Pet Punter

Archive for July 25th, 2011

Newts and Salamanders eat livefoods but it may be possible to persuade them to ear small goldfish pellets when they are living in water. This is a safer option than other aquatic livefoods available from fish-keeping outlets. Tubifex worms, for example, are likely to introduce unpleasant bacteria into the water, while daphnia, or “water fleas”, may bring parasites or even predatory insects with them, and these could attack tadpoles. The best option when providing livefood is to breed your own. Although daphnia can be cultured in a water tank outdoors, there will be less risk of disease if you use terrestrial livefoods such as whiteworm.

These can be breed at home with little effort, and can be used when these amphibians are both on land and in water. You cannot buy supplies of whiteform in the same way as other livefoods, such as mealworms, but you can usually acquire starter kits. To cultivate whiteworms, you will need a clean plastic container with a lid, such as an empty margarine tub. Half fill the tub with a peat substitute and then, with a pencil, dab some holes in the peat. The holes should be partly filled with damp bread, which has been moistened in milk and will has been moistened in milk and will act as nourishment for the worms. Divide the culture up and cover the worms, placing the lid on top to prevent it drying out too quickly. If kept at a temperature of 20⁰ C it should be possible to harvest from the culture after about one month. Lift out the worms with tweezers and drop them into a saucer of dechlorinated water, which will keep them apart from the substrate, and offer them to the amphibians. Whiteworms are a very nutritious food and are especially valuable for young amphibians.

Member of the cat family Felidae range from the great, roaring cats much as the lion and tiger to the small domestic cats. They are separated into different genuses, not because of their size but because of differences in their anatomy. These enable members of the genus Panthera to roar, while the small cat genus Felis cannot do so, Early in the 1900s there were more than 230 species in the cat family, but now there are fewer than 30.Many have become extinct because cats have always been hunted and killed by humans for their fine pelts.

Origins Of Domestic Cats: There is a close relationship between the wild and the domestic cat but it is uncertain which wild sub-species of the Felis genus actually made the leap into domesticity. Wild cats are widely distributed worldwide and they vary considerably in appearance and habits, but experts generally agree that the most likely wild ancestor of the domestic cat is of European, Asian or African origin.

The Path To Domestication: As human developed agrarian society, based on crops that attracted rodents, kittens were tamed and put to work on the land as a form of pest control. But it was in ancient Egypt, around 3,500 years ago, that cats were elevated to a status above rodent-catcher. Cats were revered as symbol of fertility and, in some households, they were even mummified in death. The domesticated cat appeared in the Far East around 2,000 BC, possibly derived from the Asian desert cat. In Europe, the Roman valued cats as symbols of liberty and they smuggled them from Egypt to their northern conquests to be used for mousing.

In fact, the domestic cat has probably been saved by its abilities as a hunter. With the fall of the Roman Empire the cat lost popularity, and for more than 700 years after the first millennium, cats were associated with witches and evil and were widely persecuted. The domestic cat found favor once again in the 1600s, but it was not until the 1800s, the serious interest was taken in the form of exhibitions at country fairs and shows.