Month: October 2020

Animal Shelter

Animals: More Human Than Humans

Rusty

What can we say about pets? They are warm, loving, always there wanting our affection; simply put to love and be loved. For many animals small animals especially, it is a simple life they are able to lead in homes where they are welcomed and treated as one of the family. In a perfect world this would be the scenario that all pets would have going for each and every one of them. Unfortunately this is not a perfect world and the reality is there are many pets that are beaten, abused, and treated downright inhumanely by owners who choose to take their issues out on an innocent animal who can not fight back. For these unfortunate lost pets they are truly more human than the humans whose care they live under.
We see this kind of behaviour wherever we turn it’s sad to say; walking down the street the echoing sounds of a person screaming at their pet that quickly turns to violence and the painful cries of the innocent animal haunt our thoughts as we are forced to let it be. There are the advertisements from the SPCA or organizations similar in nature that show beaten, bruised, and scarred lost pets who have been rescued from the cruel habitat they were raised in; their eyes being in such broken pain that are begging for a home that will be humane for them, a home where they can be loved. It breaks our hearts seeing this kind of pain in these innocent animals knowing that the cause is because of a human, a human who by all regards is fully capable of exerting dominance over his/her pet with no regard for the deep pain he/she is actually causing. What’s worse is many of these cruel owners disregard that they are even doing anything wrong when in actuality beating down a pet morally and what should be legally, is as wrong as domestic violence towards a spouse or a child.
Now many people will argue that animals may not be as innocent as they appear to be arguing for example, a dog’s bite can be as dangerous as a human’s fist. While there is truth that a dog bite can be painful and possibly infectious, most dogs if treated right, will only lash out and bite in a defensive mechanism such as if they can’t see or sense someone sneaking up on their backside. Studies have shown that animals who are treated respectfully and with the care that would be shown to a child in return are very calm, very welcoming in return and as such are not violent by nature. To say then that a dog’s ability to bite out at a person justifies violently attacking the dog in return is ludicrous; by nature pets are to be loving and gentle provided they are not treated intolerably. It may be a cliche but the old rule ‘treat others how you would like to be treated’ is more valid than in just social scenarios with fellow people.
Animals have rights that are as valid as humans and to those that choose to disregard them, there should be punishable laws set against them. Children that are rescued from abusive families can lead to punishable imprisonment for their abuser(s); thus for pets, there should be no difference. Abuse is abuse whether to an innocent child or an innocent pet; domestic abuse is a punishable crime and should be enforced by those championing animal rights. Adjustments to the laws need to be made to help save more animals from being caught between a rock and a hard place in being homeless strays or victims of abuse. We as humans have humanity inside us for a reason and must use that inherent goodness to stand up for those who can not stand up for themselves.
Now sometimes people can go too far in their protests; a recent example is the PETA member from the States who came to Canada and slammed a pie in the face of one of our Members of Parliament. Granted for those of us who hate all politicians for THEIR inherent greed, sense of entitlement, and corrupt nature the sight of one of them being slammed with a pie so hard it could nearly break her nose is hilarious; but that very act of violence simple as it may be, hypocritically goes against what the member of PETA was trying to stand up against. Being a champion of animal rights and fighting against cruelty to animals does not give you the right to leave your country, come to another country, and assault a member of that country’s government to make your point. Peaceful protests, rallies; these can make the point and can gather the attention needed to spread the message. …

Dog Rescue

Protecting Your Furniture And Carpets With Cats

Rusty

Those of us who are cat lovers know that our love of felines comes with a little frustration at times. One such time occurs when our kitties employ their claws to acts of destruction on your carpet or furniture.

We have all tried to train our cats to stop scratching the backs of our couches; many of us have experienced this is not a simple matter to correct. While some people resort to yelling or shooting water at their cat’s nose, there is a much more effective way to correct this issue.

If you’ve taken basic psychology, you’ll remember there are two types of reinforcement, positive and negative. Employ both reinforcement tactics to training your cat and you’ll be through the woods before you know it.

Negative Reinforcement � The idea behind negative reinforcement is to take something away to impact behavior. When it comes to your cat scratching in areas you don’t want destroyed, you want to provide motivation for your cat to stop scratching.

