Starting the new year with another addition to our Pawjourr Spotlight series, where we highlight unique creators and the jobs they have taken on to showcase our pool of talents and how they work with brands.
Introducing… Dr. Laura
Growing up in sunny SoCal, Dr. Laura experienced firsthand the different ways people view animals based on their cultural differences. She believes that as an animal health care professional, one’s utmost duty is to be an advocate for the safety and well-being of all pets. Especially improving the quality of life for all animals.
After graduating from the Western University of Health Sciences, Dr. Laura went on to work at Pawp, as a lead veterinarian. She served as an advisor and consultant to their network of pet owners – sounds exciting if you ask me!
Dr. Laura is also very passionate about pet food and nutrition and has worked with various brands as a consultant, along with crafting recipes for different clients.
Dr. Laura, like the rest of us, love warm hugs
“Vet Lo where the pets go”
Similarly, with Pawjourr, Dr. Laura serves as a veterinarian advisor and consultant.
In 2022, Animal Ortho Care wanted to work with vets through Pawjourr to promote their bracing products. We engaged Dr Laura who is an active content creator and practicing vet to take part in this campaign.
Dr. Laura worked with her patients to understand their conditions and customized Animal Ortho Care bracing products to suit their needs. Having personally tested the bracing products on her patients, she saw how it has helped them, giving them a stamp of approval for medical products like the Haute Wheels Dog Wheelchair and Lil’ Back Bracer.
She further shared video testimonials on her social accounts and provided testimonials to be used on the brand’s website.
Besides testing medical products, Dr. Laura tested out pet tech gadgets too. For example, the Eufy pet camera allows you to keep an eye on your pet while you’re not home. According to Dr. Laura’s review, the device is perfect for pets with separation anxiety, as it allows you to feed treats and talk to them through the Eufy app.
Benefits of working with vets
We previously shared about the benefits of customer reviews and how it has the power to influence consumers’ purchasing decisions. And what if I told you that a product review by an expert goes an even longer way!
A partnership between an accredited vet and a brand provides credibility and social proof for a product or service. Vets are considered experts in their field and their endorsement of a product or service can help to increase consumer trust and confidence in that product or service.
Additionally, when a product or service is recommended by a trusted professional, it helps to increase the perceived value of the product or service, which can potentially lead to increased sales.
The advantages of getting an expert opinion are endless! These experts tend to have a greater understanding and experience of the matter, which makes their opinion much more legitimate in the eye of a consumer. In this case, Dr. Laura was able to showcase the effectiveness of certain products and share them with her loyal audience.
If you’re a brand looking to work with vets, Dr. Laura is one of our best picks! Reach out to us at hello@pawjourr.com , and we’ll connect you with the right expert..
Who is guilty of buying a tad too much when it comes to their furkids? Definitely me ?
I love to shop for Milky, but sometimes it seems to me that there are only that few vendors whom I can buy stuff for him – mainly those who enjoy high visibility on Instagram. I always wondered if there’s a way for us to dig the hidden gems (amongst the many, many on Instagram).
So here are some of the hidden gems I’ve unearthed through my times on Instagram (I will try notttt to mention the well-known ones), and just in time for Christmas! ?
1. Cakki.co
Website: https://cakkicollective.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cakki.co/
Source: https://cakkicollective.com
Cakki Collective is a boutique brand from Philippines which specialises in rope leashes, bandanas + more. Their products are handmade & carefully curated with love.
Their bandanas range between S$6 – 15, depending on the size you are looking at.
Milky sporting this new bandana from Cakki
What I love about this brand
Obviously very much in love for their Instagram aesthetic and game
Super friendly and nice business owner
Handmade and their designs are really nice
I guess the only con is that since they are based overseas, I have to gather or consolidate orders before the worldwide shipping fee makes sense.
I came to know about this home-based store only because the owner is an influencer under our network. We worked with them for some campaigns and she very kindly gifted us some free samples to try!
Just look at the greedy face!
Pawjourr organised a Secret Santa gift exchange this year, and I would be sending some of her treats to my Santee! ? We also featured her bone broth recipe on The Woof Agency’s Instagram earlier this year and the effort is ?!! You can buy them bone broth at a super affordable price too
You can check out how she boil the bone broth here!
3. Husse Singapore
Website: https://www.husse.sg/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hussesg/
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGSAAV2nM7Z/
Husse is a new brand which entered the Singapore market late 2019. They hail from Sweden and pride themselves in high quality pet food, specialising in not just dog & cats, but also horses! ?
