Reasons For Cat Eating Disorders

Finicky Eaters: It’s very rare to see a cat would pass up food for no apparent reason. However, there are a few finicky cats out there who are so choosy about what they eat that they end up being malnourished and underweight. These cats can become this way for a variety of reasons, but is typically the fault of the owner.

Cat owners get lazy and they buy the same old cat foods—canned after canned or pack after pack—until one day they realize that their cat isn’t eating the food anymore. The cats simply got sick of the same old food day after day. One way to counteract this problem is to cycle different flavors of cat food during the week, as well as try out different brands of cat food periodically.

Medical Issue: If your cat still refuses to eat despite all the various methods and is looking very thin, chances might be a medical problem which may be unknown to you and you may have to seek veterinarian help. But before you head to the veterinary clinic, check if your cat’s ribs if they are clearly visible. If they are, you would want to consult a veterinarian as soon as possible.

Trash Eating: If your cat isn’t eating the food you bought but still remain her usual weight, then most likely she is eating trash bin food. The problem is easily solved if you cover your indoor trash bin with lid on and secure it if necessary.

What if your trash bin is outdoor and is securely covered? Yours maybe, but what about others? Cats, by natural, are explorers who practically live outside the home if they figure a way to get out when you aren’t around at home. The solution to this is to make sure that your cat has totally no excess to outside the home without your supervision. So check for any possible areas (e.g. ventilation windows) that your cat could easily squeeze through to the outside world.

Although eating trash food may not seem like a major problem, but there is a good likelihood that your cat may eat something that is bad or toxic food or pick up fatal diseases while scavenging. So don’t wait until your cat got sick to do something about it.

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If you take a closer look at a rabbit’s ear, you will see how thin and capillary-lined the skin is. The dedicate skin, which tears easily, is to help the rabbit cool down on hot days. So don’t even think about scrunching up those delicate membranes in your fist!

A rabbit’s ears are not sufficient to support its substantial body weight, unlike a cat’s or puppy’s scruff (the loose skin at the base of the back of the neck).

The correct way to carry a rabbit is to put one hand securely just under and behind the rabbit’s front legs (but not too low down over the stomach), and then scoop the bunny up with your other hand supporting its bum or hindquarters. Hold firmly, because rabbits can be squirmy.

It doesn’t matter how often you see others grabbing a rabbit’s ears; just don’t do it yourself—except in a real emergency when you must save your bunny from danger, and the only things you can reach are the long ears!

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What Is The Healthy Weight For A Normal Sized Cat

Of course some breeds of cat are larger than others, but an average sized cat will typically weigh between seven and ten pounds. If you are unsure how to gauge your cat’s weight, all you have to do is take a look at his ribs.

If the bones are prominent and obvious, then your cat is a bit on the thin side and there is a problem. On the other hand, if his ribs are completely hidden and they are hard to locate with your hand, then he is obviously too fat.

Overweight and Obese Cats

Did you know that obesity is one of the highest nutrition-based problems that veterinarians handle with cats? Records show that almost 50% of the cats that show up at veterinarians each year are considered overweight. And if you ask any of these cat owners about their overweight cat, most will smile and explain that they feed their cat out of love because the animal enjoys food. Unfortunately, this is a serious health issue that these people are clueless about.

Obesity Can Kill Your Cats

We have all heard on the news just how dangerous it is for people to be overweight because it causes a variety of diseases. The same holds true for cats. Obese cats can suffer an enormous amount of health problems. For example:

• Problems with tendons
• Torn ligaments
• Diabetes
• Breathing issues
• Skin diseases (because overweight cats cannot groom and clean themselves properly)
• Hepatic Lipidosis (an extremely serious liver disease that afflicts overweight felines)

The bottom line here is that if you care for your cat and you know you are the cause of feeding him too much food, then you have the responsibility as the loving pet owner to keep him healthy. First be sure to take him to the veterinarian for a complete check up. The doctor will be able to assess his current condition and assist you in making the necessary dietary changes needed.

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Health Complications When Cat Eats Dog Food

• Food Formulation: Cat and dog food may look the same to you, but they are formulated with very different nutritional requirements in mind. They are not just the same product packaged differently!
• Amino Acid: Dog food does not contain added taurine, an essential amino acid for cats. Cats cannot synthesize enough triune from other amino acids, while dogs and humans can.
• Health Issues: Without taurine added to its diet, a cat can suffer reproductive disorders, eye lesions leading to total blindness and potentially fatal hear enlargement.
• Taurine: Commercial cat food has all the taurine cats needs.
• Supplementation: If you prepare your cat’s meal instead of buying commercial cat food, add taurine supplements to its diet no matter how much meat you feed it, because taurine is destroyed by cooking while raw meat poses health risks for domestic cats.

