Hey Rescuers! CR Rescue Pet here with our first guest blogger.

Please welcome Janelle and hear the cool things she has to say about her recent experience with a litter of kittens!

    Hello pet lovers! My name is Janelle from BeginnerRigger. My cat Junie just had a litter of six kittens. Currently the kittens are a few weeks old and still eating from Junie.

                Junie would have been spayed, but the process can be anywhere ranging from $100 to $200 (Costhelper, 2012). My family could not afford to produce that much money on her after all the shots and other necessary procedures when getting a new pet. Due to circumstances beyond my control, my sister currently cares for our cats and Junie escaped while she was in heat. Soon we found ourselves with six cute and ever lovable kittens.

                 According to the ASPCA, the kittens need to be on their mother’s milk for three to four seeks. You should start them on soft, gruel type food at four to five weeks. The site states that you should give them canned kitten food or warm, soggy dry food. This is not really for nutrition. The kittens need to learn to eat something besides milk since their mother cannot support their nutritional needs as they continue to grow. The kittens should also at this time start learning to use the litter box. They do not need much teaching. If you leave a kitten in a litter box, they usually get the idea (ASPCA, 2012).

                Once the kittens are old enough to leave their mother, we are going to give them away because we do not have the resources to care for them. We have been contacting friends and family to see who might be interested in a kitten. After we have exhausted everyone we know, we will go to a shelter like Texas CARES because they are a no kill shelter (Adoptapet.com, 2012). Junie will be fixed as soon as the kittens are gone.

Thanks, Janelle! You can check out Beginner Rigger at http://beginnerrigger.blogspot.com/

Sources:

Adoptapet.com. Cat Adoption. Retrieved from: http://www.adoptapet.com/adoption_rescue/69082.html

ASPCA. Newborn Kitten Care. Retrieved from: http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/cat-care/newborn-kitten-care.aspx

Costhelper. Cost of Cat Spay or Neuter. Retrieved from: http://pets.costhelper.com/spay-neuter-cat.html

Best Inexpensive Dog Foods

Hey rescuers!

Adopted a new waggy friend? Looking to feed him well and - well, frankly don't have $60 to shell out for a week of food?

I've got your back. Here are some moderate options that aren't packed with gunk or priced to break the bank.

These four foods came highly recommended on findthebest.com. By checking prices on Amazon and comparing them with FindTheBest's ingredient lists, I decided to do some digging and see how much nutrition I could get for a hungry pup on a tight budget.

Science Diet:

I'm sure you see this stuff everywhere and wonder - is it SCIENCE? or is it marketing? Well, it's a little of both. I was wary of buying this stuff myself for a while because I heard about vets being paid to push it to patients at small practices, but that shady story doesn't change the fact that this stuff is actually quite better for your pet than some of its competitors  With real meat instead of mystery leftover bits, and whole grains instead of corn meal, it gets the feeding job done well (FindTheBest, 2012). At about $30 for a 15lb bag on Amazon, the price isn't bad, either (Amazon, 2012).

Purina Pro Plan:

Price wise, this is a little more what I'm talkin' 'bout! At around $35 for 55lbs of dog food on Amazon, this hits the wallet at a solid reasonable (Amazon, 2012). It contains no yucky preservatives, and real chicken is the first ingredient of many of the Purina Pro Plan foods. However, this chicken is stretched with meat by-products and corn (FindTheBest, 2012).

Purina One:

Similarly to Pro Plan, this food is moderately priced and contains real meat, such as lamb, as its first ingredient. It's stretched with things like oat meal and fish meal, but hey, I know what those foods are (FindTheBest, 2012). It sells at around $8 for 16lbs (Amazon, 2012). It's a moderate choice without mystery bits. I'd say it's a solid choice.

Iams Premium Protection:

Iams Premium Protection dog food, at about $30 for a 22lb bag, comes in as the least expensive of the moderate dog foods (Amazon, 2012). It contains real meat as its first ingredient, but, of course, comes stretched with corn meal (FindTheBest, 2012). It's not a bad, but not the best, option.

Sources:
Amazon.com. Search - Dry Dog Food. Retrieved from: www.amazon.com

FindTheBest. Search - Dry Dog Food. Retrieved from: www.findthebest.com