Milky loves his Taste of the wild, so we won’t be talking about their kibbles range. Instead, we are a huge huge fan of their Laxolja (also known as salmon oil ?).
This is Milky a month after being on their salmon oil.
We sprinkle the salmon oil over his food and he gobbles them up like a cookie monster. It makes the entire meal looks much appetising and there’s definitely an improvement on his coat condition which is visible to the eye.
We have been on this product for the past 3 – 6 months and we highly recommend pawrents out there to consider trying it! ?
I think Instinct Pet Food has been around for quite some time, but only became aggressive with their sales recently in Singapore. They are part of the Nature’s variety group – and the ladies who work there are so so so nice!
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CC8eq-CjOdG/
To be honest, there is a very low chance of us converting to 100% raw for Milky as we are not very confident about the food handling (though we have been tempted a few times by the benefits and The Dog Chef on Tik Tok).
So Instinct Pet is one of the brands we try to play around with the idea but with freeze dried nuggets etc. I’m very confident about the quality of their food and I’ve never heard anything about worms / weevils in their food vs. some other brands I see on Instagram. ?
I spoke to the owners before and I know how strict they are with the end-to-end (source of ingredients -> final product). But okay, it is on the expensive side since Milky is a big dog and eats quite a bit.
For the wet food, we alternate between their wet pouches and Bronco pate. As for the raw toppers, it’s really when he is being a good boy (but now we know he is okay with them and won’t “laosai”.
Everyone in the company actually love their products so much that we decided to bring them in and sell on our shopee! We only sell in bundles since Shopee has a lot of restriction around the shipping fees.
We got to know about Kin+Kind pet supplements through the sampling program offered by Pawjourr.
Pawjourr has a sampling program where pet owners pay $4.90 per month to check-out unlimited samples to try. In exchange, leave a review to help other pet owners make an informed choice.
They are also adding in more verticals like groomers, clinics, trainers etc. It is positioned to be the one-stop pet parenting app to make pet ownership easier, cheaper & much more convenient! ❤️
Check out #Whatsinmybowl flex with Milky! Special guest appearance by Clear Dog Treats (Shark cartilage powder) which you can find here, which I am obsessed with as well.
I hope this has been helpful to pet owners out there looking for some new websites or brands to stalk! ?
I think some of the brands here are pretty well-known already in the pets community, but there are a few other supplements which you can try and buy via Amazon.sg!
If you are like me and love finding new brands and products for your furkids to try, you should definitely give Pawjourr+ a go! ?
Grooming is essential for all pets actually, but more so for our doggos. These fluffballs became dirtballs after their daily walks or play. It can be frustrating trying to keep them clean each time.
Every day since I started the Instagram journey of @kikithemp in end June, many people had asked me about grooming items as I’ve been grooming Kiki by myself for a while.
A disclaimer, I am not a grooming expert or a professional groomer, I am self-taught by watching Youtube videos and trial and error.
As a first time dog owner, and adopting a dog with chronic scabies, I was totally clueless of what is needed. I remembered just following the instructions of the vet and trying out various ways and means to groom Kiki in a way she felt comfortable with. We did not bring her for professional grooming during this period as most groomers we asked said that they cannot accept dogs with infestations. Kiki has to be cleared by the vet before they would let in.
For a start, Kiki’s skin was raw and bloody, she will wince and jump in pain whenever her skin touches the water and worse, shampoo. Then the ultimate nail trimming process as she refused to let anyone touch her paws. It was a long and arduous journey trying to get her used to grooming. After much patience, we finally got Kiki to be used to grooming and could stay still and let me work on her for… 2 hours straight.
I still do occasionally bring Kiki to the groomers for Full Grooming once every 3 to 4 months, and the in-between, I do my own self grooming. I believe that as pawrents, we need to do some sort of very basic grooming everyday or at least once a week so as to maintain its hygiene. A hygienic dog is a healthy dog.
Here are some of the top few grooming essentials that I used on a daily to weekly basis, which I think all pawrents should try to do as well.
Daily
Brush – Any type of brush that your dog is comfortable with should be fine. I typically use both a grooming comb and a slicker brush. Brush their fur at least once a day to untangle unwanted knots and matting.
Sanitiser – Not any kind of sanitiser is pet friendly but one which is chemical free and 100% natural would do. I typically spray it on Kiki’s paws after walks and whole body before bedtime. This helps to keep her clean and odour free too! Do you know that bacteria growth on fur is very smelly? Not only do I use it on Kiki, I also use it on the mat, bed, playpen she uses often. I recommend Pets Activated Water Sanitiser by For Furry Friends SG. (Code KIKI5 at http://www.forfurryfriends.com.sg for 5% off with free gift.)
