The National Pet Show

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending The National Pets show with Fresh Start for Hens. I had never heard of the show before despite attending many baby shows over the years at the NEC. We stayed over in a hotel on the Saturday night and was up bright and early for the show on the Sunday. It was my first time volunteering to run a stand. As many of you know I run my local collection point for Fresh Start for Hens so I enjoyed being able to spread the word of such a fabulous company whose goal is to save hens from slaughter. The volunteers, especially the admin team work long and hard to keep things running smoothly and they do a brilliant job.
Lots of people came to stroke or cuddle the hens we had at the stand and I feel we reached out to lots of potential new hen owners. I can honestly say I have never been so tired, I was exhausted after the day but it was totally worth it. Thank you to Fresh Start for Hens for allowing me to be a part of your hen family.

I managed to sneak away and visit some of the stands at the show. My first stop was Crocodile Joe's Wild World. I love reptiles and he has a fair few that I had not come across. The highlight was getting to hold a black headed python. The body, especially the head was really shiny and she is such a beautiful creature. I could have happily stayed on this stand all day.
All of the stands were knowledgeable in their field. I had to
stop by the Wood Green Animal Shelter as they had guinea pigs with them. They also had something that caught my eye on their stand. I am basing my specialist project this year on guinea pig substrates and they are advocates of not using wood shavings due to the health implications to the guinea pigs. Seeing this information helped me to decide to do my own testing on wood shaving especially looking for parasites under the microscope. I have agreed to share my study with Wood Green at the end of the year.
Across the road from Wood Green I discovered Piggiepigpigs, they too had guinea pigs on their stand so they were already going to get me there. They are makers of handmade pet furnishings for guinea pigs. Now being a bit crafty with the sewing machine I can appreciate how much work goes into each of these handmade items so I had to buy one. I treated our guinea pigs at home to a Piggie Snug, I wanted to buy so much more but managed to stick to my budget. If you own guinea pigs check them out, you will not be disappointed.

There was so much more to see and do that I did not get around to doing. Next year I think I will attend as a visitor with my family, little lady would love all of the animals. If like me you had never heard of The National Pet show check them out. Honestly there is more to a pet show than you could ever imagine.