclusion

Facing the holidays doesn't have to be a stressful situation for you and your pets. Some animals will be more vulnerable to external substances than others. However, you need to pay attention to the guidelines above to ensure that they can enjoy the festivities just as much as you can.