Do you smell a strong burning scent today? I did, and I realised it was because its the last day of the 7th month. It is also Hari Raya Puasa this weekend! Selamat Hari Raya to all our Muslim friends!

Here’s another reason why tomorrow is a good day (for us): It marks the opening of our second outlet at Jurong East!

We will be opening starting from tomorrow at Jurong, do come and visit to support us at our new outlet! Small animals, grooming services and a wide range of products will be offered there as it is now being offered at Telok Kurau – now in the West. The exact address is Blk 134 Jurong East Street 13 #01-06. We are beside Mr Bean and two doors away from NTUC and diagonally opposite the Science Center, so it shouldnt be too difficult to locate us! We are also located within 5 minutes walking distance of the Jurong MRT station and 2 minutes away from the Jurong East Library. However, if you still do face difficulties finding us, do call us at 65691478.

Our opening hours are from 10am to 9pm daily, we hope to see you there!

We have noted that there have been some problems faced by a few of our customers who drive that there has been a shortage of parking space. We would like to firstly, apologize for the inconvenience caused. Secondly, here are a few solutions if you are facing difficulties parking along the road just in front of our shop:

1) If you are just picking up some items and know what you need, call in advance and let us know what you need. We will prepare the products, bag them and invoice them in advance. If you need change, let us know the exact amount as well. So, call, drive, pick up and you are home, easy peasy.

2) We actually do have a nice little car park at the back of the building. If you are driving in from Still Road at Lorong L, turn right at Telok Kurau Road and then turn right at the first turning and you will turn into the carpark. Or you can enter from Lorong M, then turn left and left again. There is a barrier that divides the carpark into 2, the back portion of which behind the barrier is private for the residents and in front which is for our patrons. There is usually plenty of space there, plus it is free parking!

3) As a last resort, you can park at Bright Centre which is just opposite  us at Uni Building, where The Animal Clinic is located. Similarly, you can enter the parking lot from the main Telok Kurau trunk road. They have a large parking lot and it is just 2 minute to walk over to the shop from there.  

Hope this helps!!

Please take note of the following changes in our operational hours:

Weekdays Monday to Friday: 12 – 9pm

Weekends Saturdays to Sundays: 11am-9pm.

Other than that, we are still open everyday!

We are hiring again! Only this time, we are looking for a full time retail personnel to run the operations at the shop. We are looking for girls with a keen interest in animals, have some sort of sales experience (preferably), are able to commit to weekends and retail hours, can speak English proficiently and are able to work independently. If you think you are up for the job, send in your resume as well as salary expectations, and we will get right back to you! If you have had relevant job experience, you will be duly renumerated.

For some of those we had to turn away due to a lack of positions or because we were more keen on part-time retail personnel, feel free to re-apply!

Temperatures have been crazy at a high of 34 degree celsius constantly. Without intending to send out mixed messages, (see my previous post about keeping chinchillas in Singapore) the fact still remains that in such a sweltering heat where I break out in pespiration the moment I step out of my cool air conditioned comfort at Pets Republic, prudence needs to be taken.  At this point of time, it would be well to remember that chinchillas do not sweat and they have a very well insulated dense fur coat which traps their heat. Their body temperatures are approximately the same as humans at 37 degrees celsius. This means that if you are breaking out into sweat and dispersing your body heat through the process of evaporation, your pet is trapping this heat. Again, my favourite rule of thumb, if you feel uncomfortable and sweaty, your chinchilla is definitely feeling uncomfortable as well, the fatal difference is he/she does not feel sweaty because he/she has no sweat glands and if you let this trapped heat remain trapped for a prolonged period of time, that is when the internal organs get overheated.

Some prudent measures to take at this time to prevent such a situation from occurring if you do not have air conditioning in your environment:

1) If your chinchilla does not have a well ventilated environment (i.e. a fan that circulates the air around the room), it is probably time to seriously consider getting one.

2) You are probably out during most of the day when it is the hottest. Put a cooling plate or marble slab into the freezer the night before and put it out into the cage just before you leave the house. Please use the proper ones found at pet stores as uncut marble edges are very sharp and can cause serious harm to your chinchilla.

3) Put around 20 small cubes of ice into your chinchilla’s water bottle. By midday, when the temperatures are at the most dangerous, most of it would have melted to make the water in the bottle a nice cool drink to bring down your pet’s internal temperature. You can also consider wrapping a thick cloth around the bottle to keep the drink cool for a longer time

4) Avoid causing panic to your chinchilla during the day. When chinchillas get excited, or even worse, panic, they tend to start flying and bouncing of their cage grilles or walls. The fear also causes their blood to pump faster and the internal heat to increase. In case a case, heat stroke can set in rapidly before you even notice. This means, with the current soaring temperatures, avoid lettng your chinchilla out of its cage in the day, avoid moving its things around to clean it during the day and avoid making loud sounds. In other words, until this current hot month is over: make as few changes to your chinchilla’s living environment during the day as possible. If you absolutely must clean its cage during the day, then put the chinchilla into a small container which is well ventilated into a cool room out of direct sunlightwhere he/she cannot get over excited and over active. Also, put the cooling plate into the container.

5) You might also want to consider putting a thermometer on standby. Insert the metal tip into its anus and take its temperature if you suspect it might have started overheating. When doing so, do not let it struggle too much by holding the pet firmly and placing the chinchilla gently back into its cage with a house available for it to hide in.