One of the most effective ways of providing this motivation is through a product called Sticky Paws (available or your favorite pet supply retailer). To use this product, place the tape on the areas your cat has been scratching.

Positive Reinforcement � Once you use the Sticky Paws, the next step is to provide the place where you want your cat to scratch. This can be as easy providing a scratch post, either large or small. These posts come in two varieties, cardboard and carpet, and either will do the trick.

Beyond just supplying the scratch post, you need to attract your cat to the post. A very easy way to develop this attraction is to spray the post with some Catnip Spray (Whiskercity makes one cats love). This can make for a playful transition from an undesired scratch area to a more appropriate one.

Old habits die hard � More so for us, the human, than for our cats sometimes. If you’ve been caught yelling at your kitty, this can be a difficult habit to break. You may have become accustomed to hollering every time you hear your cat scratching. When you put both the Sticky Paws as well as new scratch post in place, you’ll want to become very intentional about checking where you kitty is scratching before open your internal megaphone.

Keep in mind all three of these areas. If you provide either the negative or positive reinforcement, you will be ineffective. To be successful you really need both. Likewise, if you continue to holler at your cat when they start scratching at your preferred scratch post, you’ll prevent them from forming the habit of scratching at the right spot.…

General Articles

How Maine Coon Kitten Pictures Get Your Attention

Rusty

How Maine Coon Kitten Pictures Get Your Attention

In the cat world category, who wouldn’t be captured by looking at the beauty of Maine coon kitten pictures? Well I’d say, no one!

People got to hear, be curious, and then adore the newfound breed of cats for quite sometime now. Charles Darwin once said that– any animal can hardly be said to have a distinct origin. In the inception of the Maine Coon cat kittens, there are numerous legends, myths, and assumptions that existed on over 250-year time history.

Truth is Maine Coon kittens’ ancestral genes are a native long haired cat of North America. They are well known for their luxuriously shaggy fur coat. Originally a working cat, the Maine Coon is solid and rugged that can endure a harsh climate.

These felines come in a myriad of colors and patterns. Although the color of the coat takes several months to settle into the finished product. The Black Smoke Maine Coon kitten is one variety that shows off white undercoat, which is deeply tipped with black. The cat in repose appears black, but in motion its white undercoat is clearly apparent.

Males are goofy, females are sensible— so the saying goes. These gentle giants are backed up by intelligence, a well balanced character and a friendly disposition. Their voices, setting them apart from other cats, have a distinctive, chirping trill which they use from courting to cajoling people into playing.

Popularity grew with their amiable disposition and huggable appearance. They were gathered and shown and recorded in the cat’s literature at around 1861 with a mention of a black and white cat named Captain Jenkins of the Horse Marines. Surprisingly enough, this cats’ popularity gain and gain more recognition and even won various awards in cat shows. The fame grows progressively, but not until the more exotic-seeming cats came. This causes their decline but popularity soon began to climbed by 1950s and until today.

Kittenish throughout their lives, the Maine Coon males tend to be the clowns while the females retain more dignity. Loyalty and gentleness made them a well-loved pet among families. They are very sociable and get along with children and other household pets.…

