Supreme Pet Foods Guinea Pig Treats

Recently, I have decided to start posting more about Knuckles, my guinea pig. With the passing of his companion BMO, I have realised I now will need to make more of an effort to keep him entertained and hopefully fend off the loneliness that will most likely come on him. I was explaining that on my Instagram account and the lovely Janelle from Liberty Pet Products offered to send me a gift parcel of treats for Knuckles. I was super grateful for this package, as I always am when companies send us stuff to try and enjoy, and was even more stoked when I actually got the package. I filmed my unboxing and Knuckles' first opinion over on this vlog.

Janelle sent us three boxes of small pet treats from Supreme Petfoods which is a UK brand that she imports through her company Liberty Pet Products. Bare in mind that they are just a distribution company so you cannot buy directly through her, however for these products they are stocked at Animates nationwide. I got the Forest Sticks, Woodland Loops and Gerty Guinea Pig Scrummies to sample.

The Forest Sticks are made with blackberry and chamomile as their chief ingredients and how they have chosen to brand the product. The sticks are made from mainly hay, with oat flour, beans, peas and then the blackberry & chamomile at the end. I absolutely love the smell of these, its a mix between fresh hay and a warm cup of chamomile tea, and it really gives me a warm, wintery feel. Strange, I know. The sticks itself is actually quite sturdy, and kind of reminds me of the texture of bark. Knuckles probably rated these his least favourite as he never rushed to eat them, but would eventually get around to them when he was certain there was no other treats available.

The Woodland Loops are made with dandelion and rosehip and like the Forest Sticks, are mainly made up of hay with the two chief flavours being down the bottom of the ingredients list. I find that these treats look more natural than the sticks, and you can clearly see bits of hay that is still intact in the treat. Knuckles loves these, and would happily crunch down the whole packet if you let him. They are easy for him to break, and the perfect size to give to one guinea pig as a treat.

Finally, the Scrummies are completely different to the other two products. These are multi coloured treats, with each colour representing a different flavour of apple, strawberry, apricot and banana. These treats have no hay in them, and have flour and sugar high up in the ingredients list. This is obviously not the best food to feed your pigs, and would be comparable to junk food in humans. Of course, this means that Knuckles loved these treats to bits. Like mother, like son I guess! I think these treats are super cute, and quirky, but due to the high sugar content I wouldn't feel comfortable feeding them regularly like the other two. What I am going to do is share the box with my aunty who owns a rat as I feel like a rat is more capable of coping with more sugars and I think she will go crazy for them.

When you are thinking of treats for a guinea pig or a rabbit it is definitely hard to find treats that are healthy, not too expensive and your pet actually enjoys. I think both the loops and sticks hit this mark perfectly, and although the scrummies are super cute, I don't think they hit the mark of healthy. I have only one pig, and his daily serving of treats is minuscule at most, so will be rationing the loops and sticks out over several weeks, and sharing them with my friends rabbits as well. I feel like if you have read this far, you probably don't need to be reminded but... Treats should be part of a healthy diet of hay, grass, vegetables and pellets. They should not be your pets only source of food, nor should they take precedence over fresh produce. If you want to know more about how to feed your small pet, flick me a message and I would be more than happy to help you out with any questions.

I definitely think these treats are a welcome change to the treats currently available in pet stores targeted to small pets and I really think these will help benefit many lives of people bonding with their pets. I have found that I mainly use them when I have Knuckles out of the cage as a way of bonding with me and calming him down. He is named Knuckles for a reason and therefore, is generally wanting to run away or scratch me. I have found recently, that with these treats he is less of a psycho and actually calms down when I hold him. This is also a nice change for me since I am used to him being the worst of the two brothers. And of course, Knuckles didn't want to model, and Diego was more than happy to since he believed these were treats for him.

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Reliving Diego's Third Year

Hey! I am in disbelief on how Diego is almost four. It feels like I only just yesterday that I was putting him into a crate at my house for the first time, and if you follow us at all, you should know that the crate thing didn't last long. Thanks previous boyfriend. But then on the other hand, it feels like I have had Diego forever and couldn't imagine life without him. He is my best friend, and my hot water bottle during these cold months.

I am writing this a week or so earlier than his actual birthday, but I thought I would have a quick recap on what we have got up to in the past year. I love doing these each year at birthdays because it is easy to forget what has happened within the space of one year and I love being able to grow from it and make new goals for the next year.

