Anything For Animals

posted by admin on Jan 1

Unfortunately, Pet Insurance is individual, so you need to find the best one for you and your pet.

Whether you have a dog, cat, parrot, snake, gerbil or horse - you need to know that your pet’s health is covered - whatever happens.

However, there are different types of pet insurance available and so you need to search around for the best one to cover you and your pets - and this isn’t necessarily the most expensive or the cheapest options.

If we use dog insurance as an example; you need to check your insurance covers all the things relevant to your lifestyle and everything relevant to your dogs ongoing needs.

For example, some insurance policies won’t cover your dog if you take it to work with you.  Some insurance policies won’t cover certain dog breeds or certain dog ages. 

And some will only pay out a certain amount of money for each individual illness.  So, if your dog has an eye problem when they are 2 years old and you use up the alloted amount of cover treating it; if the same eye then gets sore again at any time - the insurance company won’t be obliged to pay any more for it.  You will have to pay it all yourself. 

Things like this could be a problem with certain dog breeds which may have hereditary eye problems like entropian, retinal dysplasia or other more general problems like elbow or hip dysplasia.

And obviously it’s not just dogs with these insurance issues - as there are certain things that will be specific to other species - like eventing horses, working ferrets, hunting owls, female anythings used for breeding, show animals, and so much more.

That is why the best thing you can do when insuring your pets is to ask an expert.  Insurance companies offer a variety of levels of cover depending on what you need and what you are willing to pay for it.

However, as they offer different things - it is up to you to make sure you are happy with what you are paying for - and you have checked that it covers ALL that you need AND want.  For example if you want all conditions to be covered for everything, then you need to make sure that you find the exact policy which does that.  You can’t just sign up to what looks ok and than get angry when you aren’t covered.

It’s that same as buying a house - you can’t pay for a one-bedroom flat and then start complaining that they won’t add a second bedroom onto it 2 years later.

There are even different policy clauses for different countries (as they all have slightly different animal control laws), so if you live in Australia; then get pet insurance Australia specific.

The ‘best’ insurance is the one that suits your needs and your budget - there is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach to pet insurance.

So speak to an expert about your policy requirements and they will get you covered for everything you need - or want.  

posted by admin on May 7

Why not create a fun game to teach your kids or friends about dog breeds?

In the same way that wildlife books help you identify random plants by following a simple flow chart - you could split up and identify common - or not so common - dog breeds.  Or cat breeds, rabbit breeds or horse breeds etc…..

Obviously, it is far easier to learn something new when it is simple and you get fast results - so using technical terms is out of the question as well as things that can only be found out through serious study!

This should be fun!

The Key:

Now you need to decide whether this is for the very beginner - or whether they have a certain amount of doggy knowledge as otherwise this could become quite tedious - or just make 2.

The basic one assumes that they know no breeds at all - and the other can be more specific to rare or unusual breeds - after all if they know what a dalmation looks like - they won’t be using your guide anyway!

Now to get started you need to group your dogs in appearance related groups rather than show groups - as people who see a dog in the street might not know whether it is a working breed or toy dog - so go for looks alone - and start with the simple and most obvious breeds to get them out the way.

For example you may want to filter out Dalmation and Komandors straight away as they are unique in their looks and can’t be mistaken for anything else.  You could also look to be filtering out whole colour groups, like the blues, tri-colours and black and tans - as these groups are easy to spot and can then be further reduced to split up your Dobermanns from your Manchester Terriers.

You could also go on coat type early on if you wanted - although this might be better for later stages - however, a Mexican hairless and a Chow are also very easy to spot!

Problem Areas?

Yes, I know a German Shepherd can be white, black, black and tan, sable, long-haired or normal-haired - but you leave these till you need them - rule out the Maltese, Patterdales, Rottweilers, Collies and Shelties first before proceeding to the more variable breeds.

Try out different ways on scrap paper first as there will be more than one way to get to the same answer - and certain breeds may be at the end of several threads depending on your style of filtering.

Here’s a simple one to give you the jist.  Lets take a Rottweiler, GSD, Maltese and a Sheltie.  Now more than one could be black and tan; more than one could be white and more than one could be long-haired - so how do you filter them out?