Some signs of heat stroke include:

1) Body slumped onto the floor

2) Little energy to move

3) Red red ears for pink-earred breeds

4) Heavy and laboured breathing

5) Wet  fur around the mouth area

6) No prior signs of sickness

If you realise that heat stroke has occurred,

1) Prepare a basin deep enough for the chinchilla to be submerged in

2) Run tap water into the baisin

3) You can add two to three, NOT MORE, small cubes of ice into the water during the initial stages, but this is optional, and depending on how far into the heat stroke he/she is. You don’t want her body to go into shock from the extremes of temperatures.

4) Put the chinchilla into the water while holding its head above water.

5) Gently scoop water and pour it over the chinchilla’s body. This process will probably have to go on for 15 to 20 minutes before its temperature is sufficiently reduced to non-critical levels. You can take its temperature to decide when it can be removed from the water

6) You can also syringe cold water into its mouth if it is willing to take. Do so slowly or he/she will choke since he/she probably has little energy to swallow

7) After that, dry the chinchilla out with a cloth (not a hair dryer) and place it in a draft free enclosed environment at room temperature of around 25 to 27 degree celsius. It will not have much energy to move during the initial few hours. Let it rest. You can check on it, but you should avoid moving or touching it as this might stress him/her even more. If it survives through the next 12 hours, chances are, it will pull through.

Hope this helps and please remember to be extra vigilant in checking on your chinchilla at least for this month of June and next!

Mazuti pellets are in!!!! I know, our poor chinchillas (mine too!) have been suffering from eating other *ahem* not-so-good pellets, but….

 MAZURI IS IN!

We heard all about the bunnies which looked like puppies with huge ears, also known as Flemish Giants. And apparently, highly intelligent and a lot less timid than the usual dwarfs, lops, etc. So we thought, since we do specialize in small animals, we should have these famed puppy-bunnies! We brought in 5 last month and they are now out of quarantine and free roaming around the shop. We sold 3 and are now left with 2: Mandy and Floppy. Here they are…..

Floppy trying to get Mandy to give her the biscuit. To which Mandy stoically refuses.

Mandy decides the easiest way to get her favourite treat is to stick her whole head in while Floppy tries to get her share sideways.

Chasing the treat bag!

Point to note: Mandy adores slippers and shoes. She (and us) thinks it is hilarious to chase customers’ feet and grab on with her teeth to the slippers.

Can you recognize these bunnies?

Sibling Baby Lops Sitting in a Row

They are none other than the 5 minutes old babies all grown up!

More pics…

Re-united with Daddy

Hrm, it occurred to me today……i dont have a post on hamsters! tsk tsk…..So….thought i would share with you guys this: the secret to prolonging your hamster’s life is to feed alfalfa and timothy hay!

Ok, i dont know this FOR SURE, so dont quote me on this, BUT, today, our new staff, Karen (lovely young lady she is, pls ask her about this if you happen to see her, hehe) told me she met a very interesting customer yesterday who told her she has a  5 year old hamster. I was impressed to say the least since most hamsters dont go beyond 3. In hamster years, thats like….almost living to 150 years old in human terms!!! Anyway, abovementioned customer used to have many hamsters but has since been reduced to just one and she regularly gives it alfalfa and timothy hay which it apparently quite happily devours! Maybe it has a detoxification function? Much like how we eat fibre to keep healthy?

Food for thought yes? Try it and let us know!

Living in singapore, it seems ridiculous to keep a chinchilla. Indeed, the climate of wild chinchillas (Andes Mountain air = dry, windy, collllddddd) is vastly different from our hot tropical wet country. And I get a lot of customers asking if they need to turn on the air conditioning 24 hours a day if they want to keep a chinchilla, which is really a valid question given the thickness and density of their coats. This might go against conventional wisdom, but honestly, in my 7 years of keeping over 100 chinchillas (at different points in my life added together lar), I have only ever had1 chinchilla die from heat stroke. That also includes imported chinchillas from the Netherlands, UK, United States, etc (i.e. they were not born and bred to be accustomed to the Singapore weather).

Yes, I do keep my chinchillas in almost 24 hrs air conditioning now, but I only started providing that luxury 4-5 years back, in the first 2 years when I already had a small herd of imported chinchillas none of them ever got any air conditioning. The chinchillas in the shop front for sale also do not get 24 hrs air conditioning. In reality, air con is more a luxury than a necessity. Chinchillas are highly adaptable creatures, and I’ve found that ventilation is often more important than the temperature in determining their survivability. The only chinchilla that died of heat stroke was because I left her in a bath tank which was enclosed on all sides in a room for 3-4 hours without air conditioning nor ventilation. (Sobsob, sorry Willow, I was young and careless then!)A pretty good gauge of a comfortable living environment for chinchillas is yourself, I think. Basically, if you are sweating and you don’t feel comfortable, chances are, neither does your pet chin and its time to turn on the aircon/fan.

The fact is, from anecdotal experience, I would say that chinchillas seem to die more frequently from ignorance in handling, feeding or caring for them, stress and poor breeding than from heat stroke.

Bottom line: if you want to give your chinny 24 hrs air conditioning, well and good and kudos to you for going the extra mile! If not, thats fine, but make sure the place is well ventilated. You gotta be prepared for a slightly ’sweaty’ and sticky looking chin as well. But dont let the air con bills deter you from enjoying the company of this low-maintenance, clean, highly intelligent and responsive pet!