From a TV-obsessed cat to toilet-training rabbits — your pet queries answered

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handsome man with remote control and grey cat watching tv at home

HE is on a mission to help our pets  . . . and is here to answer YOUR questions.

Sean, who is the head vet at tailored pet food firm tails.com, has helped with owners’ queries for ten years. He says: “If your pet is acting funny or is under the weather, or you want to know about nutrition or exercise, just ask. I can help keep pets happy and healthy.”

Sean says some cats are just home birds and don’t care for the outdoors

Sean McCormack, head vet at tails.com, promises he can ‘help keep pets happy and healthy’

Q) OUR cat hates going outside. It’s like he’s agoraphobic.

I don’t want to force it, but surely, like us, he needs to get some fresh air. He just watches daytime TV, eats and sleeps.

Maggie O’Brien, Dundee

Sean says: Some cats are just home birds and don’t care for the outdoors.

With a bit of imagination, you can provide everything they need indoors, including scratching posts, places to hide, climbing frames and tunnels.

Toys and playtime are important to encourage them to be active.

I wish I could be a cat — watching daytime TV, eating, sleeping, having someone cater to my every whim.

You have to admit, he’s got it made.

Q) MY son’s one-year-old boxer Georgie got into the garden’s only large planter, which has small shrubs and bedding plants.

The rest of the garden is decked and laid to lawn. Georgie has tried to eat some of the contents and my son is afraid to plant it up again in case any of them are poisonous.

Why is Georgie doing this and what can be done to stop him?

Vince Marsh, Ramsgate, Kent

Sean says: I’d suggest this is due to a combination of boredom and mischief.

It’s fun to dig when you’re a dog. Why not redirect this behaviour by providing Georgie with a sand pit digging zone?

Bury his toys in there, praise him for digging where he’s supposed to and divert him to it when he looks like he wants to dig up your planters.

Restrict access to them at first and use reward-based training. He’ll get the picture in no time.

Also check out our tails.com blog for a list of harmful garden plants to avoid.

Q) IS it possible to train a rabbit to use a litter box? I’m thinking of getting a house rabbit, but would they be happier outside?

Lisa Downs, Brighton

Sean says: It’s not only possible, it’s actually pretty easy. Rabbits are very clean creatures and like to leave their droppings in prominent locations in neat piles to signal their presence to other rabbits.

On that note, it’s always advisable to get two rabbits. They are social creatures and it’s really not fair to have one alone.

Back to toilet training. It’s usually done by providing them with a cat litter tray or box filled with a rabbit-safe, digestible litter (just in case they chew some).

Start with it in a corner of their small enclosure indoors. Once they are used to it, they will return to it, even if they are free-roaming in the house.

Take care to rabbit-proof the home, including protecting cables they might chew and lifting plants off the floor so they can’t eat them.

House rabbits do great as long as you allow them to do rabbity things indoors. An outdoor run for supervised outdoor activity should also be provided if you have a garden.

Tails.com provides tailor-made nutritional food for petsTails.com provides tailor-made nutritional food for pets

Q) I WOULD like two puppies but not at the same time – obviously for training reasons.

I’m looking to get an English bull terrier and cockapoo. But which breed do we get first and how many months later should we introduce the other one?

Tracy Jones, Crewe

Sean says: You’re right to avoid getting them at the same time.

They will have little focus on you, paying more attention to each other. It’s called littermate syndrome but doesn’t have to be littermates, just similar-aged pups.

They are also very different dogs to train and own, with English bull terriers being arguably more stubborn and challenging for beginners.

Cockapoos have all the intelligence of poodles and the high energy of cocker spaniels, so you are taking on a lot.

My advice would be cockapoo first, and think about a second once he or she is settled and aged two or more.

STAR OF THE WEEK

Echo the kitty has found her purr after she was rescued from an abandoned house with a hoard of other cats

ECHO the kitty has found her purr after she was rescued from an abandoned house with a hoard of other cats.

The 16-month-old was saved by the RSPCA Headcorn Cattery in Kent and given a new home in Sevenoaks with Carrie Greenstreet, 45.

After seven months, Echo has learned to be joyful again. Carrie said: “Echo has just recently started purring as she is happy now, after her tough start in life.

“Because she was abandoned, it took her three months to learn to trust again and she’s still terrified of strangers, but Echo has become the most loving cat I have ever had.”

Porridge’s lucky litter escape

Seven-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier Porridge was saved after he gobbled a McDonald’s sweet & sour dip sauce pot on a walk

VETS have issued a warning to litterbugs because it puts both pets and wildlife at risk of death and harm.

The RSPCA gets, on ­average, ten calls every day for animals affected by litter.

Vets4Pets urges people to be careful about where they put their rubbish when out and about.

Seven-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier Porridge is the latest pup to have been saved, after he gobbled a McDonald’s sweet & sour dip sauce pot on a walk.

He was rushed to Vets4- Pets Barnsley Hospital in South Yorks, where the team first tried to remove the packaging by inducing vomiting, before making the decision to perform an endoscopy.

Dr Caroline Richards, who led the team that saved him said: “It’s lucky that ­Porridge’s owner spotted him eating the packaging.

“If it wasn’t for a local litterbug, Porridge could have avoided his trip to see us.

“We hope his story shows how dangerous litter can be for pets, and makes people think twice before dropping rubbish.”

According to Caroline, this is far from the strangest item the vet team has seen a dog eat, adding: “From Christmas baubles to children’s toys, and even underwear, we’ve seen it all”

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