Well, here are 2 ways:

1) Has it got very short hair - Yes - Rottweiler (leaving GSD, Maltese and Sheltie)
No: Could you pick it up easily? - No - GSD (leaving Maltese and Sheltie)
Yes: Is it White? - Yes - Maltese - No: it’s a Sheltie

2) Is it really fluffy? - Yes - Maltese
No: Could you pick it up easily? Yes - Sheltie
No: Has it got long hair? - Yes - GSD
No: Rottie

I know that this is only a small group and assumes that all the dogs are present - but it gives you an idea of how to avoid lengthy questions or variable breed descriptions.

These keys can also be used for the very basic teaching or breeds even - like how to tell the difference between all the common pet rodents, pet reptiles or caged birds etc.

It doesn’t have to stop at German Shepherds!  

posted by admin on Apr 1

You must have heard of a doxipoo, a morkie, a zuchon or a pekepoo?

But should we be creating these crossbreeds for fun?  We are messing with years and years of diligent breeding to create specific dogs that look and act a certain way - and have centuries of history - just to make a one-off cute new puppy!

If we go back to the original ‘designer dog’ which was the labradoodle (labrador x poodle) there was a new purpose needed.  A non-moulting large dog that was intelligent enough to work with the blind - a moult-free Guide Dog.

We took an existing guide dog and bred it with with a similarly sized non-moulting dog - the standard poodle.  The result was a labrador-sized hypo-allergenic Guide Dog - well a small proprtion were.  Not every labradoodle retains the non-moulting gene, or the labrador sized gene, or the easy to train gene - so can’t be used at all. 

This is exactly the same for these new designer dogs.

People originally started working breeds along the non-moulting route for all sizes - as there are 4 different sized poodles as well as bichon frises and their clan who don’t moult as much as normal dogs either - and account for a lot of the ‘poo’ and ‘oodle’ breeds, like cockerpoo, yorkapoo, roodles and schnoodles.  But then something happened.

Rather than crossing breeds to gain any sort of benefit - people just thought it was fun to be the first to cross anything at all.  There were pugs with beagles, yorkies with shih-tzus, chihuahuas with daxies and King Charles spaniels with corgis.

It was all done in the name a novelty.

And of course - these designer dogs are just one-offs.  They aren’t true breeds - they are cross-breeds by definition and can’t breed true.  This means that if you breed a cockerpoo with a cockerpoo - you won’t necessarily get a litter of cockerpoos!

True breeding takes years and a formal pattern of breeding with certain individuals - you can’t just keep shoving 2 dogs together just because they look the same!

This happens now with bad breeding - for example, by breeding any old German Shepherds together you do still get a litter of German Shepherds - but they might not make very good pets or have any of the normal German Shepherd traits.  The reason is that most bad breeders only manage to get second-hand dogs or bitches - or the individuals that the breeder didn’t want to keep themselves - hence a bad gene pool!

Now imagine a whole country full of people who have decided that they want a designer dog to carry around with them in an over-the-shoulder bag.  Are these the type of people who can realistically control breeding to make sure that these breeds stay true?  Or will their efforts only further confuse the breeds and end up making mongrels instead?

The Genetics Are Tricky: 
If you cross a yorkshire terrier and a maltese, you get a morkie (apparently) - so lets say that all the puppies are somewhere between 75% yorkie/25% maltese and 25% yorkie/75% maltese.  This is a very wide range of numbers!  But needless to say people won’t think that this is a problem.

However the very nature of cross-breeds is they are just that - a cross between 2 breeds.  So if you then breed them with either a yorkie or a maltese - they are no longer morkies are they?  They might be 87% yorkie and only 13% maltese.  Breed them again with a maltese and you might not notice any yorkie at all - but breed them with another morkie or a yorkie and you will start to see shared traits again.

This could lead to all sorts of problems down the line in terms of true breeds though.  Will it come to a point where you can’t 100% tell which breeds you are breeding?  What if someone took that Yorkie with a hint of maltese and assumed that it was pure yorkie and bred it as such - it would still hold some maltese genes.  The breed is no longer pure.

I thought the reason that people liked a certain breed of dog was because it was just that - a specific breed of dog.  However, with all these designer cross-breeds lurking about - filling up classified and rescue centres - it might not be too long before there aren’t any pure small breeds anymore.

Pedigree papers will become gold dust as dogs that look like bichons, cocker spaniels and poodles - aren’t.  There will be no other way to tell which is which unless you get a DNA test!  But then pedigree dogs aren’t the most expensive or most sought after breeds anymore - people want a cross-breed!

