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Posts Tagged ‘advice’

Let’s face it, dogs and cats are so cute and adoring! It is just so difficult to not want to cuddle them. Funny how all of this changes when you get that first smell of urine, coming form somewhere, in your house, on your carpet…bang! All those cuddly feelings you had for your pet disintegrate the moment you realize you need to purchase a new rug.

Ok, so that feeling lasts for about a minute or two, and then, once you get that “what’s up with you” look from you dog, with those cute, innocent eyes, you can’t help melting into that “I just want to cuddle you” feeling all over again. Talk about pet charm!

Either way, the reality is what it is. Pets mess, and you have to make sure that you are able to take care of that mess in time. If not, you are in for a very expensive surprise.

In order to prevent the urine from your cat or dog costing you more than you bargained for, it is best to try to catch the stain as early as possible.

One way to do this is by constantly keeping and eye on your furry loved one. Would this be effective? Yes. Do I consider it practical? I think not.

Ok, so we need a more practical way that can both work out well for you and your pet. After all, you don’t want your pet to start feeling it has big brother keeping an eye on it all the time right?

Prevention is far better than the cure

We are not talking about diseases here. However, the principles work the same in this situation. Preventing your pet from urinating on your carpet is the best viable option.

A great approach to this method is by house training or potty training your little fluffy buddies. The most effective time to use this approach is when your pet is still young. This does not mean that it is too late to house train your older pets. They might just take a little longer.

Ok, so you have never trained a pet before. That is by no means a problem. You can find many books on this subject just by doing a search on your favorite search engine. The trick is to make sure that you are taking the advice from a well respected author on the subject. A good way to do this is my asking around in the many pet dedicated forums where you are sure to find sincere, independent reviews.

What ever the end result is, whether it is expensive or just plain annoying, your little furry loved ones don’t know better. Accept them for who they are. After all, they are part of the family.

One of the most common problems with keeping iguanas is that they may continuously try to escape. In doing so, they usually rub and bump their noses against the sides of their enclosure. This can result in serious, permanent damage to their nose and face. There are a few things you can do to help prevent your iguana from suffering nose abrasions. This article will share with you some useful advice.

Cage

Most iguanas that continuously try to escape are unhappy with their environment. Therefore, you can help reduce their escape attempts by trying to make their enclosure more to their liking. One of the main problems is that he may be housed in a cage that’s too small for him. In this case, you’ll need to buy a larger one.

In some cases, you may simply need to provide more vertical space since these lizards love to climb around. You may also want to try adding more branches or rocks to his enclosure. Another hiding spot or two won’t hurt either.

Walls

Rough surfaces will increase the likelihood of nose abrasions. This is commonly a problem in cages that walls made with screen or wire mesh. It’s best to choose a cage that has smooth wall surfaces so your iguana won’t damage his nose if he keeps rubbing it against the wall.

Vision

Another way you can limit escape attempt and subsequent nose abrasions is to limit your iguana’s vision. This can easily be done by lining the bottom of the walls with either dark film or paint. Lining the bottom five inches of the wall should be suitable enough.

Human beings are not the only species that can suffer from allergies. Dogs can also have allergic reactions to objects in the home, chemicals and pollutants in the air, dog food, and their own hair and dander. Finding the source of these allergies can be difficult especially if the dog is allergic to a few things. If you have a dog that suffers from allergies, you may notice that they sneeze when around harmful chemicals, vomit after eating, have skin rashes, patches of fur missing, runny nose and eyes, or they may show signs of fatigue or restlessness.

Noticing these signs is the first step to helping your dog lead a normal, healthy life. You should monitor your dog for a month to see how it reacts to its environment, its food, and its own hair and dander. Since dogs need to keep themselves clean, they may be swallowing allergens that can cause an allergic reaction. The best way to combat a hair and dander allergy is to bathe your dog once a month and brushing the dog once a day.

If your dog has a thick undercoating, it will trap allergens and dander and keep it from falling off the body. After a while the dander will build up and fall off or be swallowed. If you have allergies, this could be one of the causes. Brushing the undercoating every day will help remove excess hair before it is swallowed or falls on the floor or carpeting. This will reduce your allergy problems as well.  

Sometimes chemicals in dog food can lead to food allergies. If your dog vomits at least once a day, then they may be allergic to the food they are eating. Hypoallergenic dog food is available. The food contains fewer chemicals while providing your dog with enough nutrition. Try this dog food to see if it will reduce the vomiting. Wet dog food may also help your dog digest their foods easily. If the vomiting does not stop, you should visit the vet to see if your dog has other health problems.

Dogs that are allergic to cleaning supplies, mold, and shampoo may be more difficult to treat. You can switch to natural cleaning supplies that do not contain bleach and other harmful chemicals. This may help your dog breathe a little better. You can also have your home tested for mold, which could be causing your own allergies, and you can switch dog shampoos and try one for hypoallergenic dogs. You should not wash your dog more than twice a month as you could make the dog’s skin dry and flaky, which is why they are scratching and pulling more often than usual.

