Outdoor Creatures

No Vacancy: Fleas (outdoor animals) Not Welcome Here

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By Alfred Hernandez

 Our pets can bring many great things into our lives: fun, loyalty, affection, companionship and much more. Unfortunately, one other thing they can bring in with them is the less pleasant companion of fleas. No matter how well you care for your pet and how clean you keep it, a chance encounter with another infested animal can lead to your own animal becoming host to some very unwelcome visitors.

Once established on your pet, then the fleas will quickly begin the process of reproducing, and laying eggs that might not necessarily stay within the fur of your pet. In today’s warm houses, flea eggs can quite happily develop and hatch within the fibres of our carpets and upholstery, and so it’s easy to see how a simple infestation of your pet can lead to extremely undesirable consequences for the cleanliness of your home.

There’s no need to worry though about animal fleas jumping onto humans and infesting them, as the species involved are quite different. While, say, a cat flea may jump onto a human, attracted by the heat, it will soon leave when it realises that it hasn’t met with its favoured feline host.

So how can you tell if your pet has fleas? Signs of itching such as excessive scratching and nibbling are an obvious indicator, and if you encounter these then it’s probably time to investigate further. Special flea combs are available which you can use to check the fur of your pet for the fleas themselves, as well as the telltale waste deposits that they leave behind.

Any fleas that the comb uncover need to be dealt with decisively. Unfortunately for squeamish pet owners, fleas need to be dispatched quickly or they’ll jump to their escape, only to relocate themselves to your pet once again. Easy methods include squeezing in a tissue or throwing onto an open fire - fleas are hardy creatures, so don’t be tentative.

Once you’ve established that you have an infestation problem, you need to tackle the situation from all directions. Not only should you treat your pets with the sprays or powders available from your vetinery surgeon, you need to treat your carpets and upholstery to kill any eggs that have been deposited there. Sprays for this purpose are readily available, and safe to use, although it’s always wise to keep your pets and children out of rooms that are being treated in this way.

Even if you’ve never had cause to treat a flea infestation, prevention is better than cure. For cats, flea collars are widely available which will discourage flea infestation, although they won’t prevent it completely if your pet regularly comes into contact with a heavily infested neighbour or stray. Drops, sprays, and even pills are also readily obtained either from your vet or pet store, and most products are generally effective. Even so, some fleas can get past all preventative measures, so you still need to keep an eye open and take action if necessary.

Finally, if reading this article has left you scratching, then don’t worry. You probably haven’t got a flea problem - it’s usually just a natural reaction to reading about them!

To read about lizard repellent and lizard vivarium, visit the Types Of Pet Lizards site.

Information On Outdoor Creatures And Pets

What You Need for Your Discus Fish

By Keri Carrillo

 You’ve been to every local fish store in your area. You’ve spent hours online looking at Discus galleries. You’ve started thinking of things you can sell to pay for the Discus fish and aquarium set up. You’ve put your couch in the garage to make room for the aquarium. It sounds like you’ve been bitten by the Discus bug. Now, how do you get started?

There are as many opinions on how to properly raise Discus as there are websites devoted to them. You will find debates over planted tank vs. bare bottom, tap water or RO, what to feed them, how often to change the water and how much, it goes on and on. These debates contribute to making Discus keeping fun or a real pain. It really depends on your likes and dislikes. If you enjoy the excitement and challenge of learning something new and are able to successfully translate many different opinions into “what works best for you”, then keeping Discus will be a fun rewarding undertaking which you can enjoy for years to come. With that being said, the following are some guidelines to what I’ve learned over the years and what works best for me in setting up a new Discus aquarium.

Equipment

In choosing the tank, start with a minimum tank size of 50 gallons. Make sure you have a suitable place to set up your aquarium. You will want a very sturdy support for your tank which you will position in a location that doesn’t receive direct sunlight. The filtration system will be made up of two extra large sponge filters run by an air pump along with an external box filter such as an Aqua Clear properly rated for your tank size and containing a pre-filter sponge on the intake tube. You will need a heater with a ratio of 5watts/gallon, meaning a tank size of 50 gallons would require a 250 watt heater. The tank needs to be covered and there are hood options available when you purchase your tank. You will want one with a lighting strip as well as a cover for the tank. In a pinch you can always pick up a piece of Plexiglass from your local hardware store and cut it to fit. In order to keep the tank clean and maintained, you will need a siphon hose, a five gallon bucket and a clean utility sponge.