We finished our second year of #300kmJune where Diego and I walked 300 kilometres within the month to raise money for HUHANZ. This was both extremely hard and extremely rewarding. I didn't raise as much money as I would have wanted to, but I learn that Diego and I can achieve things we put our mind to. It also showed me how great my community is as I was well supported during the month.

Diego was part of the Wolves of Wellington Kickstarter Photoshoot where he got to show off his modelling skills while wearing their awesome new gear. I am still shocked every time I will be randomly browsing a site and there will be Diego on their site. Wolves has grown from strength to strength this past year so it's cool that Diego got to be a part of their Kickstarter at the start.

I finally went to a dog behaviourist/trainer to discuss Diego's Reactivity. I also got such overwhelming responses on any Social Media Post about that reactivity that I have made it into a series on here, and one that I speak openly about. Lewis was a lot of help for me, and made me understand things in a more broad term instead of focusing on my own sense of failure. I have found Diego has improved greatly when I am actively working on the techniques taught. He still has some bad days, but generally it is a lot more manageable now.

Animates sent Diego a huge package of amazing boredom breaker toys and treats which we have been using, reviewing and loving over the past year that they have sent them to us. A lot of the toys from this package are still in Diego's weekly rotation of toys and are amongst both of our favourites for ease of use and long wearing'ness (if that is a word).

Black Hawk sent us an amazing PR package, followed up with some bags of food for us, as well as a giveaway bag. This was an amazing experience for Diego to try a new brand of dog food, and although we have reverted back to Orijen, I still think this is a very good food and I am so happy we got to try it out.

We also went on a heap of new hikes, and much loved hikes that we have been on previously. I love exploring new places and getting to see cool new sights that I have never seen. Diego likes sniffing where all the dogs and wild life have been before him. I plan to do many more hikes in the coming years and this was the year that really kicked off our love of new adventures to a new height.

Speaking of hikes, Diego and Ollie decided to chase after some sort of wild creature on a hike outside of Whanganui and were completely lost in thousands of hectares of bush. Thankfully Ollie was most upset from being parted from Tammin so kept up constant barking, although with that being vibrated around the valleys it was near impossible to pinpoint their exact location. In the end a lovely local hunter helped us call them, and they were safely returned. From now on, those two are not allowed off leash together on any hikes. If you want to hear the full story, it would be cool to do a story time on our YouTube channel about that! Let me know!

Diego also got to try a bunch new treats from awesome New Zealand companies, get to feature in a bunch of amazing Instagram accounts and be decked out in awesome collars, bandanas and leashes.

Now for the best part, at least one photo from every month of his 3rd year!

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Cotton Tails Store Skully Wag

Hello! I have been eyeing up the Skully Wag since Cotton Tails Store brought it out, however knowing the toy destroyer that Diego is, I decided it would be a waste of money. There is no point in purchasing a soft toy for Diego when the generally last less than ten minutes, with the squeaker generally destroyed in two. Maegan, the creative and talented lady behind Cotton Tails Store recently came down to Wellington with a bunch of her gear and requested Diego for a photoshoot. As you can imagine, I jumped at this chance for Diego to show off his modelling chops, as well as meeting Maegan.

During the photoshoot, Maegan requested Diego to model with the Skully Wag, which I was a little bit apprehensive about due to the above reasons. I had also been using a ball to keep Diego entertained during the photoshoot so was worried that he would completely ignore the Skully Wag in the presence of the ball. I couldn't have been more wrong. He was infatuated with it right from the start, was shaking it around while running, would give it to us to throw and then once caught would zoom off with it happily in the air. He would mouth it while he walked, making sure the one squeaker in it was constantly making a noise. Maegan was lovely enough to gift us this toy and Diego mouthed it the whole way home.

If you haven't seen one before, a Skully Wag is a doll shaped soft toy made out of recycled denim with a skeleton shape printed onto it. Not only is the outside made out of recycled materials, instead of using traditional stuffing, it is filled with more recycled material offcuts. This gives it a more unusual shape and texture for the dog to chew and many more smells for your dog to investigate. These are all handcut, and made by Maegan herself, and due to the recycled nature of the materials can differ in colour and texture.

Diego chews soft toys in a couple of different ways which generally mean they don't last long. He will put his front paws on the toy, and then pull backwards with his teeth. The other way, is that he will put the material, and a bit of stuffing in his mouth and he will just suckle on it. Between these two techniques, he will loosen the material and then rip it very easily. Due to the Skully Wag being made of denim, it makes it a lot stronger and can withstand some of this chewing. I also think that due to the use of recycled materials inside instead of stuffing, he cannot get as easy of a hold on the outside material to rip that separately. He seems to grab multiple layers of material making it harder to rip through.

