PetsPyjamas, the UK's leading dog-friendly travel company, has announced its partnership with Hyperguest, bringing a new level of convenience and booking opportunities to dog-loving travellers. 

Dog-friendly accommodation is  difficult to find, let alone connect for OTAs due to limitations surrounding the quantity of dog-friendly rooms at a hotel and many requiring specific room allocations.  Hyperguest, however, has alleviated this issue due to the removal of static collections and hotels being able to automatically place their rooms in real-time on the HyperGuests marketplace.

Through a partnership with HyperGuest, PetsPyjamas now has direct connectivity with hotels that have strong control and strategic reach into the demand market, which is especially important when distributing dog-friendly rooms. 

Matt Rushworth, Chief Strategy Officer at PetsPyjamas says, “Hyperguest allows us to connect to 95% of our existing inventory, easily identify dog-friendly rooms and display live dynamic pricing through one API connection. Booking dog-friendly rooms couldn't be easier. It also allows us access to a marketplace of additional inventory, improving our offering to dog-loving customers.”

About PetsPyjamas:
PetsPyjamas is the number one dog-friendly travel company in the UK, dedicated to helping pet owners discover and book the best pet-friendly accommodations and activities. With a user-friendly platform and dedicated team of pet travel experts to help, PetsPyjamas is dedicated to helping pet owners discover and book the best possible accommodations and experiences for them and their pets. With over 18,000 pet-welcoming hotels, cottages, and B&Bs across the country to browse and book, many with exclusive pet packages, PetsPyjamas also offers treats and perks including free dog stays for your pet, VIP membership plus a Pawsquad vetline cover. 

The Holiday Park's rare Autumn litter will help restore endangered native populations as part of a conservation network across the UK

Kelling Heath Holiday Park in North Norfolk has welcomed a litter of two healthy red squirrel kittens, born late September to its resident breeding pair. An autumn arrival of red squirrel kittens is remarkably rare, with the species usually producing litters between February and June. The thriving litter of kittens will further the Park's historic conservation efforts.

The new red squirrel kittens will join the previous litter born in July 2023 and can already be seen outside the nest box in the enclosure, settling into their new home. In an effort to help protect this endangered native species, Kelling Heath has successfully bred three healthy litters this year, totalling nine kittens in 2023 alone.

David Martin, Countryside Manager at Kelling Heath Holiday Park said: “Welcoming a litter as late as autumn is an incredibly rare thing and took the team by surprise. We're overjoyed at such wonderful news and we're happy to see the little ones out and about in their enclosure already.” 

Before the kittens go on to join other conservation and rewilding programmes, they will spend at least six months at Kelling Heath learning everything they need to survive and thrive in the wild. With the help of their parents, they will learn how to climb trees, jump and forage for pinecones while independently exploring their protected enclosure. 

Kelling Heath was one of the last places in Norfolk that red squirrels called home before they disappeared from the region over 40 years ago due to the introduction of the non-native American grey squirrel. Now, the red squirrel population is slowly increasing thanks to both regional and nationwide conservation efforts. 

“We're very proud to support the biodiversity of the region and the legacy of the red squirrel through our ongoing conservation efforts. We're thrilled to see the numbers of red squirrels increasing across the nation and are proud of the part Kelling Heath's efforts play in that for this magnificent native species”, Martin adds. 

To keep up-to-date with the kittens' journeys, follow Kelling Heath Holiday Park's Facebook @kellingheath or Instagram @kelling_heath pages.

Since 1999, Kelling Heath has kept red squirrels as part of a national conservation scheme to help restore population numbers of the endangered species. Since then, Kelling Heath's red squirrel kittens have either been sent to other licensed captive programmes or released into the wild where established colonies still thrive within the UK. Red squirrels are an endangered species due to the loss of their woodland habitat and the introduction of the non-native American grey squirrel.

To find out more about Kelling Heath Holiday Park, go to: www.kellingheath.co.uk

Many foods we enjoy are also hits with the birds, especially during the colder months when there are fewer natural food sources available and they need extra calories to stay warm. 

Try sprinkling some of these treats on your bird table and see which birds come along.  Maybe you'll see  robins or starlings or you may be lucky enough to see a winter migrant bird such as a redwing. 

Some ideas : 

• Cheese – mild grated cheese is a classic hit with robins, dunnocks, blackbirds and song thrushes. 
• Unsalted bacon rind – chopping it up means a lot of birds will be able to have a nibble. Magpies and crows are liable to fly off with the whole lump otherwise! Make sure there’s no salt in it as it is toxic to birds. 
• Ripe or bruised apples and pears – thrushes, tits and starlings are fans.  
• Pastry – uncooked or cooked, either is good as long as it’s made with real fats. 
• Dried fruit – raisins, sultanas and currants are favourites with blackbirds, song thrushes and robins. Be aware though that they can be dangerous to dogs and cats so this is one to avoid if you have pets in the area. 

 Not everything we eat is good for birds, however. Here are some foods to avoid: 

• Anything with salt – salt is toxic to birds, so make sure to keep it off your bird table and don’t put salt in your bird baths to keep it ice-free.  
• Cooking fat – leftover fat from roast dinners could smear onto birds’ feathers and ruin their waterproofing and insulating qualities.  
• Cooked porridge oats – they are glutinous and may harden around a bird’s beak. 
• Milk – birds can’t digest milk so it can make them seriously ill. 
• Dried coconut – it can swell up in their stomach and make them sick.  

​Another great option is packaged food. Sparrows, tits and finches will visit feeders containing nuts, fat or seed mixtures. Insect-eaters including  dunnocks, robins, starlings and wrens prefer mealworms, while suet-based products are an all-round crowd-pleaser, their high calories providing a boost for  birds through the cold nights. 

As for drinks – water is key for birds, both to drink and to clean their feathers so they’re in tip-top condition to fly and keep themselves warm. Birds can find it harder to find water in the winter as ponds start to freeze, so they appreciate a bird bath. Even a dustbin lid with some stones at the bottom for grip will do the job. Water keeps freezing? Try floating a ping pong ball on the surface.  The slightest gust of wind will keep the ball moving and stop the water turning to ice. 

 www.rspb.org.uk       (images copyright Ben Andrew/ Chris Gomersal/ RSPB)