Dental Chew – All kind of chews is good as long as the ingredients used is natural. Some people gives natural chews like antlers, pizzle, tendons. That works well. For me, I usually go for Absolute Holistic ones as it is not as smelly and Kiki goes crazy for it. However with all form of food, give in moderation. Kiki usually have 1 every night. It has been ingrained in her nightly routine. (Get dental chew here: https://shopee.prf.hn/l/6lPGOkY)
Tooth brush and toothpaste – I highly recommend brushing their teeth at least once a day to keep plague and tartar at bay. This helps to eliminate bad breathe and also with good dental hygiene they do not have to go through frequent dental scaling which may need them to go under anesthesia which can be quite scary for older dogs. I have been using Virbac toothpaste since Day 1 and Kiki loves it. She can even hold the toothbrush and brush it herself. (Get your 360 Toothbrush: https://shopee.prf.hn/l/KM0P2bp, toothpaste: https://shopee.prf.hn/l/70vGyZY)
Weekly / As when necessary
Ear Cleaner – This one is something I highly highly recommend to do once a week. We do not need to wait for the groomer to do it for us okay! Maintaining a good ear hygiene makes the dog a happier one. Try to go for non oily ones. I’ve gone through quite a few different brands and found that Kiki tolerate well with the Ear Cleaner from For Furry Friends SG. Also, after ear cleaning, you can also try to use a tweezer to pluck out ear fur at the outer ear canal. This helps to reduce ear irritants. This helps to reduce and prevent unwanted bacteria growth causing yeast infection and smell. (Code KIKI5 at http://www.forfurryfriends.com.sg for 5% off with free gift.)
Tear Stain Remover – I do this as and when I find tear stains on Kiki’s eyes using a cotton pad to soak up the stain. Kiki tend to have eye gunk every now and then and they will stick to fur near her eyes. This helps to unclump the fur and also keep their eye area clean, which makes them cuter too!
Pet Dryer – I cannot stress enough about this. If you do home grooming enough times, you’ll realise how ineffective our own human hairdryer is. They take ages to dry their fur and then because of the long drying process, it makes their skin so dry too?! Always go for a pet dryer if you can! I use a 2-in-1 pet dryer that has a brush attachment on it. It saved up so much of my time! A typical 20 minutes drying process is cut to 5mins! (Get it here: https://shopee.prf.hn/l/KNqJX2P)
Electric Pet Nail Grinder – This is another must-have item in your grooming kit. Yes, you may bring your dog to the groomer monthly, but nail maintenance is something I personally feel is a must-know. The conventional way of nail maintenance is using a pet nail clipper which many owners I know are fearful of. Like how do you know if you’re hitting the quick? What if I have shaky hands? That’s where the nail grinder comes into play. Due to Kiki’s past experience, she hates the clipper and will attempt to bite us whenever she sees it. So that’s when I researched and found out about the Grinder. It is a tool that files away the nail bit by bit. Yes, it takes longer than a traditional clipper but it is less scary and you do not need to worry about hitting the quick! No need to second guess yourself and don’t need to worry about shaky hands. Just grind away and monitor accordingly! This is one of the best grooming devices in my opinion. (Get it here: https://shopee.prf.hn/l/rpJPLxq)
Pet Shaver – Since we’re at the topic of nail grinder, I highly recommend pairing it with a pet shaver. Even if you are not going to shave much, get one with attachment for paw pads. Do you know that the paw pads are areas best for bacteria growth especially when the fur is covering the pads? In addition, if there’s too much fur covering, our dogs will have walking issues too! I typically will shave Kiki’s fur to a poodle feet style as I really prefer the cleanliness and effortless maintenance. (Get it here: https://shopee.prf.hn/l/7BnODJ0)
Pet Shampoo and Conditioner – In the humidity of Singapore, I prefer showering Kiki weekly. However it is up to personal preference, some does it bi-weekly or monthly. If your dog sleeps with you on the same bed, maybe you might want to shower it more frequently. As Kiki has sensitive skin, I normally goes for 100% natural unscented shampoo / conditioner so as to reduce any skin irritation. I uses the Gentle range from The Blep Club and it has been my favourite shampoo thus far. Best of all, it is a conditioner shampoo. So I don’t have to rinse twice!