Preparing for Your Discus’ Arrival

You will want to have your aquarium cycled before adding your Discus. This means that the beneficial bacteria has been established in your filtration. There are many methods of cycling your tank so be sure to do your research and choose the option that fits for you. It is a very important step and is absolutely necessary. Putting your new Discus in a tank that hasn’t been cycled is a death sentence for the fish.

Buying Your Discus Fish

An absolute must is starting with healthy Discus. If you are lucky enough to have a reputable breeder in your area you are ahead of the game. If not, mail order is also an exciting option. There’s a real rush and excitement to having Discus delivered to your front door. Make sure to research any online vendor you may want to order from. There are some great breeders out there with a great selection. On the downside shipping usually runs from $50-$75 depending on the service. If mail order isn’t an option and you are left with your local fish store you’ll need to take some precautions and do your best to pick out healthy fish. If possible try to find a shop that specializes in higher end tropical fish and avoid chain stores. Find out what the shop’s quarantine and guarantee policies are. Ask them how long the Discus should be quarantined once you get them home. If their answer is “you don’t need to”, this is a major red flag. Ask questions to get a feel for how well they support and care for their product.

So, what does a healthy Discus look like? Here a some things to look for in the Discus you buy:

When you walk by the tank, the fish should be active and come up to greet you. Avoid fish that are dark, hiding or hanging behind uplift tubes. The water in the tank and the tank itself should look clear and clean. If there are dead fish in the tank keep walking. Now, (if you haven’t left the store) look at the fish, they should have a full body that doesn’t look sunken and is free of scrapes, bumps, visible injuries and or parasites. The body shape should have a nice round appearance void of bent, stubbed tails and flat foreheads. Check the skin and make sure it doesn’t have a dull, matte, or slimy look to it. The fins should look healthy and not have a cottony or milky appearance. The fins should be intact with no white specs or splits and not be clamped to the body. The Discus should be using both pectoral fins to move about. Watch for how the fish are breathing. An overly rapid gill rate or if the Discus looks to be gasping is a good sign of gill parasites. The fishes movement should be fluent and have no problem with balance. You don’t want to pick a fish that can’t hold itself level. The eyes of your Discus should have a healthy clean look to them. The eyes are a good indicator of how well it’s been taken care of. You will want a fish with small eyes compared to its body with a centered pupil. Big or bulging eyes are usually a sign of neglect. Ask to see the Discus eat. Be wary if they feed live blood worms or tubiflex worms. Watch to make sure the fish are able to easily get the food into their mouth. Avoid fish that continually miss the food that is right in front of them or don’t seem interested in eating. Most 2″-3″ Discus wont have full body color or pattern at this size.

Installing Your Discus

For the proposed 50 gallon setup you will want to purchase from six to ten, two - three inch juvenile Discus. Young Discus like the security of numbers. Make sure you follow standard acclimation procedures and that your tank is fully cycled as stated above. As your fish grow and mature a pecking order will develop. Eventually the smaller weaker Discus will need to be removed in order to keep a 10 gallon to 1 Discus rule. In order to provide an easy way to keep a clean environment for your new fish, use a bare aquarium. That means no gravel or plants. The bare bottom tank makes it easy to vacuum fish waste and wipe down the glass. If you’d like, you can add a ceramic pot or two to give your Discus an anchor to establish territories but the pots will need to be moved and wiped down with your water changes to ensure they aren’t trapping waste. Once a week you will want to clean your pre filter and every few weeks, your sponge and box filters, being careful to use de-chlorinated water as to not harm the beneficial bacteria. A good tip here is to syphon some tank water into your five gallon bucket and use that for your filter cleaning water.