Some people might say that pedigree dogs have been over-breed and have inherent diseases caused by our ‘breed standards’ and that it is good to get a non-pedigree.  But then we go ahead and start breeding dogs in our back yards based purely on what they look like - or what they sound like more often than not!

We are basically creating our own breed standards - but with no rules at all…..

posted by admin on Jan 30

If you are considering taking on some fire-bellied toads - then read on:

There amphibians are one of the easier amphibian species to take on for a first time keeper - but are still great fun for the more experienced; and are great to look at.

With their ‘plain’ back colouring, they look like a piece of swamp grass or soggy leaf - until they lift up their legs and leap away!  Their undersides are brightly coloured - showing bright red swirls and flashes!

Small in size, friendly in nature and able to live at room temperature - they hardly little leapers couldn’t be easier to cater for!

Basic Care:
They will live quite happily in a decent sized vivarium in a warm room with access to daylight or a light (not heat) emitting lamp.  I do have a heat wire running under their water - as they don’t like to take a dip in  the cold!

For my 4 toads, I have a 2ft by 1.5ft by 1ft vivarium, which is ample.  They have a submerged water tray in the centre with substrate and bark chips on top and around the water.  There are also some bromiliad-like plants buried in this substrate which they love to hide in.

There is also a large piece of cork floating half in and half out of the water for them to hide under and use to climb in and out of their warm pool - as well as several smaller bark chips floating on the surface for them to hold onto.

They absolutely love to just float in the water with 1 foot on the bark and then hide under the log in the daytime.  And 1 of mine just lives withing the leaves of the plant - only coming down to eat!

Feeding Time: 
Being quite small, they need to feed on a smaller prey species - and it has to be alive.  These toads will often reject food that isn’t moving and one of mine was sitting within millimeters of a tiny locust for 30 minutes before it twitched its leg and was gobbled up in a second!

They just love wax worms - and they are greedy little monsters too with one of mine eating 4 wax worms in a row!  I just didn’t think he has the space inside him as he was my smallest!

There is no sharing at the dinner table - so when I feed I have to put in more than necessary otherwise some might not get anything to eat at all! 

However, if they aren’t submerged in the water, under a log or in the plants - they will take these wax worms out of your hand if they are hungry - which is nearly all the time!  A great sight!

Toads Will Be Toads:
As will all toads, they do have toxic chemicals in their scent glands which appear like a small bow-tie on the back of their necks.  These glands on my toads help me to identify them as some are brown, some bright green and others barely visible.

Due to these glands, it is best to always wash your hands after handling your toads, and to keep the water very clean and these toxins wash off into the water and can make your toads poorly!  And don’t forget to treat the water first anyway with a suitable water conditioner

Now go grab your camera and take some great shots of their fire bellies! 

posted by admin on Dec 31

Have you ever needed a vets appointment at a certain time - and there isn’t one!

It’s probably because there are some people in the world who think that if they don’t turn up to an appointment - it doesn’t matter; they won’t get charged for it.

Well, of course it matters!

Even though your kind vets have not set a charge for missed appointments - it doesn’t mean that they are free by any means.

Your Vet:
Not surprisingly - your vet still gets paid whether you attend your appointment or not - as do the receptionists and the many other nurses and staff at the practice.

You just don’t directly get to pay for that time you just wasted.  It comes off in little pieces all around the surgery - including the service you can be offered, the equipment you can use and of course the cost of medication and treatments in general.

The money you would pay for your appointment is only a small part of the surgery as a whole and if you don’t turn up without having called in advance - you set off a chain of events.

However, don’t just think that your actions have caused this alone - but you can guarantee that around 30 people a month don’t cancel their booked appointments - and this all adds up.

Start The Ball Rolling:
I am going to use arbitrary figures here that add up simply and they do not in anyway represent true costs and figures.

So your appointment may have cost £20, and with your vaccination or treatment for £20 on top of that.  However, if you don’t turn up - they can’t fill that appointment at the last minute - so they lose that £40.  And let’s say that those 30 people all do the same as you leaving the vets £1200 a month - that’s £14,400 a year - basically a whole member of staff.

So now imagine your vets needs to either get rid of a receptionist or trainee nurse to cover that loss.  This means that they may well take longer to answer your original phone call as there are less people on the desk, or they may have to reduce the number of operations they can do a week as they have less nurses to care for the animals afterwards.

Alternatively, they could try to get that money back by charging more for their appointments and treatments so that they can keep a full team. 

