Pet Habitat South Africa

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22 Mar 2015

Playing With Small Pets

Posted By : Guest

No matter what size our pets are, like any human they can get bored. It’s important to provide them with plenty of enrichment activities to keep them entertained as well as the added bonus of strengthening your bond with them!

Whatever you decide to play with them, make sure it’s fun for the both of you. Never force your fur friends into taking part if they don’t seem interested. There are certain times of the day that different pets are more active. Gerbils, hamsters and rats are more active at dawn and dusk. Take their sleeping schedule into consideration when you decide to introduce them to new enrichment activities to understand when they will most likely want to play.

Just to make things easier for you, we’ve put our heads together in the office and made up a list of the best activities you can do with your small pets. Enjoy!

1. Training

Training your pets can be perfect for both physical and mental enrichment. Every pet has the capability to be learn tricks, the question is how can we do this?

Before you attempt any training with your pet do some research on the best methods for teaching your specific animal. Positive reinforcement often is cited as the best method; where certain behaviour is rewarded with a treat for your pet. For example with rabbits, this can be used alongside clicker training where buns learn that when they hear a click, a treat is up for grabs.

Start with the easiest tricks first and gradually build up. Make sure your pets have fully mastered one trick before you move on to another. Keep these sessions brief and be patient. Most importantly, be aware of your pet’s safety at all times – make sure they aren’t being pushed beyond their capabilities and that you supervise them. If they’re doing a great job, make sure they know it!

2. Mystery Treat

This can be a simple task that will encourage your pets to put to use their natural foraging skills and that excellent sense of smell! Hide a small number of treats around your pets’ cage or free range area so your pet can discover them when exploring. Once they start to find them at ease, increasing the difficulty of locating the treats. You could hide them in areas a little harder to reach, put them underneath bowls or inside a paper bag that they have to rip to get inside. We’re sure they’ll appreciate that treat even more when it takes longer for them to find it!

3. Mazes

Our small furry friends love to zip through mazes, and they’re simple enough for you to create yourself. All you need to make your DIY maze are cardboard strips and tubes. Place them together how you envision and add little openings between the pieces. Try to keep the fixtures moveable, so you can alter your maze as many times as you like to keep it interesting for your pet as they have fun exploring. However, be very careful that there is no risk of injury to your pet whilst they are inside the maze, and always supervise them.

4. Digging Areas

In their natural habitat, a lot of small animals such as rabbits and gerbils love to dig. However their domesticated cousins don’t have a great deal of opportunity to dig themselves. Let’s change that…

Dig boxes can be very easy to make. Use a storage box with sides that are low enough so your pet can easily climb in and out of the box when they wish. Fill the box with whichever contents your pet would prefer – whether it be shredded paper, the contents of their cage, or soil. To encourage digging as you first introduce the box to your pets, you may want to add a treat at the bottom.

As you probably can imagine dig boxes can be very messy additions to your house or garden, so you may like to add newspaper around the bottom of the box to keep the area easy to clean.

5. Nesting

Nurture the instincts of your pet by allowing them to nest. Collect some scraps of material that are safe for your pet and place them around their cage or free range area. Make some easier to find than others, to keep your pet interested. They may naturally love to gather these up and start nesting.

6. Agility Course

This can be a similar enrichment activity to training but with gradual development of certain ‘obstacles.’ Teach one obstacle at a time to your pet and be sure that they have mastered it before you move on. It may take a while for them to do more than one obstacle at once, so don’t rush the process. Again, start with the easiest obstacles and don’t attempt to train them to do something out of their capability. When you first begin training them to do a certain obstacle, make it simple. For example, if you wanted to train your rat to walk between weave poles, set them very widely apart at first, and once your pet gets the hang of it put the poles closer together.

Have a look at how intelligent this rat is!