Easter Animal Days News

Our Animal Experience Days run every school holiday except over the Christmas period.

They offer children and young people aged 5-16 a unique opportunity to learn about responsible pet ownership and safety in a fun, relaxed environment. For more information and to join our mailing list for the sessions please visit our Animal Days page.

What we got up to on our Easter break sessions

We had an egg-cellent time on our sessions during the Easter break. The children and young people helped look after the rescue animals by cleaning kennels and rabbit pens, making tasty treats for the rabbits, and experiencing exclusive animal interactions.

During each session we focused on how our pets use their body language to communicate how they are feeling.

Due to rabbits being the most neglected pet in the UK we also learned about rabbit and rodent housing. We looked at some examples of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ housing for both rabbits and hamsters and discussed what we liked and disliked about them.

Animal encounters

For our dog meets, the children either met Jasper the Greyhound or Hooch the Bulldog X. During the session they had the opportunity to meet one of the dogs and then set up lots of scent games and enrichment items for them. This included hiding treats amongst towels, egg boxes, cones, snuffle mats, treat balls and puzzles feeders.

The children also met either Poppet or Albus the cats. While we had the cats in the sensory area, we discussed cats body language and how they communicate to us how they are feeling. Albus particularly benefitted from the sessions offering him extra human company and socialisation. He enjoyed curling on the children’s laps and being stroked on his cheeks!

For our rabbit interaction the children met shelter residents Frazzle and McCoy in small groups where we had an informal chat about rabbit handling, nutrition, and enrichment!

Sessions for young adults

One of our sessions was aimed exclusively for secondary school students. During the session the young people helped clean out small animal pens, prepared enrichment items by making destruction boxes for either a rabbit, dog, or cat, and met our rescue animals. During the session the young people learnt about our pet’s sense of smell and how they use this to communicate.

For cats we learnt about the scent glands all over their body and how they use this to mark territory, communicate with other cats, but also show their affection towards their human friends! We also discussed how rabbits use their sense of smell to detect predators, find food, and communicate with other rabbits.

Lastly, we looked at dogs and how strong their noses are. We looked at how amazing our dogs’ noses are and how they can pick up how we are feeling and can even detect health conditions! We put what we learnt into practice by setting up scent games for Hooch. We also played the ‘cone game’ which involved hiding treats on or under cones for him to find. These cones can then be used to create a search area!

How to Meet a Dog for the First Time

During our sessions attendees learn the best way to meet new dogs for the first time. The following steps allow us to meet dogs safely as well as ensuring the dog is given space and choice.

How to safely approach a dog

• Step 1: Ask the owner—if the owner is not there, we do not stroke the dog!
• Step 2: We allow the dog to approach us. Your body should be side on, if it is a smaller, calm dog you can crouch to their level.

We now know we do not need to put our hand out for the dog to sniff. By doing this we are going into the dog’s space before they are ready. This used to be recommended so that dogs can smell us, but dog’s noses are so good they would have already smelled us, including what we had for breakfast!

• Step 3: Stroke the dog on the chest. This allows the dog to see what we are doing, and for us to see the dog’s body language to check they are happy. This also helps encourage our dogs to keep their paws on the ground and not jump up at us.

Three stroke rule – this can be used with all pets! We stroke the pet 3 times, stop, and see what they do. If they move away or seem unsure, we end the interaction. If the pet looks happy and continues to choose to stay with us, we can continue stroking them. 

Rabbit housing

Despite being a popular pet choice among pet owners’ rabbits are one of the most neglected pets in the UK. This is due to inadequate housing, poor diets, and lack of veterinary treatment. This can lead to poor welfare and a variety of health problems.

This Easter we studied correct housing for rabbits.  They should of course always have access to fresh water, and be provided with rabbit safe fruit, veg, and herbs, and pellets.

Rabbits are social animals and should always have the company of another rabbit. They require lots of space, so they can jump, stretch, dig, hop, and run! For two rabbits the minimum space should be three metres by two metres, and at least one metre high. They should also have a sheltered area within their enclosure which should be a least six feet, by two feet, by two feet.

Rabbits, also require enrichment items to allow them to express their natural behaviour and prevent boredom. This includes toys, chews, and tunnels.

They can be indoor or outdoor pets. If you have indoor rabbits, you should ensure your housing is rabbit-safe, and if outdoors predator safe.

For bedding they need plenty of hay which makes 85% of their diet. They should also have one or more of either straw, vet beds, natural paper bedding, non-toxic wooden shavings, and old newspapers can be used for lining.

Enrichment for pets

Enrichment are items we give to our pets to mentally stimulate them. By providing our pets with enrichment we are helping their mental and physical wellbeing and allowing them to express their natural behaviours. See below some fun enrichment ideas you can make for your pets at home.