Optional Items
Grooming Scissors Kit – I personally use it when I trim Kiki’s fur to give her a cute face and pretty paws but I do not recommend it if you have shaking hands. When I first started this grooming journey, I feared for both Kiki’s and my life when the scissors is very near her eyes. I was so scared of poking her eyes unintentionally you know! But with much practice and also curved scissors (inside the kit), it helps a lot! (Get it here: https://shopee.prf.hn/l/6149wWZ)
Items like the pet grinder, pet shaver, brush, dental chews, toothpaste and so on, can be easily bought from Shopee SG. You can use KIKI12 for 12% off (capped at $6) on all pet-related food and items! (If you’ve already used it, feel free to DM me on Instagram at @kikithemp for more codes. I have a long list of it!)
I know after reading this, some of you may be thinking…
“Wow, that’s a lot of things to do for grooming. I will just let the groomer do it.”
My question to you will be…
Yes, sure you can wait and let the groomer do it. But remember Circuit Breaker? Everything is closed. What if a second wave or third happens? What if it was extended for several months? No one knows what will happen. But one thing we know for sure is that our fluffballs might become dirtballs, ungroomed and prone to all sorts of problems.
So what you’re waiting for? Go get your basic grooming supply now! What’s more, all the year end sales is upcoming! Go Go Go!
Many parents would ask which cat litter is the best. It is hard to tell which is the best as each and every household is different and everyone also views things differently. Cats themselves as well have different personalities while each cat parent looks for different features.
Cat litter is something that runs out fast in our household. With 8, many people would think we spend most of our money on food, however, I think we have spent more money on cat litter in fact! With many brands out there that offers almost similar features, which is the best brand to go for? Living with 8 furballs, we often question ourselves which is the best brand. We have tried almost every kind of litter, ranging from pine wood, soya/tofu litter, paper, sand/clay, cane and to the recent snow peas. After trying so many, we honestly have not found the best brand, but rather the kind that works for us. Here’s what we have tried so far and what we think about them! 🙂
When we first got Ninja, we were not prepared as we had zero experience with cats. Ninja our first rescue joined our family with an injured paw from her stray days. We did not think of keeping her as we were inexperienced, we only wanted to help heal her. However with the injury she had, Ninja needed to be confined indoors and I guess her injury was a blessing in disguise to her and our family!
Cat’s Best Original Litter
With no experience, we decided to go to PLC to get food, bowls and cat litter. We were introduced to Cat’s Best Original Litter (100% made from renewable plant fiber). Having only 1 cat at that point in time, this litter worked the best. The odour control was good and clumps well, covering the two most important thing many owners look out for. However this litter was not the most value for money option and had a musky smell after a few days. We continued to use this litter even when Minnie and her kittens joined our family. However, we realised that the litter consumption was not worth the money spent and with more litter boxes around, it started to affect the smell of the house and rooms.
Kit Cat Soya Clump Litter
Being more experienced with cats and knowing more of other products, we decided to change to Kit Cat Soya Clump Litter. By far this brand and range has been used the longest, even till today we are still using it! Kit Cat soya litter has great clumping properties and is flushable! In terms of odour control, it really depends on which scent you choose.
We started off with Green Tea, the odour control was good, however we realised that despite adding fresh litter, there would an ammonia smell coming from the litter even though we clean the litter boxes thoroughly. We have also tried scents such as Original, Charcoal, Lavender, ,Confetti and Baby Powder. Amongst all, we like the Baby Powder scent best! It really musks the odour and does not change the smell of the room which we have encountered from other scents.
Kit Cat Classic Clumps Litter
Other than Soya Clumps from Kit Cat, we also tried the Classic Clumps series to compare as we were still on the hunt for something that was value for money. Though it is value for money, the amount of dust was significant more than Soya Clumps and the scooping of litter was not as easy as it often sticks to the bottom of the litter box, increasing the work needed for cleaning.
In between using Kit Cat Soya Clumps, we had to source for yet another kind of litter as one of our cats, Snowy, developed an allergy, not sure if it was from food or litter, she had pus on her nail beds and soya litters were not helping her recovery. That was when we had to turn to paper litter till she recovered. Paper litter did not really work for us as its clumping properties as well as odour control were not as good as compared to soya. The only benefit that helped us was that the litter was flushable and does not stick to Snowy’s paws. However this could be different from brand to brand as we only tried 1 brand.
Soya litter being one of our top choices, we explored different brands as well. We tried brands such as Aastas Cat, Nurture Pro and even Jolly Cat crushed tofu litter.
