Accessorizing the Smallest Pet

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Carrying small animal accessories doesn’t mean just having a food dish and plastic water bottle on your shelf anymore, as manufacturers are offering a wide of variety of items, including clothing and travel products.

Marshall Pet Products sells an array of jaunty hats, including a tiny, felt beret with a chin strap, for ferrets. You say your ferret’s not feeling French today? No worries. There’s a baseball hat, a star-spangled Uncle Sam number, knit hats, fleece hats and even a jester’s hat, complete with bells.

Think ferret fashion is silly? Think again. It comes down to two words, “gift market.”

As Pet Age’s 2012-13 Retailer Survey showed, many people, who don’t even have pets,  tend to buy fun items like these for other’s people’s pets as gifts, especially around the holidays.

But, most small animal accessories are practical items that owners need to keep their animals happy and healthy. For example, water bottles and food dishes are absolute necessities.

Super Pet manufactures many small-animal accessories, including a simple Clear Water Bottle that ships with a spring cage hanger.

Food bowls come in all shapes and sizes and are usually made of plastic or ceramic. Rabbits seem to love the edible woven bowl made from timothy hay and full of dried fruit from Marshall Pet Products’ Peter’s line.

Super Pet’s Vege-T-Bowls are cute, colorful food bowls that look like carrots or lettuce.  They are made from chew-proof ceramic so they’re dishwasher safe.

Get Grooming

Don’t forget to carry grooming tools, which can help ring up sales.

Quick & Clean Instant Shampoo keeps rabbits and guinea pigs looking their best without rinsing. A few spritzes leave Thumper smelling like baby powder.

When it comes to ferrets, Marshall Pet Products offers many grooming products including Brightening Formula Shampoo, Tea Tree Shampoo and Ferret Cream Rinse.

Chinchillas need a dust bath to keep their coats soft and dry. Hagen’s Chinchilla Bath House is designed to ensure complete contact between the chinchilla and the bath. The domed top keeps the sand inside to minimize mess.

For cleaning human habitats, Marshall’s 180XT concentrated formula extracts the stain, the odor and the pheromones, which helps to prevent recurring issues.

Rabbits and ferrets can use a litter box like Super Pet’s Tall Corner Locking Litter Pan. The pan clips neatly into a corner and the high back keeps waste where it belongs.

Even hamsters can learn to use a litter box. Super Pet’s Hamster Potty is specially designed for a hamster’s bathroom habits and comes with a tiny strainer/scoop and a sample of Potty Litter.

All small animals like to hide and burrow, houses and hideaways are worthwhile accessory to carry in your store, like Pets International’s Giant Nest, a natural-grass burrow that’s completely chewable and is suggested for rabbits.

The Giant Igloo Hide-Out comes in four translucent colors so people can see their pets inside. It is also ventilated and easy to clean.

Hagen’s Living World is a complete line of wood accessories that includes hideaways, grass mats and even a wooden exercise wheel.

Move over dogs and cats, because even the tiniest of pets are hitting the road.

In a travel carrier they can go to the vet, to playdates and to show and tell in style.

– Kristen Ryan