PAWS member KonijnWijs and De Kattentroon founder Laura Dijkman

This blog is written by Laura Dijkman. Laura has been a PAWS member since 2020. She is from the province of North Holland in the Netherlands, and as we say in the Netherlands, a true “polder” girl. Born in Haarlem, one of her favourite cities, 2 years ago she moved with her boyfriend to a beautiful house in Valkenburg. Laura runs KonijnWijs and De Katten Troon. Thank you Laura for this blog & for being an active PAWS community member!

KonijnWijs Trimsalon and De Katten Troon were born from a love for animals. KonijnWijs translates roughly into “RabbitWise”, in other words; handling and caring for your rabbit wisely. De Katten Troon translates into “The cat’s throne”, in other words; handling your cat like royalty.

I provide rabbit and cat care and provide general advice on aspects such as fur care, skincare, health and nutrition, disease prevention, and housing. My love for animals is something I inherited from my father; nature and animal lover at heart. The intrinsic motivation to work with animals was always there, but how, and what to do specifically. Should I work with horses, or cats? Horse massage, TTouch, lymphatic drainage, dry needling for animals? Reiki with cats, or veterinary assistant. I wanted to do it all! Circumstances came together and in 2019 rabbits became my speciality. I always had normally haired rabbits, until I adopted a longhaired Teddy Dwarf rabbit who I named Little Princess.

Not educated on the care for longhaired rabbits I initially taught myself in trimming and fur care. However, I encountered questions I couldn’t answer, and experiences I missed. I wanted to specialise myself in trimming and advice for rabbits, work as a professional expert and set up my own rabbit care company, and also take care of Little Princes with the right knowledge.

To achieve this I started the specialised education ‘Trimming rabbits professionally’.
Besides trimming, I also wanted a broader knowledge of rabbits in general, not just fur care, but also subjects like first aid, nutrition, health, housing, disease prevention, training and behaviour, and enrichment. Broad knowledge is necessary when dealing with rabbits and being able to provide good care. I also enrolled in the education “Rabbit Expert”. Both educations have contributed enormously to my knowledge, which I put into practice with my own rabbits and professionally through KonijnWijs.

KonijnWijs Trimsalon is a young and growing company in The Netherlands, with already a regular customer base who want the best care for their rabbits. New rabbit clients and their humans are always welcome! A lot of people adopt a (longhaired) rabbit without the proper knowledge as I did in the beginning. It is not a step I would advise today, I learned from my experiences. Having the proper knowledge before adopting a rabbit is essential for a happy and healthy rabbit. KonijnWijs offers advice to (future) bunny owners who want to know more about their rabbit and take care of their rabbit in the best possible way, with lots of rabbit love of course!

In 2020 I became interested in providing the same care for cats. So I enrolled in the education Professional Cat Trimmer. And so also De Katten Troon was born! 

My salon’s stand for friendly rabbit and cat care. One of my main foundations is keeping in mind the perspective of the rabbit and cat during fur care or other activities. The rabbit’s way and cat’s way of experiencing their surroundings, what is happening to them, and respecting this. Asking myself how they would experience it, is a way for me to understand their behaviour and - as a result - be able to let them express natural behaviour when they need to, in unnatural surroundings.

I am not done learning yet. I recently became a Fear Free Certified Professional, specialising in fear management and am now learning for Pet Bereavement Counsellor.

Hope to see you soon at KonijnWijs or De Katten Troon, you can also find us on social media!

All views expressed in this blog are those of the author.

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