Dog Rescue

Learn About Crate Training Puppies

Rusty

Crate training puppies has received a bad reputation in many articles and symposiums on dog care, but there are logical reasons for using a crate to train your pup. No one wants to see dogs that have to live in crates, but they are valuable for house-breaking your dog, and also for being a “chill out” place where your dog can relax without human interruption. Especially if you have young children who want to play all the time, your pup may actually appreciate a little “crate time” to rest, and get away from the little hands for awhile.
You will be helping your dog if you teach him what a crate is for. It’s valuable for traveling, for rest after an illness or injury, and for trips to the vet. When I lived in a house with rescue dogs, we had a crate for each dog even though they ran loose when we were home. At bedtime, most of the dogs headed for their own crates, and sacked out, with the doors open. A crate doesn’t have to be a cell or a dungeon; it can be a nice sleeping place.
Crate training puppies is also a valuable training tool if your pups are in that stage of life when they think everything is a chew toy. You can save a lot of wear and tear on your furniture, clothing, etc. if your dog has a crate full of chew toys. Always supervise your puppy if he has a rawhide bone or the like, in case he would have a choking problem.
Using a crate is a good way to help housebreak your pup, as well. The crate should be the right size for your dog – not too big and not too small. The dog will not usually soil an area where he will be sleeping, and a giant crate gives him the option of urinating and sleeping in the same place. He should rest comfortably in his crate, and it should be small enough that he won’t want to urinate or defecate there, because it is his sleeping area.
If your pup exhibits signs of separation anxiety, the crate can be a place of refuge for him when you have to leave him, to go to work, as most of us must do. You don’t even have to close the crate door if you don’t want to – he will be able to rest quietly in his crate, so that he won’t get all spastic and upset when you leave him. Some dogs just can’t handle the separation, and they truly pine for you while you’re away. They need to be able to relax and chill out while you are gone, and a crate is a place where this can happen. This is a very humane reason for crate training puppies.
Many trainers recommend that crate training puppies be done in your bedroom, where you sleep. Personally, I like my dog to sleep on the bed with me, but if you want a dog-free bed, the crate is a good alternative. And if you train him to crate up first, when he’s a pup, you can always invite him into your bed later on, when he’s not so bouncy and boisterous, so you can get some sleep.
Don’t give your pup attention when he cries in his crate. I know it sounds cruel, but he needs to learn that it’s OK for him to be alone in his crate and accept that alone time. Don’t reward his crying with attention, because it will defeat the purpose of training him to stay in the crate. If you use your bedroom for training, he will eventually relax and sleep when you do, so that is an excellent first step in getting your pup used to a crate.…

Pet Animals

Making Pig Pens

Rusty

Most people think that pigs are one of the dirtiest animals because in movies they are constantly covered in mud and living in it. This is in fact a mistake that is made quite often and anyone who has these animals will tell you that building their home or pen around only mud will make them mad. They want areas where they can eat and play.
The first thing that you need to do is choose an area where the pen should be. You will have to find something that if flat and will be able to drain easily when it rains. Water that is left standing on the ground will attract insects that will bite the pig. Some people will choose to set it up on a concrete slab.
After you have chosen the location you need to build a house that will keep the pig safe when it rains or is cold. They do not have the toughest skin or much hair and is sensitive to weather conditions. make sure that that the fences are at least four feet high so they cannot jump the fence.
Make sure that you separate areas for the pig to sleep, eat, and play. They are rather organized and clean animals so you need to keep their feeding troughs in a different area from where they sleep or use the bathroom. Inside of the pig pen there should be a good bit of straw to help keep them warm during the cold months and to absorb odors when they use the bathroom.
You can have a mud pile when you build pig pens. They only use this when they are trying to cool off during the summer. If you want to forgo it then you should install a fan or some other form of shade.…

General Articles

Fatal Ferret Hair Loss

Rusty

Fatal Ferret Hair Loss

It is 300 years since ferrets arrived in America as tamed pets. Just like any living species they show symptoms of various diseases and hence the ferret owners have to be aware of the symptoms to provide timely medical attention in case of conditions like the ferret hair loss.

Ferrets have a tendency to molt which results in detachment of hair during night. Normally the feathery hairs of the ferrets fall off in spring and grow again during winter. But due to molting, sometimes there is complete loss of hair in a very short span of time and equally quickly the hairs grow. You need not worry about this condition, as it is normal for ferrets to experience this.

There are high incidences of the tumor of the adrenal glands in ferrets found in America. The tumor is prevalent particularly when they are between 3 to 4 years old, but on few occasions it occurs even when they are beyond 4 years old. At this point they experience loss of hair, which is known as endocrine alopecia. Unlike during molting, during this condition hair begins to fall from the tail and the limbs to finally leave the ferret bereft of hair except for few patches at the end of the tail and the head. The ferret has to be rushed to a vet, when this happens.

As pet owners love their pets they are fully conversant of the symptoms occurring before the disease and never miss to notice the symptom. The ferret hair loss is a symptom of glandular enlargement, which results in tumor for the ferret.

Signs of hair loss in ferret have to be carefully noted without being confused with the normal loss of hair. If early detection of symptoms is missed it would become difficult to save the ferret as the tiny animal quickly lapses to distress and succumbs. Hence it is not a bad idea to take the ferret for routine periodic check-ups to the vet to prevent calamities.…

General Articles

Why Kittens Are Better Than Puppies

Rusty

Why Kittens Are Better Than Puppies

So, you are deciding on either a puppy or a kitten. Let’s look over the various characteristics, like physical attributes, personality, care requirements, and time. The physical attributes of puppies and kittens are sight, hearing, smell, coat, eye color, temperature control, and personality.

