Pet Punter

Archive for June, 2011

It is important to provide a range of other items apart from food and water to ensure your hamster’s well-being. Chews of various types will help to keep your hamster’s incisor teeth in trim, although short branches cut from apple trees – which have not been sprayed with chemicals – can serve the same purpose. Crusts of bread, roasted in the oven, can be a valuable addition to the diet as well.

Exercise: It is vital to keep your hamster fit. In the wild, hamsters emerge from their burrows under cover of darkness, and may travel several miles in search of food or a mate. An exercise wheel will give your pet hamster a substitute for this night-time activity. Modern closed-wheel designs are the safest option, as a hamster could slip and injure itself in an open-weave wheel. Check regularly that the wheel is firmly in position and will not collapse on the hamster. Oil the wheel from time to time; it may be noisy when in use and, if the cage is in a child’s bedroom, the wheel can disturb a sleeping child. Pregnant females seem to use a wheel most, and it may be that this helps to tone up their muscles in preparation for the birth of their pups.

Syrian hamsters especially will benefit from having an exercise wheel. A closed wheel is always a safer option and oils the wheel occasionally so that it moves freely. A wide range of other toys are now available for hamsters. Being burrowing creatures by nature, they need adequate retreats of various types in their quarters.

There are various prepared diets available for the most popular types of lizards, such as green iguanas and bearded dragons. These diets are often in pelleted form and although the foods can be fed in a dry state, they often prove to be more palatable to the lizards if they are moistened with water before hand. Even so, it is still a good idea to offer a range of fresh foods, ranging from sprouting pulses, such as mung beans, to alfalfa, can be grown quite easily even if you do not have access to a garden.

Other vegetables that can be fed to reptiles include carrots and cabbage in small quantities. Green lettuce contains little in the way of nutrients, however, compared with red-leaved variants. Some lizards will eat fruit, including grapes, apple and melon, but avoid rhubarb, which could be toxic because of its oxalic acid content. While larger lizards can munch whole leaves, food should be cut up into pieces, which can be swallowed without difficulty, particularly in the case of carrot. Provide the food in a bowl that cannot be tipped over easily. It is a good idea to sprinkle over a vitamin and mineral supplement to maintain the nutritional value. Read the labeling: overdosing is harmful, especially over a period of time.

Insectivorous Lizards: Catering for insectivorous lizards requires the use of a supplement as these foods are known to be deficient in terms of their calcium: phosphorous ratio and this can be a cause of metabolic bone disease. There are now various ways of improving the nutritional values of the main types of livefoods to compensate for the nutritional deficit. One effective way of doing this is known as gut loading. This involves feeding smaller livefoods to the lizards’ standard invertebrate livefood diet. The benefits should then be passed on to the lizards when they eat their regular food. Similarly, crickets can be sprinkled with a nutritional balancer prior to being fed to lizards. Crickets are available in various sizes, and it is possible to choose a suitably-sizes cricket to meet the requirements of the lizards. This can be useful when rearing young lizards as they can then be fed on an ever-increasing size of food as they develop and grows.

Mealworms also range in size from the mini-mealworms through to giant mealworms, which are actually a different species. The giant type is only suitable for the biggest lizards, such as fully grown water dragons, but the smaller sizes will be eaten by a variety of lizards. Their tough outer-body casing means they may not be easily digested in some cases, especially by small lizards.

Gerbils need very little grooming in order to look immaculate, partly because no long-coated mutation has yet been developed, and their coats are not prone to becoming tangled. In addition, gerbils frequently clean themselves. However, for exhibition purposes, a degree of tidying-up will usually be necessary to ensure that your gerbils are looking their best.

