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Caring For Your Puppy or Kitten
First and foremost “congratulations” on the newest member of your family. As your veterinary practice we pride ourselves on giving you the best information about your newest member, so please consult your vets or vets nurses if you have any problems or concerns about the health or behaviour of your pet.
To make sure you get the most out of your relationship a few basic essentials
will help:
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Grooming- Kittens and puppies love a lot of fuss and so will enjoy being groomed.
Using a brush that is suitable for the hair length of your pet and being groomed on a daily or weekly basis will help our pet to accept being groomed and build a strong bond between you both. |
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Collar- 1000’s of pets go missing every year. Elasticated safety collars are recommended for kittens, for puppies there is a wide variety of choice on the market but all collars should fit snugly allowing for 1-2 finger width of space. A readable tag should be fitted to the collar with your name and phone number on it. Micro-chipping is an excellent way of tagging your pet- as it’s a chip under the skin they can’t be removed unlike collars. Chipping can be done from 10 weeks in puppies and 12 weeks in kittens. Every vet surgery or rescue centre will have chip readers with which they can scan your pet if it goes missing. A number shows on the reader which is your pets own number. This can then be traced back to you- ensuring that your pet is identified
and returned. |
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Toys- These should be hard enough and sturdy enough so that they can’t be
swallowed or chewed. For puppies they also help from having your furniture destroyed. Avoid games that lead your puppy to fight with you as this can lead to unwanted behaviour problems. For kittens, toys which allow them to hunt the toy are good and build on a kittens natural instinct, care must be taken if you use your hand as the toy so as not to be come scratched or bitten. |
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Bedding - these should be washable blankets that are placed in a corner of a room to encourage them to sleep in one particular place. |
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