Puppies are color blind in that they can’t see red and green. They do have hearing in the 16 to 20 hertz range. This is much better than humans. Puppies can be born with certain coat color markings and eye color, but they can change as the puppy becomes an adult. Generally they are born with blue eyes that change to brown. Puppies shortly develop temperature control. When they are hot they can perspire through their paws, and they pant to cool themselves off. Generally there are two types of personalities. Similarly to humans there is the busy, active, and self-centered type. The other type as you can imagine is the laid back forgiving type. Puppies require a set schedule for relieving themselves. They are fed in the morning and in the evening. They require that their owner or a care giver be around to take care of their needs. They are a pet that requires time.

In comparison kittens are born blind and they can’t see clearly and don’t have clear and functioning eye sight until the thirty-fifth day. They can’t see color. Kittens cannot regulate their body heat until they are 7 weeks old. Their hearing is fully developed at 4 weeks. Their sense of smell is refined by 3 weeks, but they only have 67 million smell-sensitive cells as compared to the 220 million of a puppy. In this regard the puppy wins out. Eye coloring can change as the kitten matures, but this is in the first few weeks. The kitten’s coloring remains the same as it matures. Kitten’s personality should be full of energy; this is an indication that the kitten is healthy. They need physical activity and space to properly develop. They require physical touch for warmth and to develop a hierarchy within the family. The more you interact with the kitten the more you will have an active member of your family. After the kitten has developed to functioning on its own you may leave it for many hours with just a litter box, food, and water.

In conclusion after comparing the physical attributes, personality, care requirements, and time in this busy lifestyle the clear choice is to get a kitten. I now that kittens and puppies are both cute and adorable because they are young and small, but the time factor alone decided that kittens are better than puppies.…

Pet Animals

Basic Parrot Training

Rusty

Important to remember

Always keep the parrot training in a positive manner. There are a few things you should remember before you start training your parrot which are key elements to make the training sessions bear fruits:

– When the parrot does something ??? give a reward

– When your parrot does something undesirable ??? ignore it

– NEVER punish you parrot

This might seem a little bit simple, but the goal of the parrot training is to shape your parrot the way you want. By giving rewards when doing things you want and ignoring it when doing things you don???t want, the parrot will soon learn what to do to get your attention. A negative reaction from you can actually turn into a reward for your bird if it???s looking for attention. Just to compare (same principles for training dogs) think about a barking dog. If the dog really wants attention and therefore is barking, the worst thing the owner can do is actually giving the dog the attention it seeks. The owner gives the dog the reward ??? attention ??? and therefore encourages the dog to do the same next time it wants attention from the owner.

What to teach you parrot first?

Two of the most important commands you can ever teach your parrot is the step up and step down commands. These simple commands will ease your future parrot training as well as the everyday handling of your bird. These are relatively easy and extremely important skills to teach. Stepping up is quite a natural movement for a bird so it is generally easy to train this on command (stepping down is a bit trickier to teach). Getting your bird to step up and step down on command makes handling much easier and helps you to set some boundaries for your bird (for example, you can more easily remove your bird from areas of you home that are not bird-proofed, return a bird back to his or her playgym or cage, etc.). If you have a baby bird, he or she is probably pretty cooperative but starting early with the step up and step down commands is still a good idea. Not only does training a cooperative baby allow you to give lots of positive reinforcement, it sets a good foundation for training more skills to your bird in the future.

As mentioned above use positive reinforcement. When your parrot does something good or obeys, give it a treat or reward. If your parrot behaves badly ignore that bad behavior. Your parrot would like to have your attention so ignoring that behavior is ???punishment enough???. Never punish your parrot. Any attention even negative is still attention and punishing your parrot will make it get used to negative attention and may lead to your parrot seeking your attention by doing ???bad??? things. A positive strategy also means using praise. Once your parrot has learned something try using praise to reward your parrot. If you use a treat every single time as a reward your parrot might get ???spoiled??? and not want to obey or perform unless a treat is given.

Wish you all the success with your beloved bird

Andre Gomez…