Mike’s Fish Tank – Easter Pets

Easter is coming up fast and a lot of people ask me what besides bunnies make a good Easter pet.

Chinchillas make great pets. They live up to 25 years and can be very tame and friendly. They eat chinchilla pellets and timothy alfalfa. To clean their fur, they use a dust bath. When you handle a chinchilla, the oils from your hand gets on their fur. To clean their fur, you put some of the dust bath powder in a big bowl, then step back. They will roll around in the dust and kick at it. It’s very amusing. They really love that dust. In the wild, a chinchilla will usually find a dry dirt spot and they’ll roll around in that. The chinchillas love to chew. They make all kinds of chew treats. We have lots of them here at Pets A Plenty. Chinchillas also love the big wheels. They’ll run in those for hours. They also make a jumbo ball that you can put them in just like the ones hamsters use, only bigger.

I always think parakeets make great Easter pets. They are very pretty, active and love to interact with people. They are relatively inexpensive to keep too. A large bag of food will last several weeks and parakeet toys are very inexpensive.
Even the parakeet cages are reasonably priced. Some people have told me that their parakeet could talk.Usually it’s the males that are the most likely to say a few words. They aren’t as good as a parrot but it’ possible to teach them a few words.

Another great Easter pet is the chinese hamster. These hamsters are small and they stay small too. They are extremely friendly.
They are known for their disposition. Very rare for them to bite. Most of the time when you pick them up, they’ll sit right on your hand
and be content to stay there. Their lifespan is shorter, usually around 2 to 3 years. These make great pets for kids. They are desert
animals so they do not drink a lot of water, so they do not produce much urine, thus the cage does not get too stinky. I’d say once a
week is all you’ll have to change their cage. You can not feed hamster seed to the chinese hamsters. They need to eat the chunk food called square meal. Seed can actually kill these little guys, so stay away from that.

Other animals that make good Easter pets are guinea pigs and ferrets. The ferrets do cost the most of all the animals I have mentioned,
however they are a real fun pet. They love to get out of their cage and play. Be sure to keep an eye on them because they are really mischievous. They will get into everything. Ferrets are all descented and neutered and spayed, but their is still a slight musky smell to them. It bothers some people and to others ,it’s no big deal. Guinea pigs are a little messy. They drink a lot so they might be a bit more smelly. Their cage might need cleaning 2 times a week. They live to about 5 years and ferrets live 7 to 9 years.

Pets A Plenty is located in the Blockbuster Video Plaza, Rte 281 Cortland, 753-9213. Open 7 days a week. We now have a website. www.petsaplety.biz. check it out. I post care sheets, coupons, new animal arrivals, contests and more. Any questions, email me at friskyy@hotmail.com

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