Treats and Other Sweets
Everyone loves treats… even your small pet! Treats are great tools for us owners to use to encourage good behavior, reward, or just to show our pets how much we love them. Honestly, I love giving my pets treats because it makes them happy and they go crazy for them (which is fun and cute to watch). Sadly, it is better for your pet’s health in the long run if you don’t overdo it on the treats, and when you do hand over a tasty little morsel it needs to be safe and healthy for them to consume in small amounts.
If you head to the pet store or any type of store that sells pet products, you will find a variety of commercial treats marketed for small pets. Most of the time rabbit, guinea pig, and chinchilla treats are lumped together because their diets are very similar. In the ingredient section on some of these small pet treats you can see that they are loaded with artificial sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup, fructose, and sucrose. These ingredients provide little nutritional value while containing a lot of empty calories, and if you feed these sweet treats to your pet you most likely won't hear any complaints. These treats with artificial sweeteners are basically candy for your pet. And who doesn't love candy?! Alas, candy should not be consumed every day and there are healthy options for your pet.
My advice to you if you are purchasing treats from the store is to always check out the ingredients on the back of the treat box. Find out what makes up each treat, and know what you are going to be putting into your small pet’s body. Small pet’s digestive systems are very finicky and can go into GI stasis. GI stasis is when your pet’s digestive system slows down or stops completely causing build-ups in the intestines which makes them bloat and less likely to eat or drink. Basically, it's best to be aware of what you are putting into your pet’s diet and how it can affect them, positively or negatively.
In my opinion, the best and safest type of treats to give to your small pet is fresh fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables naturally contain plenty of sugar to stimulate your pet's taste buds and reward them. All the ingredients found in fruits and veggies occur naturally and are not artificially made. Just like humans, it is best to snack on a banana or carrot rather than eat a cookie.
Your pet may enjoy these fruits and vegetables as treats:
- Strawberries
- Raspberries
- Bananas
- Pineapple
- Apples (no seeds)
- Carrots
- Broccoli
- Bell peppers
**Please note that all of these fruits and veggies should be fed to your pet sparingly. A couple times a week at most!
Another great treat option for your small pet besides fruits and vegetables is hay! Hay needs to make up at least 80% of your pet’s diet. If you can get your pet to love hay-based treats it will only help keep their gut regular and healthy. Our bunnies Fred and George, love their hay chips that we feed them. The chips are made up of alfalfa hay which is different from the timothy hay that we feed them every day. The alfalfa hay has been pressed into a small square chip form with a tiny bit of water to make the hay bind. This way our boys get a small change from their everyday diet and are still eating something that has plenty of fiber to make sure their digestive systems keep moving.
All in all, whatever you feed your pet for a treat make sure you know what the ingredients are, so you do not accidentally harm your pet when trying to reward them. Also, remember that less is more! Even if you want to give them treats every day, please try to refrain and limit to only giving out treats a couple times a week.