 |
Pet Hair Remover
by goosey
Intro
****
Many pet owners will be familiar with the battle against fur, on their carpets, clothes and furniture, which seems to accumulate in 24-hours, faster than weeds can grow in a week.
What I find amazing is that it spreads so evenly, that carpets can take on a somewhat mottled appearance if left too long, ... coated in white fur; which is a fine if you like mottled carpet or not embarrassed watching friends and family leave with half your dog hairs hanging from their clothes.
Of course, I do not let it get that bad, but it is a daily chore, ridding the days shedding from carpets and furniture.
Moses is the culprit in my house. Any breed of dog that does not need clipping, sheds some of its coat daily. I swear he has a self-cleaning coat; each grubby strand of fur dropped before the day has ended, for he is pristine white at the beginning and end of each day, despite romping around in muddy fields, yet I never see any of his fur falling, it just appears.
Up until I purchased my latest Pet Hair Remover called 'CarPet,' I would occasionally use my foot or an old curry comb to scrape the bulk of the hair from my carpets before vacuuming or using the carpet sweeper and one of those Velcro type brushes to remove fur from the seats and dog bedding. Some might ask why not just vacuum and skip the scraping.
The reason is that if I leave a larger than normal accumulation of fur for the vacuum cleaner to work on; it forms a sort of loose, candy floss structure, inside the vacuum cleaner, necessitating frequent emptying. Not only that, the longer pet hairs does tend to wind around the brushes and need combing out on a regular basis.
Whilst visiting the vets one day, I came across two extremely useful items, one of which was the CarPet cleaner, which I was assured worked very well, since it only cost £4.99, I thought anything to save the soles of my shoes from excessive wear and tear on the carpet must be worth a try.
I have since seen them on Amazon priced £5.92 post free.
CarPet, The pet hair remover:
***********************
Size: 12.2cm x 4.2cm x 4.2cm.
Weight: 77g (on my scales)
The CarPet is essentially a long, square tube of very sturdy, blue plastic, covered by an orange rubber coating on which are rows of short, raised pillars of rubber (126 of them on each of three sides, a few less on the fourth, surrounding the logo.)
My opinion
*********
I will admit to being a little sceptical about the efficacy of this chunk of rubber -coated plastic and had it been more expensive would not have considered purchasing it. However, having got it home and eager to know whether I had wasted my money, I tried it out on my staircase carpet, which was beginning to look a shade whiter than it should where the riser meets the tread.
Happily, it met my hopes and exceeded my expectations.... It worked. Do not take my word for it. Watch the excellent demo in the link and see for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w6kQZaQ6PDk
To use this on vast expanses of carpet would be a tad tedious, not to mention hard on the knees therefore I still use my shoe to scrape excesses from the living room carpet, before vacuuming or using the carpet sweeper but find this little tool, very useful on clothes, stairs, dog bedding and furniture. It is washable, only needing a quick rinse under the tap or in warm, soapy water and it is ready to use again.
Read the complete review |
 |
Savic Giant Rolly Wheel & Stand
by ladyofcampfires
The first time I saw Degus was in a pet store a good few years back. I remember three of them running around on this large wheel in their cage and they just looked very playful, energetic and happy. I spent a good twenty minutes just watching them on this wheel and got much entertainment from doing so! Naturally, when I got my four Degus ... I wanted to give them a nice big wheel as well.
I originally gave them the big wheel from my old rat cage however it soon became apparent they would need a new one. They tried so hard to run on it bless them but their little feet just kept falling through the metal bars which made this wheel. So I headed off to Pets At Home to find a big solid wheel they could have and enjoy.
I ended up buying the Savic Giant Rolly Wheel as it was the only one in store which met the requirements I needed. I paid £16.99 for the wheel from Pets At Home and it can also be bought from Amazon for £16.14 and most online pet stores for around £15. These are prices I was completely willing to pay for the item as it was clear my Degus would be getting plenty of use out of it thus giving me value for money. Not like the rats that never once used their £20 wheel!
