Keeping your pet safe this Christmas

December 1, 2022

Christmas is an exciting time for all of us. However, festive decorations and some of the treats we enjoy at Christmas can pose hazards to our pets. Disruption to regular routines, with lots of visitors and unfamiliar faces around, can also be distressing for domestic animals. We’ve spoken to our specialists here at Southfields and put together a guide with their tips on keeping your pet safe this Christmas period.

Food:

Christmas is a time where we have lots of new snacks and treats around. However tempting these can be for our pets to help themselves to or for us to give them as a little treat, this can be extremely harmful and result in a trip for medical attention.

Here are our top tips on what not to do.

Avoid edible Christmas decorations on your tree. These are too tempting for our pets and easily in reach for them.
Don’t feed chicken or turkey bones to your pet or festive food containing raisins or dried fruit.
Avoid feeding your pet with excess treats and try and keep to their normal dietary routine.

Decorations:

As lovely as decorations look, they can be harmful to our pets. Knowing how we can prevent them from hurting themselves is vital.

Here are our top tips on how to keep your pet safe around decorations this year.

Keep electrical items including fairy lights and other tree decorations out of your pet’s reach. These can all be a bit too tempting for our pets and result in them eating something they shouldn’t or getting tangled up!
Keep a fire safety guard in front of the fireplace to avoid your pet getting too close and burning themselves. Make sure candles are out of reach as these can cause a fire hazard if knocked over.

Reducing stress:

All the changes at this time of year can be stressful for our pets and they may also feel overwhelmed by large numbers of visitors.

Here are our tips on how to reduce anxiety for your pet this Christmas.

Stick to your pet’s dietary, exercise and toilet break routine. This can help your pet feel calmer and more relaxed.
Don’t leave your pet at home for extended periods when visiting family or friends. Try to leave the radio or TV on to help keep them calm.
If you have a lot of visitors, this can be overwhelming for your pet. Make sure they have a quiet place to retreat to and they know it’s there for them.

We hope these tips can help you to keep your pet safe and relaxed this Christmas.

For more tips on how to keep your pet safe this Christmas period, read our other blogs.