If you have a cat that likes to prowl at night, you’re familiar with the problems this can cause. He’s up all night playing and tearing around the house or he wakes you up early in the morning and want to go outside. After you let him out, he don’t want to come back in but when he does come in, he just wants to play some more.
Continue reading here: Noctural Cat Behavior
Whether or not pets need vitamins just as much as you do, and whether or not vitamins for pets are as important to them as they are to you, depends very much on the type of pet to which are referring. Obviously, a stick insect has different needs to a snake, which has different needs to a pet monkey. A pet rock, popular in the 1980s, has few needs.
Let’s assume we are discussing mammals, and specifically cats and dogs. What are their dietary and vitamin needs? They need vitamins as we do, and also carbohydrates, protein and fats (animal or vegetable) as the basic chemicals for their development. If they have a deficiency in any of these, particularly of vitamins, then they will need a supplement in the same way that we would were we deficient in any vitamin nutrient essential to normal life.
That could be the end of this article, but there is more to it than just that. How do pets get these essential nutrients, and how do you assess what supplements are essential for your particular animal? Consider the variety of breeds for example. Were dogs human the difference in weight between the adult weights of a St. Bernard and a Chihuahua of 80 lb and 4 lb would relate to human weights of between, say, 8 stones and 160 stones. That is about 50 Kg and 1000 Kg.
How can you possibly discuss these in the Read the rest of this entry »
“A coward dies a thousand deaths; a brave man dies but once.” Our cat Der Doc proved that this applies to cats as well.
Caution was the watchword in Der Doc’s life. He was a grey cat, striped like a tiger but decidedly without the tiger’s courage. Daddy said, “He’s the original scaredy-cat.”
Der Doc had the run of our farm in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, and the farm had multitudes of opportunities for a diligent cat. The chief opportunities lay with barn mice during the winter and field mice in the summer. Der Doc regularly partook of these opportunities. Cautiously, Read the rest of this entry »
The Cornish Rex breed began as a happy accident of nature. A genetic mutation in a liter of kittens born in the 1950s in Cornwall, United Kingdom, resulted in kittens that had extremely fine and curly down for hair, not the typical thick coat like most breeds of cat. Even the whiskers were curly! Breeders were struck by this, and decided to selective breed this trait through inbreeding and crossbreeding. Many other breeds of cat were used during this period so the ‘coat’ on a Cornish Rex comes in many colors and patterns.
They Read the rest of this entry »
The Pet Food Recall of 2007 has brought an enormous amount of attention to pet food. With tens of thousands of pets affected by the recall and with the death of several thousand pets from tainted food (refer to the PetConnection Database), it is not at all surprising that we have questions. The surprising thing is that it’s taken us all so long to ask these questions.
What have we been feeding our pets all these years? We’ve all, including Veterinarians like myself, trusted the pet food companies completely. We believed they have always held our pets – and our – best interests to heart. But in the case of the large multinational pet food companies, apparently not.
What we’ve been feeding has obviously not been what’s best for our pets. What we’re seen is shorter life spans, more disease, and more cancer – not healthier pets. While genetics do play a role, our pets are just like us. Garbage in… you know the result.
Pet food company ethics aside, the ultimate question that needs to be answered is this: what is the best Read the rest of this entry »
Pet owners are very loyal to their pets and there is nothing a pet owner will do to make sure their pet lives long and is healthy. Instead of buying a more than one puppy it is better to purchase a single puppy this way the puppy will have a better chance bonding with the owner and it will be easier to will bond to its owner better and will be easier to train than having many puppies. Avoid the temptation of buying two or more puppies. Depending on the breed, the best time to purchase a puppy is between 7-9 weeks of age. The puppy should get used to being around people and other dogs. Your puppy should not be allowed to roam the house freely until he is properly housetrained. Read the rest of this entry »
Looking at a pen full of kittens, it is hard to make a choice which one to take home. It is an exciting process to choose the kitten you want, and looking at each and every kitten in the litter is a fun experience. Observe the litter, and watch their reaction as they see you. Take note of their behavior, whether if they’re playful, energetic and confident, or slow, unenthusiastic and lazy.
While you mingle with them, single out the kittens that appear to be more active than others and pay a lot of attention Read the rest of this entry »