Dog food is not dangerous in itself of course. So if kitty gets the occasional can of dog food or steals from your dog’s dinner bowl, don’t panic—it won’t harm the cat just make sure it’s eating enough of its own cat food.

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Do You Have What It Takes To Be The Best Guinea Pig Caretaker?

Characteristics Of Guinea Pig

• Life Span: Guinea pigs have a lifespan of six to eight years, depending on heath and care.
• Guinea Pig Breeds: There are short-haired and long-haired varieties. Peruvians, Abyssinians, Shelties, Coronets, Texels, Alpacas and Merinos are some long-haired breeds.
• Show and Pet Quality Guinea Pigs: The most obvious difference between a show-quality and pet-quality cavy lies in the facial features. Only a show-quality cavy would have a “Roman” nose, petal-like ears, and a solid body resembling a small teddy bear’s.

Housing Guinea Pig

• Housing Maintenance: Change cage linings twice weekly, feed daily, and supply fresh water daily too.
• Pairing: Guinea pigs are social animals, it’s best to keep more than one. Do not, however, cage two mature males together as they will fight; quite often one of both get seriously injured.

Diet Requirements For Guinea Pig

• Diet: Healthy eating means fresh pellets as the staple diet, lots of hay, and some fruits or vegetables. Vitamin C is essential. Avoid cabbage and lettuce to prevent colic.

Guinea Pig Grooming Needs

• Long-haired Cavies: Long-haired cavies require daily or at least thrice weekly grooming, as they need more grooming to prevent tangled hair. They also require twice monthly bath to prevent foul smell. Alternatively, you could trim your long-haired cavy’s coat down to lessen the grooming burden. However, you have to do this trimming once every 6 to 8 weeks.
• Short-haired Cavies: If you drag daily grooming routine, you may want to opt for a short-haired breeds as they require very minimum or no grooming at all. Of course, it’s good to give them once monthly bath to keep them smelling fresh and health.

Guinea Pig Behavior

• Body Language: They communicate through body language and a range of sounds. (Stay tune for the next article on guinea pig’s behavioral language.)

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Even though we know more about iguana care now than we did 10 years ago, there are still a lot of misinformed iguana owners and pet stores out there. Unfortunately, there are still some iguanas for sale that aren’t properly cared for. Some of them have thermal burns, deformed faces, or body parts that are missing. You have to be aware of certain body features to be able to tell a healthy, normal green iguana from a sick and damaged one.

If you’re uncertain and have further questions or concern, ask the iguana seller before making your final choice. Better option, do more research and get unbiased opinions from forum or experienced iguana owners. Especially for pet store seller, do not let them pressuring you into buying their iguana—not all but sometimes their opinions are biased.

There are certain qualities and characteristics to look for when selecting the right green iguana. Don’t just go with the biggest one in the cage. Often times, offsprings from the same cage arrive at different times and from different sources and the biggest young may just be an older iguana that has been in the cage longer than the others.

Characteristics To Look For In A Healthy Green Iguana

Facial Features of Green Iguana

Eyes: The eyes should be clean and bright. Watch out for any discharge, tearing, crusty residue, or drooping or swollen eyelids. Iguanas’ eyes must be alert, moving back and forth as if they are watching your every move.

Nose: The nose should be clean and free of any mucous or runny discharge. However, healthy iguanas have a clear, watery fluid discharge from their nostrils. Because iguanas don’t sweat, this is how they regulate their body’s salt balance. When this watery fluid touches the glass of its habitat, it dries and forms into salt crystals. An improperly housed iguana will try to get out by banging and rubbing its nose the cage, causing an abrasion. If you see one with a nose that seems to be damaged, do not buy it.

Stay tune for more on green iguana characteristics. There is a total of three parts to this article. The following article will cover the remaining facial features—mouth, jaw, and vent.

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Pets just can not vocalize their needs in a way we human understand. Regular grooming is one of the best ways to care for him. There are some grooming tools (regardless if you bring your pet for professional grooming on regular basis) that you must have with you when you groom your pet.

Five Basic Pet Grooming Tools

• Brushes: You will want to look for a specific type of dog or cat brush for your pet. Look for pin brushes which have a metal comb and wider spaces between them. This is ideal for those pets that have thicker hair or mats. Once this type of brush is run through the pet’s hair, you’ll want to then use a slicker brush. These are usually shorter and may be bent at the end. Because the spaces are closer together, it gives a more complete comb through.
• Combs: For combs, you’ll want to again look at the distance between the pins. Those that are closer together will give the best comb through, but it is also important for you to ensure that knots or matted hair is brushed through completely before you use a thin comb.
• Nail Clippers: Look for a good quality pet nail clipper. You will want to make sure that the pet gets a clean cut. Use styptic powder to stop bleeds. Make sure to get training on how to cut nails from your vet or your pet groomer before doing it yourself.
• Scissors: You also want to get a pair of grooming scissors to trim around the paws, tail, and maybe inner corner of the eyes (long-coated pets). Make sure the scissors has blunt ends so that you won’t accidentally poke or cut into your pets skin.
• Clippers: If you will be cutting the animals fur, you should look for a good quality clipper. Andis Clipper (Super 2 Speed Model AGC 2) is what I’m using and I highly recommend it. Look for the right size blade—size 10 to 14 are commonly used. Remember that the size of the blade is determines just how close the cut will be. You may want to purchase several.

