Fostering on a Budget
Want to foster but worried your cash flow won’t let you? We have some good news! There are plenty of DIY supplies that you can make just from items you already have lying around your home. The best thing is that your pup may actually enjoy some of these items more than the store-bought ones!
Water bowls and dishes
As many of you know, I’m a frequent foster mom. In fact, I just finished fostering a litter of 7! Something I’ve found from fostering puppies is that their paws and bodies are usually too big for them, making them super clumsy. Pair clumsy puppies and water bowls, and you’ll end up with pools of water all over your floor.
I like to get super heavy water dishes for puppies, but it can be quite costly. With that in mind, I decided to repurpose a flat and wide candle holder that had just burned down. I cleaned out the wax, took out the wicks, threw it in the dishwasher, and voila! You now have yourself a sturdy, heavy, flip-free water bowl! Not only did this work amazingly, but the fact that I gave a second life to an old candle holder made me happy!
Other things around the house that can be used for water and food bowls are Tupperware containers, cleaned plastic takeout containers (those plastic pints you get for soup work great!), ice cube trays, and old mixing bowls.
Enrichment Activities
There are endless possibilities when it comes to toys and activities that can be found around the house.
Cardboard boxes
Cardboard boxes are your friend. I repeat: cardboard boxes. are. your. friend.
What looks like just an old box to you is a challenging adventure to your dog! It’s a tunnel, a hill to jump over, or the perfect setting for a “sniffin mission”.
I know what you’re thinking. What in the world is a sniffin mission? In my house, this is what we call an enrichment box. An enrichment box will help mentally tire your pup out while they use their brain to sort through the box. What you’ll need to make one:
A cardboard box
Paper (newspaper, tissue paper, old wrapping paper, used paper you wrote on but don’t need anymore)
High value treats: Open your fridge and you probably have tons of high value treats that you don’t realize are high value to dogs. Things like hot dogs, cheese, and chicken are yummy treats that dogs love and will be great to put in the enrichment box to sniff out. Also, if your foster pup loves their kibble, you can just put kibble in there as well!
How to construct your sniffin mission:
Put tons of paper in the box (of any size) and throw the high valued treats in the box.
Close it (not with tape, but with the flaps—this way your foster has the added challenge of figuring out how to open it).
Shake the box up so all the treats spread out.
Give the box to the dog and let them have a field day! Sniffing out the treats and ripping up the paper will help tire them out in no time!
Towels
Enrichment: Roll kibble up in a towel and let your foster pup unroll the towel, gradually finding and eating the kibble. It’s a fun game, keeps them occupied, and tires them out!
Teething: For those of you who foster indoor puppies, I feel your pain—puppy teeth are no joke! Put a small wet towel in the freezer overnight, then let your puppy go to town on it once it’s frozen. This is great for teething puppies! They will love the coolness on their gums, and all the puppies I have fostered love the texture.
Crate pad: Towels are great in a pinch if you don’t have a dog bed just yet. I usually put the towels in the dryer right before I put my foster in the crate for the night so that it provides some extra warmth and coziness.
Paper towel and toilet paper rolls
These work great as slow feeders! Like cardboard boxes, these little rolls can be endless hours (okay, maybe minutes) of fun for your pup! Roll some kibble up in a paper towel, then stick the paper towel stuffed with kibble into the paper towel roll. Now you have yourself a game of enrichment! Let the pup sniff out the kibble, tearing up the cardboard and paper towel as they go.
When using paper towel or toilet paper rolls as slow feeders, vertically line up a few rolls in a bowl or a box (cut them down to size so that the dog can actually get the kibble from the bottom), then throw in your pup’s kibble.
Plastic water bottles
Water bottles can be a fun toy for dogs and puppies! Take a water bottle, cover it with old sweatshirt material (or any material that is heavy enough that a pup can’t easily chew through). tie the end, and you have yourself a toy! My foster pups have LOVED this one because they love the sound the water bottle makes underneath the fabric and will carry it around with them like a bone!
Another great way to use water bottles for pups is to put some kibble in an open bottle, roll the bottle on the floor and let the puppy figure out how to get the kibble to come out of the top! This works best with younger pups who hopefully won’t try to eat the whole bottle 😊
Muffin tins or ice cube trays
My foster and resident dogs love this game. Put kibble in each muffin tin (or every other one if you want to mix it up for them). Cover each muffin holder with a tennis ball, then give it to your dog. In order to get the prized kibble, they will have to learn to move the tennis ball. The fun thing about this game is dogs sometimes get distracted, so they chase after the ball for a bit and then come back to the tray, making it a fun and tiring game for them!
If you don’t have tennis balls handy, you can also just fill the kibble in the different tins to make this a slow feeder for your foster pup!
Egg cartons
Ready to throw out your empty egg carton? Hold it right there! Egg cartons are great slow feeders for pups! Like the muffin tins and ice cube trays, fill the kibble in different sections and let your pup go at it!
Old t-shirts
Before you throw out that old t-shirt that got bleach stains on it, make it into a dog toy! Cut large strips from the t-shirt, tie the top of the strips so they are bonded together, braid the strips, and then tie the bottom. This is great for a tug toy!
These are just a few ideas and tips that I have used, but there really are so many items you can use in your house before you decide to purchase them at the pet store or online retailers. If you are going to venture out to the store, stop in your local 99 cents store before hitting up any other stores. You’d be surprised how many dog toys and household items they have that can be used for your foster pup!
Tara is a dedicated Muddy Paws foster and volunteer. You can follow her pack’s foster journey on Instagram at @pennylanetherescuepup.
