Many pet owners will tell you that pets are people too. Actually this isn’t strictly true – they are just animals, but still it can be nice to get something for them occasionally too. Gift baskets make great gifts for anyone, and okay pets probably won’t appreciate the amount of effort you put into its presentation (so this is pretty much negligible) but they will certainly appreciate the variety of gifts that pet gift baskets represent. Furthermore, if you’re giving the gift to a friend or family member who has recently acquired said pet, then the effort will be appreciated and pet gift baskets make great gifts for pet lovers of all kinds too.

So when you’re designing pet gift baskets the key is to make them full of treats for your animal. The nature of these treats will depend obviously on the type of pet and there will be differences between the kinds of things you give a dog to the kind of things you give to say a cat. These are probably the only pets you’ll be making gift baskets for… making gift baskets for guinea pigs and budgies really is pushing it a little bit so we’ll stick with these two pet gift baskets for now.

Dog Gift Basket – When designing the dog gift basket you will want to include various things that will keep the animal entertained. This can mean biscuits or dog food but try not to make the whole basket edible or the basket will actually be unhealthy for the pet. When you design the basket then try to include a few other items that the dog will enjoy. This can include bones and similar animal bits (dogs also love pig’s ears and hoofs to chew and eventually eat) as well as cuddly toys or squeaky chews both of which they’ll enjoy gnawing it and eventually tearing apart. If you want to make the gift actually healthy for the pet you could include a ball which the owner can throw for the dog to give it some exercise.

For dogs opening the basket will be part of the fun, so wrapping it is always a good move. If you give the pet gift basket for Christmas then this way the dog has something of his own to open while everyone else tears open their presents – and it can mean that they don’t steal yours this year (though there’s no guarantee). Furthermore the dog will love ripping off the paper and won’t know what to attack first when it finds all of the things inside.

Cat Gift Basket – Cat gift baskets should be fairly similar in their design. There’s no need to wrap the basket in this instance however as cats aren’t big openers and for this reason you can also include more treats. Other than food items however other options are a ball of string, toy such as a soft mouse or even a scratching post if you want to be generous. The great thing about both pet gift baskets is also that the basket itself can become part of the gift – either as something for them to be carried in or as a bad for them. For this reason you may also want to decorate it with cushions and/or a blanket.

Mack LeMouse

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