Taking care of a dog with allergies is easy once you have identified the problem. Asking a vet for advice is a good idea if you do not know where to begin. They will be able to ask the right questions and help you find the answers so you will be able to administer the proper treatments.

You have to know that even your pet needs dental care. Without it your pet can get ill. If you consider that brushing your cat teeth is too hard you could ask for a veterinary’s advice. Else, you can start doing it. After all it is not too hard and you can get used to it.

You have to take your cat to a yearly dental check and even a dental cleaning from time to time.

Until the dental cleaning you have to check your cat’s teeth periodically. If you do it every day your cat will get used to teeth brushing faster. In this way you will protect your cat from getting a dental infection.

Start cleaning your cat’s teeth and ums when it is at an early age. This way your cat will get use to is faster. You can also rub her teeth and gums with gauze wrapped around your finger. Later you can start to use special toothpaste and toothbrush. However, you should never use regular toothpaste because you will only damage her gums.

Massage your cat’s gums regularly. Cats don’t usually get cavities instead they get gum illness which leads to bad breath and in the end to the loss of teeth.

If your cat losses her appetite than you should know that gum illness could be the cause. Same like humans, cats lose their appetite if they have a dental infection.

Unexpectedly, cats that live indoors have a bigger chance to get a dental infection than those who mostly live outside.  This is because the cats that live outside can eat grass which is a natural dental floss. Another explanation is that indoor cats can’t eat small animals therefore they don’t eat bones that are a very powerful tooth cleaner.

Try to include some dry food in your cat’s diet. It will prove very helpful for her teeth and gums.

To conclude:

•    It is always better to prevent a disease than to cure it. Therefore massage your cat’s gums periodically.

•    Don’t brush your cat’s teeth with human toothpaste. You can get cat toothpaste from a pet shop.

•    Always ask advices from a vet concerning your cat’s dental health.

Part of many cat’s personalities is independence. Since most cats can fend for themselves, are very good hunters, and cautious by nature they may not be very social. Or in pet terms, they just don’t care if you want them to do something; they do what ever they want.

This really irritates some people to no end. They want to have a pet that responds to their directions. For the most part, my advice for those people is to get a dog. But cats can be social or friendly with a little training. I’m not absolutely sure they may really mean it but they will at least act like it.

Two things all animals respond to are food and affection or positive reinforcement. Many animals will not respond to punishment or physical discipline, especially cats. So the best method I’ve found is to bribe them. Many cats who are prone to hissing or even threatening to strangers do so because at one time or another they were mistreated. Cats aren’t very trustworthy to begin with and any memory of a bad situation just confirms their belief that all strangers may pose a threat.

I’ve spent a lot of time rescuing abandoned or feral cats and in order to catch them and find them a home you need to gain their trust. Food and patients are your only means of trying to restore that trust. Some who were recently abandoned are pretty easy; cats who were born feral are a lot tougher. Sometimes it takes up to 6 months of constant work to bring them around. A few never adapt depending on their age and natural disposition.

But if you have a cat that is aggressive or hides when company comes, you have a cat with a social problem. Some may not even have had a bad experience; they are just suspicious of anyone. You may never completely eliminate the problem but you can make some serious progress. It does take a little work and effort.

One of my best tricks is to get the stranger to offer the cat some food that they especially like. Obviously you need someone to help in this type of training. And you may have to take it in very small steps. The food is offered to the cat, if they still don’t calm down or if they still run away, set the food down in a neutral area. Not to close but not to far away. Over time the cat will come out or stop the aggressive behavior, inch by inch.

The room needs to be quiet, no sudden movements by anyone, and once you put down the food you need to pay no attention to it or the cat. The food has to be irresistible and I try not and feed the cat for a few hours before the training exercise. Most of my experience shows that on the first few times you may have to put the food down and back away at least 20-25 feet, giving the cat a clear escape route. Slowly but surely you move the food closer to the person.

Once the cat starts taking the food right in front of the person, they need to slowly try and pet the cat. No fast or sudden motions, and just one or two strokes to start with when petting. Once the cat starts recognizing that they will get food and attention from a stranger, they will start being friendlier.

Aggressive cats require very quick reactions just in case. Never put yourself at risk, I’ve seen a cat shred someone’s hand or ankle in nothing flat. And on the scardy cat problems, you need to start eliminating the far away hiding spots. Give them somewhere to hide but keep it close so they can smell the food and get used to new people being in the same room.

Like I mentioned, this may take months of working with the cat. Repetition will get results but you need to be patient with the cat. You are trying to overcome a basic insecurity (that may be justified) and these behavior modifications are slow to stick. And some may never totally overcome their problems but most do improve. I had one especially aggressive feral cat that started out as one mean son of a gun. Within a few months he would come up and rub against people. Now you still had to keep any eye on him, but he wouldn’t beat up other cats (he also used to beat up dogs too) or take a swipe at people who went to pet him anymore.

One of the key factors on finding a rescue cat a home is that they learn how to behave around new people and quickly adapt to their new family. And a cat that will attack people is definitely not a good thing for visitors, human or animal. Positive reinforcement and a little effort can make a huge improvement on cat social skills.