Discus Water

Clean water is a crucial element in growing out your fish. You will want to match the water conditions as closely as possible to that of the source of your Discus. Daily changes of 50 to 60 percent is recommended and at least on an every other day schedule. You will want to provide new tap water that has been de-chlorinated and matches closely to the tank water in temperature at 84 degrees. Avoid using RO water for young Discus, they need the minerals of harder water to aid in there development. Once they have matured and if you’re interested in breeding them you can dabble with softening their water. If you have purchased Discus from different places you will need to keep them quarantined separately for 4 - 6 weeks. Don’t Cheat!

Feeding Your Discus

Your new Discus should greet you at the front of the tank with a voracious appetite. Happy healthy Discus are always hungry. You will want to break up their feedings over several times during the day adding up to six small feedings. Feed a variety of foods using quality brands of dry and frozen foods. A good tip is to feed dry foods which your fish may not like as much early when they’re hungry from their overnight fast. Feed messy or frozen foods later in the day closer to your water changes.

The Discus hobby is a great one. It has its ups and downs just like anything. If you enjoy not only the beauty of the fish but actually watching their behavior, growth and and interaction, Discus keeping will stick with you. There’s a lot to learn and this is just a small start. Make sure you do a lot of reading and ask lots of questions. Start with healthy Discus, keep their water and tank very clean, feed them well, and you’re sure to succeed!

To read about chihuahua barking and chihuahua behavior, visit the Types Of Chihuahua site.

Dogs aren’t Always Considered Pets

By Eugenio Mccarthy

 While Americans are at home treating their dogs as part of the family, in some portions of the world, dogs are caged, beat, killed and cooked. Are they made to be both pets and menus?

In some countries like Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam, dog meat eating is common. Opposite to what is happening in the western. They are being pampered and even trained. History tells that eating of dog meat was most common in Korea. The older generation ate dog meat due to different reasons: improving virility, cure for summer heat, cure for some illness, and recovery aid after an illness and improving good skin for women.

According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, therapeutic claims about eating dog meat are all folklore and it has really no truth. Until now, there are no scientific evidences which prove all of these. If the reason of those who eat dog meat is achieving the mentioned reasons by the Koreans, the IFAW discourages them to continue that belief.

In the past, restaurants fabricated stories stating the benefits derived from eating dog meat. These caused people to believe such hearsay and it went on even until the modern days.

There are different means of killing a dog and many critics find it as an act beyond being humane. Some are caught, caged, hung, and boiled. Some are even beaten so hard that too much pain is being inflicted to the animal. However it is not realized by many that food dogs are not pets and they have no names. They are bred in farms, just like pigs, beefs, lambs, chicken and other animals. They are probably bred in cages, which may be cruel but is common in farms anywhere in the world. They are put down “humanely” just like any other animal used for food, usually by slitting the throat and bleeding the animal until it passes out.

The emotional pinch upon hearing dogs being butchered is because people have been domesticating it and they have been receiving the “man’s best friend” treatment. Though they are just animals, dogs are known to be sensitive. Which animal wags its tail as you call its name? Which will look guilty when you scold it? Only dogs, don’t they?

For those who are open-minded, they think dog eating is a part of advanced culture. They believe nothing is wrong with it.

Professor An Yong Kun has studied dog meat’s nutritional aspects and is its greatest booster. He has developed processed dog meat products and even dog meat oil-based cosmetics. He says he regrets that dog meat is so expensive he can’t eat it everyday. Dr. Dog Meat is furious at foreigners who complain about eating dogs in Korea, where dogs are livestock, not pets. He says the French ate dog through the 1800s, and the U.S. even today kills up to 3,000 dogs a year to use in puppy food.

An has developed dog-based kimchi, soy sauce and he is developing a Website “Globalization of Dog Meat,” in four languages. An met foreign reporter in Seoul on May 25 to announce his new dog meat products. He called on Koreans not to be embarrassed over eating dog meat, and said he will lobby for formal legalization of dog meat.

There are really different sides of this issue. Questions rise but they remain unanswered. The point is culture around d the world is really of variety. Respecting each other pays.

Want to find out about chinchilla food and chinchilla house? Get tips from the Chinchilla Facts website.

outdoor animals

Saturday, March 27th, 2010 at 11:45 am and is filed under pets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.