Neither of which would make them the vet of choice - yet you may have left them no choice.

The Results:
It might cost you 10 pence and 2 minutes of your time to ring ahead and warn them that you can’t attend - and so they could fill that ‘empty’ appointment and keep their money coming in, but without that call - you could be costing them a lot more.

I know it all sounds a bit of a huge fuss to just you as an individual - but it is never just you - it is always multiplied up to a grander scale.

And, think of those sick pets and owners who have difficulty getting their animals to the vets - the appointment you are not going to turn up to could have been perfect for them - but now they are going to have to wait until next week to see a vet when they needn’t have to.

Even calling to tell your vets on the morning of your appointment that you can’t make it could create an opportunity for another person to fill that gap and keep everything running smoothly.

If too many people just don’t bother - then maybe your vets won’t be so cheap, friendly, or as customer-focused when you next call for an appointment!

posted by admin on Oct 26

Should You Buy Products Online - Or Through Your Vets?

You mights be saving some money by buying your wormers and flea products online - but could a visit to your vet spot a health problem in your pet that you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise?

Sometimes doing something from home saves you a lot of time - as long as you don’t have to be in for the postman - but does it really save you anything in the long run?

Your Vet:
We all know that a trip to the vets can cost a fair bit of money - but they do more for you than you might think.

When you pet has it’s annual check up or a booster, the vet will also be looking for signs of other illness or aging that you might think is just ‘normal’ as you only have that 1 dog and you see it every day, so can’t always spot changes.

It is possible that you vet could spot something that needs a closer look, or can identify some problems that can be easily rectified to make you pet healthy again.

If you have pet insurance anyway - then a trip to the vets shouldn’t be a worry!  Yes, you have to pay the first so much for the consult - but any problems they find will no could be claimed on your policy - so shouldn’t be a worry - and means that you can make sure your pet gets the best treatment without worrying about the cost!

And this means that you can spot things early and get them treated, rather than catching them when it’s too late and having to try much more aggressive or expensive treatments at the last minute!

Why They Cost More:
And don’t forget that the vets have overheads!  I mean - how will they see you for a vaccination appointment if they don’t have a surgery building? 

How will they treat your pet in an emergency if they haven’t got staff on site overnight or the latest equipment?

Just in the same way you need to pay a bit more in a local store than supermarket prices to keep your local store open - you really need to buy your pet products from your vets if you want to keep that open too?

It’s almost like a membership fee.  You pay that little bit more for basics to make sure that your vets has enough money in the kitty to keep trading.

And just in the same way that only the strong survive on the high street - only the vets that make enough money will be able to stay open and treating your pets.

So, if you value your vet surgery and want it to stay just around the corner and taking care of your pets every needs - then isn’t it worth that little bit extra on a packet of Drontal or Frontline?  They need you and you need them!

I mean what good is a local pharmacy or a giant Tesco going to do for you when your dog becomes ill or needs an x-ray?

posted by admin on Sep 29

If you want a really strange pet - but without the long-term commitment: get a triops!

These ‘alien’ looking creatures are something to amaze your friends with - and scare your mum with!

However strange they may look - especially the ghostly shed skins - their lifecycle is even more strange - and they were around with the dinosaurs! 

And with very little care and cleaning needed, these pets can be a great short term investment!  And fun too.

What Are They:
These little creatures are actually crustaceans - that crabs and lobsters to you and me - however they are much smaller.

They look a bit like miniature horseshoe crabs when fully grown, and have a long flexible tail with up to 71 pairs of appendages running the whole length of their body.

They are in constant motion using all these ‘legs’ to propel them through the water, and swim upside down to eat.  They also perform acrobatics all the time - twisting and turning through the water all day and night.

Due to the thinness of their carapace (outer coating) they appear to be bright blue, green and red as their internal organs and blood vessels show through.

They also shed their skin as they moult into full size and so you will often find a hollow triops floating in the water which you can fish out and investigate!

How Do You Care For Them?
Amazingly, you buy new triops as dry as a bone - mixed in with a sandy-like substrate.  This is because they live as eggs in river beds over the dry season and only hatch out when there is enough water to sustain them as adults.

To house them you get a small glass of plastic tank no larger than 1 litre in volume otherwise they won’t hatch out.  These small tanks are often supplied with your original purchase along with sand and food for later development.