As I stated above, Diego chewed this toy the whole way home from the photoshoot, and for many days after that. He managed to make the squeaker stop working within the first few days, and lick off the design within a weekish. However, there was no signs of the denim ripping. He seemed to focus his efforts where the squeaker was, as after a week of chewing it eventually made the little hole that is shown in the photo below. Instead of letting him rip everything out, I moved the squeaker up into one of the ears to see if that would entice him to chew elsewhere. This worked and he seemed to not even realise there was a hole in the other spot and started mouthing the ear. He has now had that hole in the toy for the past week and hasn't made it any worse or gotten any of the 'stuffing' out. I think the main reason it came about is because a piece of the squeaker was sticking into it while he was chewing. If you have a dog that isn't that bothered by squeakers, but is quite a chewer I would request if Cotton Tails Store could make one without the squeaker for you!

The next good point about this toy is that if your dog does destroy it, your house will not have stuffing everywhere, instead it will just be pieces of the material. This means for a lot easier clean up. The toy has also been well enjoyed by other dogs when completely de-stuffed and just used as a flat toy.

Do I think this toy will withstand the toughest of chewers? No.
Do I think it is worth it to try for a non-chewer to medium chewer? Yes.

This is the most long wearing 'soft' toy that Diego has ever owned. It is also one that I don't mind Diego trying to destroy as the denim material doesn't just disintegrate into his mouth like other materials. It also has the multiple uses once it has been destuffed. I wouldn't suggest it to be used as a tug toy, or the only toy for a destructive dog but when used in conjunction with harder, more boring toys I think it is an awesome product. I think this is one of my favourite soft toys I have ever used with Diego, and I will definitely be buying the Limited Edition Black Version as well.

Now is your chance to win one! You can enter via Facebook or Instagram as many times as you like. The winner will be drawn Monday 25th of June at 5pm and will be sent straight from Cotton Tails Store.

Facebook:
1. Go to this Facebook Post and follow the instructions listed

Instagram:
1. Go to this Instagram Post and follow the instructions listed

Easy as that!

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RIP BMO

Hello! If you don't follow me on Social Media (in which case you should. My Facebook and Instagram) then you would have missed that sadly in the last week BMO has passed away. I came home from work one day and went out to feed them. It was strange when only Knuckles came to the door, and even then, he was a lot more quiet than usual. That is when I noticed that BMO had unfortunately passed away during the day. It comes as quite a shock when you go to do something as normal as feeding them, and find them in that condition. Especially since there was no early signs of anything being wrong with him prior. 

I originally got BMO to keep Schmutz, my mini lop rabbit company. Looking back now I realise that was a strange choice, but I knew I didn't have the time or room for two rabbits so a guinea pig was my more sensible option. The reason they were both named how they were is from an Adventure Time episode where BMO spoke about having to get the Schmutz off his hands. I watched that same clip hundreds of times and laughed loudly every time. I have no idea why this scene was so historic to me that I named my pets after it, but there you go. 

As Schmutz grew, the likelihood of him hurting BMO increased and therefore, I separated them and Knuckles came into our lives. Knuckles has always been a pain from day 1, and that's why he is named as such. He is named after the character on Sonic, as Knuckles used to just fly around his cage, scratch and squirm when being held and just be a general pain. As you can tell from that right up, from the start BMO has always been my favourite.

Knuckles and BMO didn't always get on, BMO is always giving Knuckles a haircut. Which is going to be interesting to see if it now grows back out to his long locks in the back, because BMO has kept that nicely trimmed the past few years. At one point, Knuckles even chewed a hole out of BMO's ear which healed perfectly well and never seemed to cause a problem.

Both guinea pigs would be over four years old now, which is about middle aged for a guinea pig who can live between 4 - 8 years according to my friend Google. BMO was also in my life for just over four years, which is a long time to have a creature in your house and no matter how small or insignificant people think Guinea Pigs are, they each have their own personality and traits. I am and was very sad to find him passed away, but am extremely happy for the time I got with him.

Now that Knuckles is all alone, I will not be getting another pig to keep him company but will be making more of an effort to keep him happy and entertained. I have also decided to blog about this process because its how I started this blog, and I think it would be interesting for people to find out more about what it is actually like to own a small pet. Let me know if this would be something you would be interested.

Below are some photographs of BMO from our time together.

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