Halloween is just around the corner. It's a fun time of year to spend some quality with your pets, and a great excuse to throw a party! But with all the restrictions in place due to COVID-19, you may be wondering how to celebrate safely. In this post, we'll give you a helping hand by sharing 7 fun ways to enjoy Halloween with your pet – even in the midst of a pandemic!
1) Throw a Virtual Costume Contest
Halloween is the perfect time for a pet costume contest. And there's no need to cancel the fun this year – simply take the contest online! To get started, create a unique Halloween costume for your furry friend. Next, encourage your friends to get creative with their own pet costumes and schedule a video chat.
When it's time for the contest, offer online gift cards or other small prizes for the cutest, scariest, and most original entries. You're sure to have plenty of fun parading your pets and voting for your favorite costumes.
2) Organize a Caption Contest on Social Media
A caption contest is another great way to take your Halloween celebrations online. Create a Facebook group and ask friends and family members to post pictures of their pets wearing Halloween costumes. Members of the group can then comment with their funniest and wittiest captions.
At the end of the contest, ask group members to vote on the winning caption for each picture. Consider handing out small prizes to the contest winners or donating money to an animal charity on their behalf.
3) Prepare Some Healthy Dehydrated Treats
No Halloween celebration is complete without treats, so prepare some snacks for your four-legged friends. We recommend dehydrated treats as they're healthy, tasty, and easy to prepare in an oven or food dehydrator.
Looking for some inspiration for delicious and nutritious dehydrated pet treats? This article from Wiggleworthy contains recipes for dehydrated sweet potato treats, chicken jerky treats, and more!
4) Carve a Pet Pumpkin
Decorating pumpkins is a fun Halloween activity that can be enjoyed by all the family. This Halloween, why not add a unique twist by carving a pumpkin in the image of your pet? If you're confident in your carving skills, use an image of your pet to work from. But if you need a little extra help, plenty of free patterns are available online.
Please take precautions when carving pumpkins to make sure you and your family stay safe. Here are some tips from Safewise:
- Don't rush
- Use small, controlled motions
- Choose a sturdy location
- Don't put hands inside while carving
- Keep hands and tools dry
5) Play Some Pet-Friendly Halloween Games
Why not add to the fun this Halloween by playing some pet-friendly games with your furry family members? Bobbing for apples is a traditional Halloween game that can be easily adapted for pets. Simply fill large bowls with water, add some tasty treats, and watch your pets go wild while they bob for their prizes!
A Halloween themed treasure hunt is another game that's sure to be a hit with your pets. To play, hide treats in your home and yard and allow your pets to sniff them out. This game is especially popular with dogs, but lots of cats also enjoy a good treasure hunt!
6) Snuggle up With Your Pet and Watch a Scary Movie
Watching a scary movie is a great excuse to snuggle up on the sofa with your furry friend. And don't worry if you'll be watching with kids, there are plenty of Halloween movies that are suitable for the whole family.
Looking for a good movie to watch this Halloween? We recommend checking out Chewy's Top 7 Halloween Movies With Pets. The list includes spooky live action and animated classics including Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Scooby-Doo: The Movie, and Frankenweenie.
7) Bake Some Delicious Homemade Treat
Most pets just can't get enough treats – so we'll end our list with a delicious recipe for coconut banana and coconut berry cupcakes. We recommend serving these alongside the healthy dehydrated treats we mentioned earlier.
Coconut Banana and Coconut Berry Cupcake
Note: We only use coconut flour for baking for our pooches (and ourselves). Coconut flour is gluten-free and contains the highest percentage of dietary fiber in comparison to other flours: 61% of coconut flour consists of fiber (compared to 27% wheat bran, 16% oat bran, 13% wheat flour, you get the picture).
Ingredients
- 5 TBSP CocoTherapy coconut oil, melted
- 6 eggs (room temperature)
- 1/3 cup organic coconut sugar (might be hard to find). You can use light brown sugar instead.
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 TBSP organic, unsweetened applesauce
- 3/4 cup sifted organic coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
For Banana cupcakes: 2 mashed large bananas (drizzle some honey with the mashed bananas to sweeten)
For Berry cupcakes: 1/4 cup mixed berries of your choice (I used blueberries and pitted cherries)
Frosting: Cream Cheese whipped with some honey to lightly sweeten
Instructions
1. Blend melted coconut oil, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, and applesauce.
2. Sift together coconut flour with baking powder.
3. Mix wet & dry ingredients into batter, until there are no lumps.
4. Fold in mashed bananas w/ honey OR berries.
5. Pour batter into greased cupcake liners in 12 cupcake/muffin pan.
6. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 C) for 18 minutes.