You need to use bottled water to fill the tank - as tap water will kill them before they hatch.  Using bottled water means that you don’t have to buy water conditioning tablets like you have to for fish and reptiles.

They also don’t need the water to be heated either as room temperature is fine - however they do need the heat of a desk lamp or bright (but not direct) sun for most of the first few weeks of life otherwise they will not fully develop. 

As they are microscopic for this time, you won’t know how many you have until they moult large enough - so use the light to give them the best chance of developing.

Their Life Cycle:
They will hatch in your warm water within 30 hours - but of course you won’t know about it as they are too tiny - but you must leave the tank totally still and don’t add any ornaments to the tank either for at least the first week - or until you can see the baby triops.

You feed them the supplied food as described and water changes are also to be done in a certain way to make sure that they are not washed away or get ill from the dirty water: don’t forget that they are swimming in their own waste products!

They will rapidly grow to their full size of around 2 inches in a matter of weeks and then you can see the beauty of these living dinosaurs!  They only live for another month once adult - so make the most of them!

Depending on how many you get to adult - they will be sexually mature after just 3 weeks and could begin dropping their eggs into the sand on the base of the tank.  So if you allow this to dry out completely for a month after your adults have died, you can then start the whole process again by refilling your tank - hatching out your own babies!

And they are much much much better than sea monkeys!

posted by admin on Sep 7

If you are considering a few leaf insects as your next exotic pets - then this introduction is for you.

Many pet books overlook the humble leaf insect (or leaf bug), and many many others just shove them in the same ‘group’ as stick insects for ease.

But there is a lot more to leaf insects on their own - and here are a few of the basics about their character and their basic care.

Leaf Insects:
There are many different species of leaf insect ranging in nature from south and south-east Asia through to Australia - and they all look about the same - green and a bit leafy!

They are Phasmids (the same grouping as stick insects) but belong to the Phylliidae family and are very easy to keep as pets with very few specific requirements.

Depending on what age you get them at they could live for around 12 months (for females) or as little as 6 months (for males).  The nymphs are usually black on hatching and go through a series of moults as they increase in size and become more leaf coloured - ranging from pale yellows, through various greens to blotchy browns.

Female leaf insects are generally slow-moving individuals which tend to hang up-side-down from their food plants and stay there until they have eaten everything they can reach - then move on to another leaf!

The males can be a lot more speedy - as they are generally thinking about things other than food!  They are much thinner than the females and look a lot less ‘leafy’.  Adult males have long antennae and partially functioning wings to help them get about - more of a flutter than actual flight!  The adult females also have wings but cannot even flutter!

Leaf Insect Care:
Depending on the number of leaf insects you are getting and their lifestage; your tub, mesh cage or tank could be as simple as a tall cereal tub, or as elaborate as a huge wood-framed mesh display cage.

The only main care factors are for the very young leaf insects - where the humidity should be constant and the temperature not dropping below ‘jumper’ weather!  Don’t forget they come from the tropics!

These can both easily be achieved by using an airtight plastic container (like a large plastic cereal dispenser) and a flat heat pad during the colder weather.  The container needs to be airtight for 2 reasons: 1) to keep up the humidity by retaining all the moisture and 2) to make sure that the smaller nymphs don’t escape!  And needs to be humid to allow them to moult easily.

The reason for the height when housing younger leaf insects is also due to their moulting habits - where they hang off the bottom of a leaf and basically ‘drop out’ of their old skin.  If there isn’t enough height for them to completely come loose of their old skin, they will become trapped in it as they harden in their new skin - either losing limbs, becoming deformed or even result in their death.

Adult leaf insects don’t need too much humidity - but would still appreciate the warmth of a heat pad through the colder weather.  They also do better in taller housing as this allows you to put a ‘vase’ of their food-plant in the cage - keeping it fresher for longer!

Summary:
Here are the general requirements for leaf insects:

How Many: From 1 to 1000 (depending on cage size).
Housing: Small plastic tubs through mesh cages and even up to converted cupboards!
Cleaning: 1 or 2 times a week depending on numbers and plant material given. 
Life Span: Up to 1 year from hatching; maximum 6 months from Adult.
Food: Bramble leaves - but don’t collect from roadside locations!
Special Requirements: Heat pad for colder weather and high humidity for youngsters.
Other: Adult females can lay eggs without any males present - so watch out for any eggs on the bottom of the cage - as they will be fertile and can hatch in a few months (in specific conditions).