Jingle bells, long rat tails, rabbits eating hay! O’ what fun it is to gift to your pets for the holiday!
If you have a small animal companion, you surely know that they’re part of the family – little whiskers and all! And since the holiday season is all about family and friends, our little buddies need to be included as well. Households across the country offer their homes to small pets, including rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, hedgehogs, chinchillas, rats, mice, and more. They make great companions for single folks, at-home workers, and are incredibly popular for families with children learning to take care of responsibilities.
Whether your small pet has been in your family for years or is joining this holiday season, make them feel loved and included with some cute, fun, and delicious presents in their stockings (because, yes, all pets get their own stockings!). When brainstorming for any pet’s gift, always start by asking: What would be a tasty treat? What would be comfy for them? What would be entertaining? Now ask no longer because we’ve taken the guesswork out with this list of the best gifts for your small animals this holiday season!
Some nibbles
No matter what kind of cute little pet you have scurrying around, healthy and tasty treats are always one of the best gifts for them. Plus, since treats are so small and repackageable, they’re perfect little stocking stuffers. There’s nothing quite as cute as setting a stocking full of yummy treats down in front of your bunny or guinea pig and watching them snoop and sniff out the goodies! If you’re looking for some nutrition for your little friend as well, lots of treats are made with healthy ingredients and vitamins your pets need to live healthy lives.
Even better, some Vitakraft small animal treats, such as their Crunch Sticks and Slims, are formulated to help your pets’ dental health while they snack. These treats are baked to be crunchy and long lasting so that pets can chew for extended periods, which is great for maintaining the strength of their teeth and keeping them clean. Or if you’re looking for treats that are a bit more fun for playing with your pets and building your relationship together, here’s a secret: small pets love Vitakraft’s soft, sweet Drops. They’re great for tossing around at playtime, or to let your small animal eat right out of your palm and make a great holiday season reward.
Cozy goodness
If your little buddy has ever gotten into your fleecy blankets, you’ve probably seen how absolutely heavenly the soft texture is to them. If you love to spoil your pets for the holidays, treat them to some soft blankets fit for a human! Tiny fleece blankets sized for our furry friends can be found online, but even easier is cutting up your own – it’s a fun little project and allows you full customization of your pets’ cages. You can use the pieces of soft, fleece blanket to pad out the inside of their cute little houses, or even make hammocks for them to lounge around in where you can see them.
Blankets are also a great way to interact with your pet, as they allow them a soft and safe place to sit or even fall asleep. One of the easiest ways to get a cuddle sesh out of a small animal is to offer them a comfy place to hang out – after all, you don’t want to cuddle when you’re uncomfortable, do you? Get yourself set up on the couch with a little blanket bed in your lap and some treats for encouragement and enjoy some owner and pet bonding time.
Privacy
As much as we love our small pets and want to see their furry little faces and cute little whiskers at all hours, they need privacy just as much as anyone else. Grant them their wish with a covered house for them! Available in sizes for all pets, the private little houses are often found in the form of plastic domes and wooden cubes but have become much more than that. Now you can find plushie houses with soft walls and floors for your rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters to crawl into and curl up. Some super cute, themed ones, like gingerbread houses and cute mushroom houses, can be found on Chewy and Amazon. Your pet is guaranteed to love their own space!
A fun toy
Toys aren’t just for our cats and dogs – small pets love them too! Depending on the type of animal you have at home, you can find a range of appropriate toys to make life for them more entertaining. Our babies need something fun to do to keep them happy and the holidays are the perfect time to stock them up with some goodies! For smaller pets like mice, hamsters, rats, and gerbils, you can find entire playground sets for them, complete with chewable wooden tubes, tiny suspension bridges, and cute swings for their cages. And for ‘bigger’ small animals like rabbits, you can find chewable balls of different textures, plushie toys, and more.
Something active
Since our animals are pretty much always inside, it’s great to have some tools around to keep them active – like an exercise wheel! Exercise wheels are great for your small pets’ health because they encourage pets to live a more active lifestyle and help to keep them fit. Plus, just watching them run is fun for us humans, too! Running wheels are easy to install and maintain and can usually be found in silent versions so they don’t keep you awake at night.
Rabbit owners might be looking at this and thinking, “Ok, that’s cute for a mouse or hamster, but how about my pet?” Amazingly, exercise wheels come in all sizes these days, ranging from tiny mouse wheels, and going even as big as wheels for cats! No matter what kind of small animal you have at home, there’s a fun and health promoting wheel out there for them.