Enclosure accessories which increase natural behaviors in your pets fall under the large umbrella term called enrichment. Enrichment can also be changes in routines, new food items or rearrangement of cage furniture. When you first give an animal a new enrichment device, observing their interaction is essential. After the initial observation, revisions can be made to the enrichment item to
Read moreAfter a thirty five minute drive from Ransomville to my Tonawanda home, I had a problem. Myself and two friends had picked up two boulders -not literally, they weighed a couple hundred pounds- and it was time to place them in my yard and start landscaping. Tyler drove the pickup truck in the backyard. The three of us pushed the
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I share my home with two cats, both grey with black stripes or ‘tabby’. Julian is a long and lean skinny cat who walks seductively. The other, is a not-so-long-and-lean-skinny cat who always looks surprised. Princeton has very large eyes for his head, a short nose, tiny ears and is round as a globe. The vet refers to him as
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Prevention is the best medicine, for both medical and behavioral problems. Identifying problems early allows you to respond appropriately the first time an undesired behavior occurs. This will prevent the likelihood of it happening again. These parrot behaviors are not mutually exclusive, and many can be addressed once you know some basic principles. Most aggression arises from some sense of
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A 2007 study, of New Year’s Resolutions, by Richard Wisemen from the University of Bristol, showed that 88% of resolutions fail, although 52% of the people were confident in success. This year include your pet in the resolution which will be helpful for all parties involved. Generally, resolutions are about improving one self. More doctor visits, more exercise and more
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Elmyra Duff has an overenthusiastic love for pets. She lacks the most basic concepts of pet care and shows her affection by chasing down animals and constricting a hug out of them. Elmyra, a character on Tiny Toons, loves all animals, especially when they are small, cute and hairy. Over 800 species, ranging from the size of a fingernail to
Read more“Poison dart frogs in captivity are not poisonous” I told my mother, with my face pressed up on frog glass at the veterinarian’s office. We were taking my cockatiel, Laverne, for a checkup. This was not the first time I had seen them. I had traveled to a handful of the zoos in the North East, where they displayed them
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If it walks like one, talks like one and looks like one — it must be one. Of all the pets I have cared for, ducks have definitely brought me the most attention. I am not talking about getting ducklings on a whim for Easter either. I kept ducks as pets from fifth grade through college. In sixth grade, my
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Contrafreeloading puts a smile on my face. As a student of animal behavior, it is one of the coolest phenomena I know of. It has been studied in many species from rats to grizzly bears to humans. It is so incredible because these animals do the opposite of what you would expect, hence the “contra” prefix. Contrafreeloading means, when given
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A dog sits on cue. Do you give them a half a treat, one treat or two treats? I would probably give one quarter to one eighth of a treat. That isn’t just because I am particularly frugal. There are a lot of variables like breed and age of the dog and the size and quality of the treats to
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DANTAisms 