Aatas Cat Cat Litter
Here’s what we like and not like about these brands. For Aatas Cat there is minimal tracking, clumps well, flushable but the odour control needs to be better. This could be due to the scent that we tried as we have not explored the other scents. We also encountered the problem of the litter having an ammonia smell once the litter is not “fresh” anymore after less than a week so we did not further explore the other scents.
Nurture Pro Cat Litter
Nurture Pro (Corn)/ – it also had minimal tracking, clumps well, flushable and odour control was slightly better as compared to Aatas Cat Peppermint scent. We did not explore other scents as we also faced the same issue on the ammonia scent, however it was not as strong as compared to other litters that we had the same issue with.
Jolly Cat Crushed Tofu Litter
Jolly Cat Crushed Tofu Litter (Lavender) – This is by far one of the best litter in terms of odour control as well as usage rate. We can definitely see that clumps are stronger and smaller, resulting in lesser litter used per cat. However, one major downside of this litter is the amount of tracking. As this litter is much more finer as compared to other litters, tracking is high. Despite having a covered litter box and a trapping matt, the mess is still there. However, I have seen others that use Toyogo boxes instead to counter this problem! So for those who have space, can explore this brand with Toyogo boxes or any litter box that is fully covered and tall.
World’s Best Cat Litter
We also got a chance to try World’s Best Cat Litter as it was a gift from a giveaway. This litter has good odour control but tracking was high for our cats. Our cats do flick their litter a lot, so for litter boxes that did not have covers, the mess was bad. Though this litter clumps fast, we felt that the clumps do not hold well, if it is not cleared quick enough, the clumps break apart, resulting in parts of clumps at various places in the litter box if another cat were to use one after another.
Unicharm Deo-Toilet
Unicharm Deo-Toilet – This is rather more of the whole system rather than just the litter itself. A little background about this toilet system, Unicharm Deo-Toilet consists of the litter as well as a pee pad. A unique feature about their litter is that it does not absorb your cat’s pee but rather lets it flow down to be absorbed by the pee pad.
Unicharm uses a unique pee pad that is thicker than ordinary pee pads which allows you to use one pee pad for a few days. What we like about this system is that the odour control is good, value for money as litter disposal is low and is easy to clean – Pee is absorbed by the pee pad and picking out cat poop is easy as the pallet size of the litter is relatively bigger as compared to other litters. There is minimal noise as well when cats use the litter box. We have changed our litter box in the master bedroom to this system, and i must say, we have more undisrupted sleep from the sound of cats using the litter box. However, we felt that households that have 1 or maximum 2 cats would see the benefits as well as cost saving of this system.
Cat’s Best Comfort Litter
Some of you may have seen our review on Cat’s Best Comfort Range. When we first tried this, we felt that it was very different from what we normally use cause first off, this range is not a clumping range. More suited for families that only have 1 cat cause for us, we really need to use clumping litter as our cats share litter boxes. This litter has great odour control, gentle on paws, but there is a significant amount of tracking. This litter would be more suited for those who have kittens or cats that are new to using cat litters due to its non-clumping features. When we first got Leo, we weren’t sure if he knew how to use a litter box so this litter came in handy before transiting him to the normal litter we use for the rest.
Kit Cat Snow Peas
One of the latest cat litters, Kit Cat Snow Peas, is our favourite cat litter! It has good odour control, clumps fast and well resulting in smaller clumps, minimal dust and definitely value for money. With smaller clumps, the amount of litter used is lesser. We could see the difference when using snow peas as compared to soya litter, litter consumption was lesser, one bag of snow peas could last longer than one bag of soya litter. However, as this litter is relatively light, tracking is visible but can be reduced with covered litter boxes and a litter trapping matt.
Eco Cane Cat Litter
Thanks to The Woof Agency and Pawjourr, we got to try out Eco Cane Cat Litter! We would be doing a more detailed review on our Instagram soon! This litter is definitely value for money when compared to its price per day. We have used this litter for about 5 days now, it has good odour control as well as clumping. However, as this litter is quite fine and small, tracking is high and gets stuck between our cats’ paws.
Being spoilt with many brands and choices, it is definitely hard to just stick with one brand of litter. We would always want to try and explore more options whenever possible. I guess it all comes down to what features we humans want and which litter can suite our cats best 🙂
We are currently using Kit Cat Baby Powder Soya Clumps as well as Kit Cat Snow Peas (almost every scent cause we are still exploring which is our favourite scent!) What are you using? 🙂 Let us know if the comments and why you think it is the best for your kitties 🙂
So… That’s about it! Hope we did not bore you hehe! Hope every owner can find your “best” litter.