Most of the grooming tools are available in any local pet supply stores. Or you could shop online for better deals and not to mention free shipping (above certain amount of course).

In any case, you will want to purchase high quality products that will last you quite a while—it’s more value for money. Keep them in good shape, cleaning, and sanitizing (once weekly or monthly) them after each use as directed by the manufacturer.

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The stereotypical picture of a dog happily gnawing on a bone is a dangerous one. Believing it could put your dog’s well-being at risk.

Most bones are bad for dogs, especially those that splinter easily, like chicken bones. These are carelessly tossed to strays, and may be devoured happily by dogs, but wreak internal havoc. I know of dogs that suffered and had to be put down because their stomachs and intestines were pierced by chicken bone splinters.

One sometimes hears people insisting that they have fed their dogs chicken bones for years and they remain healthy. This may be true for some lucky (and very hardy) pets, but it takes only one splinter to slowly kill. So don’t take the risk to know if your dog is the hardy ones.

Wolves may devour a carcass—bones and all—without harm, but your average domestic dog is hardly a wolf. Furthermore, those bones that the wolves devour are raw ones and usually larger than chicken bones.

Larger bones like those from cattle rarely splinter and could be safer. However, cattle bones carry their own health risks, and anyway, chewing on something as hard as bone over the long term could damage your pet’s teeth.

Never throw hard and heavy objects like large cattle bones, stones, metal bowls and so non to your dog to catch. A dog will eagerly leap up to catch the heavy item, only to crack its teeth or break its jaw. Throw that bouncy rubber ball instead!

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Brushing your pet’s teeth is necessary to help remove plaque build up. Most dogs and cats will not get cavities, but they still can suffer from countless other conditions if you do not take care in providing them with a good brushing on a regular basis.

Tools You Need For Brushing Your Pet’s Teeth

Toothbrush: To begin, you will need to find the right type of toothbrush for your pet’s teeth. Don’t bother with a child’s toothbrush. You should instead look at your pet supply store for a pet toothbrush. There are various sizes of toothbrushes for different size of your pet’s mouth. Make sure it has a large handle as well as very soft bristles.

Toothpaste: Next, look for a high quality toothpaste for your pet. Do not use your own toothpaste on your pet as it can cause him to get sick. Instead, look for one that has enzymes in them. Do not use those that have baking soda, salt or detergents in them.

Easy Steps To Brushing Your Pet’s Teeth

Now that you have what you need, you’ll want to get to brushing! Approach your pet in a gentle manner. Do not force the situation. Talk to them encouragingly to get them to open their mouth. It is essential to begin brushing the teeth of a puppy or kitten early on so that he will learn that it is okay. Start out slowly and work the toothpaste over the teeth from front to back. If your pet will not accept this, then begin by using a towel and just wiping his teeth in the same way as you will a toothbrush. After a few weeks, he will let you brush his teeth with a tooth brush.

Be it cat or dog, your pet’s teeth should be brushed daily or at least every other day. By doing this, you will help to keep your pet’s teeth healthy and smelling fresh.

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Basics on Hamster Health

• Diarrhea: Bacterial infections or eating too many greens or fruits can result in diarrhea. Symptoms include brown stains and a wet bottom. The dehydration of diarrhea can kill, so add glucose to the drinking water and see the vet immediately.
• Heatstroke: Never leave a hamster in the hot sun as heatstroke can ensue. If you see symptoms like listlessness, lethargy and sudden collapse, remove your pet from the sun and cool it in an air conditioned room immediately.
• Respiratory problems: Hamsters can catch colds. When your pet starts sneezing, exhibiting labored breath or discharge from the nose, try to keep it warm and take it to the vet.
• Skin diseases: Bald patches can result from malnutrition, old age, or mites. If a bald patch appears scaly, irritated, and infected, consult a vet immediately. Possible factors include mange, mites or ringworm. However, hamsters have bald scent glands at the sides of their hips—don’t mistake these for bald patches!
• Wet tail: A highly contagious bacterial disease. Symptoms include severe diarrhea (wet tail), loss of appetite and bleeding from the rectum. Isolate the infected pet at once to prevent the disease from spreading and take it to a vet. Hamsters can die very quickly form this.

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