Show Preparation:  The most common problem is that the coat may have become stained by juice from greenstuff, particularly the area around the face. It is a good idea to leave items such as carrot and cabbage out of the gerbil’s diet for a week beforehand as it is not advisable to wash the coat. Aside from the stress involved, there is a risk that the gerbil could develop a chill. Serious exhibitors often resort to using corn flour to mask stained areas, carefully moistening tha are and rubbing in the corn flour. Once it has dried, the area needs to be brushed very gently to remove all trace of the powder. If you place the gerbil in a hay-lined box, it will burrow in and this will have the effect of grooming the coat. Finally, stroking the gerbil with a silk cloth helps to impart a good gloss to its far. It is important that exhibition gerbils are used to being handles from an early age, so that they are not frightened by this experience. Beware of offering too much sunflower seed as this is fattening, and may even shorten the gerbil’s lifespan. Always you should ensure that your gerbil is in perfect condition prior to entering a show. Any loss of hair and damage to the tip of the tail will almost always count against it. You will need to be familiar with the show standard for particular varieties, in term of coloration and patterning.

Certain finches, notably male weavers and whydahs, undergo a dramatic change in appearance during the breeding period when they become much more beautiful. Their breeding requirements differ quite markedly from other finches as well, with male weavers building ornate nests and needing to be kept in harems comprising a single cock and perhaps three or four hens. Male whydahs have an elaborate display dance, while the hens will deposit their eggs in the nests of waxbills, rather than incubating them themselves.

The typical breeding behavior of weavers and whydahs may represent a challenge, even for the experienced bird-keeper. However, other species of finch will breed readily, and will also make popular exhibition subjects as they have been developed in a wide range of attractive colors and feather types. The Bengalese finch, which is better known in the United States as the society finch, and the zebra finch are among the most widely kept finches for this reason.

It is often possible to sex finches by differences in their plumage but, where this is not possible, you can start off with several individuals of the same species, which should ensure that you have at least one breeding pair in the group. It can be virtually impossible to distinguish between the sexes when canaries are moulting, as cock birds will not attempt to sing at this stage. At other times, patience is important so that you can watch the birds carefully, picking out which is likely to be a cock in the group.

The cat’s coat is a barometer of health. It reflects the quantity of its diet and general condition, and should be gleaming and free from dandruff. The healthy cat’s eye are bright and clear with no discharge, redness or blinking. The tissue around them is pale pink in color rather than red and inflamed. Nose leather is cool and slightly moist from the cat’s tear ducts, and licking also keeps the nostrils moist.

Often, it is only by knowing your cat and understanding how it normally behaves, looks and reacts within its usual environment that you tell if anything is wrong. You are the mirror of your cat’s health, so do not be afraid to mention anything abnormal that you have noticed, no matter how small. The vet may only see your cat once a year and does not know its normal character or behavior. Particular points to look out for are changes in eating or drinking habits.

Signs Of A Sick Cat: The first sign that your cat is not well may be a change in its normal behavior or appearance that may only be perceptible to you. If a normally friendly cat shows signs of aggression, or an outgoing animal suddenly becomes withdrawn, timid and shy, look for other signs of illness. Lack of response to being called may be done due to fever or temporary deafness caused by ear mite infestation.

Coat: A staring look to the coat with abnormally raised fur is a general indication of ill health.

Stools: If you still have cause for concern, check the cat’s stool: they should be firm and without extreme or pungent odor. If you have an outdoor cat, confine it if possible and provide a little tray, so that you can make this check.

Where cats have access to dustbins, diarrhea may be caused by a stomach upset resulting from eating contaminated food, but could be a sign of something more serious, especially if it is a persistent. Constipation, causing the cat to strain, can also be a problem, especially if there is any blood in the stools.

Eyes: If the third eyelid – the haw or nictitating membrane – is visible, it indicates an infection or that there is a foreign body in the eye. Any signs of redness or inflammation or excessive and persistent, thick, yellowish discharge are cause for concern. If either pupil appears dilated, or does not react to bright light, this need prompt veterinary attention.

Ears: Clear wax in the ears is normal, but a dark brown waxy deposit may indicate ear mites that need veterinary treatment. Look out for seeds, such as grass seeds, too. A seed may lodge in the ear canal, making the cat shake and scratch its ear. The wall of the ear canal and flap is extremely delicate and vulnerable to damage in fighting situations.  A puncture to the pinna often results in a hematoma that could become infected if not treated. If the ears are very hot, the cat may be running a temperature, but before rushing to the vet, check this is not due to your cat lying in the sun or next to a radiator!