#FurkidFriday: Joshua The #Degu On Keeping Your #Pets Cool This #Summer (FD)

Hi humans. This is Joshua the degu.

With the warmer weather starting to happen - well, some days anyhow - I wanted to remind you about keeping your furry and feathered family members cool this Summer. Even if you like hot weather, you need to think about ways to keep them cool, because chances are they don't enjoy the heat, and will suffer if you don't do things to keep them cool.

There are the obvious things like providing shade and cool water for them to enjoy. But there are other things you can do too. Exactly what else you can - or should - do will depend on what species your furry or feathered family member is. For example:

I can tolerate some heat, but have my limits, so the human caretakers have a fan set up near my cage. Plus, I get frozen peas when it gets really hot, which is kind of like you eating those things humans call "ice-cream" and "ice-lollies" to keep cool. I'm not allowed ice-cream or ice-lollies though, which is why I have frozen peas instead.

My chinchilla sisters, Mollie and Maizie, on the other hand, can't tolerate heat at all. Not only do they have an extra fan to me, and get frozen peas like I do, but they also have a special cooling slab in their cage to stretch out on when they need to cool down. It's made of some kind of stone, and they love to lay on it on hot days.

On the other hand, the Lilie dog shares the fans the human caretakers use, and sometimes gets taken to play in the big water to cool off. Plus, I'm pretty sure she sometimes gets to share the human caretakers' ice-cream. Oh, and they just chopped her fur off, which I'm sure she's pleased about now we're getting warmer weather.

Those are just examples. There are other things too, of course.

Remember: you signed up to be responsible for your furry or feathered family member by bringing them home. Take that responsibility seriously, and be a good human caretaker.

Heat can kill. Don't let it kill your furry or feathered family members!

Squeak soon,
Joshua