This wheel is 27.5cm in diameter making it a good size for larger 'small pets' such as Degus, Chinchillas, Chipmunks and Rats. The wheel is made out of translucent blue plastic which is screwed onto a white coated metal stand with two plastic yellow panels at the back to secure it. I was a little apprehensive about the wheel being plastic as Degus are such prolific chewers that I was informed they would chew their way out of a plastic based cage in 24-48 hours! Regardless, it was the only solid large wheel I could find so I decided to risk it. Thankfully, in the month they've been using this I've never seen them try to chew it up so that doesn't seem to be a problem.
When I first bought the wheel I decided to place it on the floor of their cage on the stand although it quickly became apparent that this wasn't working out as the wheel, along with the stand, just kept moving further and further forward every time my Degus used it. It would start off at the back of their cage and, over the course of the day, work its way forward so it was slamming into the side of their sand bath whenever it turned. Not only did this make it difficult for my Degus to use the wheel but it also caused a lot of banging and noise! Because all four of my Degus were running on the wheel pretty often I was having to rescrew it back onto the stand every couple of days too because it kept coming loose and hanging off the stand.
So to stop these problems I unscrewed the actual wheel from the stand and secured it as a standalone wheel on their cage wall instead. I do think you should be able to buy the wheel separately to the stand personally (for some reason you can buy the stand on its own but the not wheel) as I imagine a lot of people would probably take this off of the stand as they soon as they got home.
Taking the wheel off of the stand and placing it onto their cage was easy enough to do. At the back of the wheel is a metal screw, you simply unscrew this until the wheel comes loose from the stand and then place the wheel onto the cage wall from the inside and screw the screw back on from the outside. Screwing this in keeps the yellow plastic panels tightly together and prevents the wheel from falling off.
This did solve the problem of the wheel magically moving every couple of hours but also introduced a new problem. It does not matter how tightly I screw the wheel onto their cage it just doesn't feel secure at all. When my Degus are running on it not only does the wheel shake all over the place but then entire cage does too! I will admit this doesn't seem to have put my girls off using the wheel but it does mean that I am trying to tighten the thing up even more every chance I get so it doesn't fall off and possibly injure one of my Degus mid-run. I also get images of the cage shaking so much it will one day completely fall off of the table it is on so I'm constantly readjusting that too!
The wheel does turn easily and my Degus absolutely love it, it's very rare there isn't at least one of them running on this. I, on the other hand, hate it. It's a right pain when it's on the stand and causes me to have a nervous breakdown when it's attached to the cage as it just doesn't look or feel safe. Thankfully nothing awful has happened but I really do think if I went a week without tightening the wheel or moving the cage back properly onto the table it stands on then it would.
I'll give the wheel three stars. I couldn't take this out of their cage despite how much safer it would feel if I did because they do just love having a wheel so much, I'd feel really cruel if I were to take it away! Having said that, I am definitely looking for an alternative and the sooner I get one the better!
Read the complete review |
 |
Wilko Pet Bedding Wood Shavings
by purplekimmy
I normally buy my shavings from our local pet shop, it's not that far away from me, and having used the same product for so long, I know it is good and that I can trust it. However, on this one occasion I was in Wilkinsons buying other bits and happened across the pet isle, remembering that we were a tad low on wood shavings, I bought a ... medium packet £1.69 I believe and went home.
I thought nothing of the difference in product until I opened the clear cellophane wrapping, yes they were wood shavings and very tightly packed as normal but there were big chunks of wood in amongst the shavings. I do not get these with my other brand, and was a little put off by it. I used the shavings for a while and noticed that my hamster was scratching a lot more than usual. After cleaning her out and making sure everything was dry and clean properly, I replaced the shavings and kept an eye on her, over the next few days she started to scratch the back of her neck so much there was skin showing and tufts of fur were missing. I visited my original pet shop and explained the symptoms and was told it sounded like mites to take her to the vet. This I did and after again explaining was told it was indeed mites and to discard any further shaving and to go back to my original supplier. 'Chip' was under constant watch and had to have cream and powder applied twice a day until the mites vanished. We are using the original shaving now and thankfully (touch wood!) everything is back to normal, her hair has grown back and she seems no worse for wear from it.
For £1.69, it may have been cheap but my vet bill defiantly wasn't.
Read the complete review |
