Animal Questions

[marhawkman]

The bird thing reminds me of a question someone asked somewhere a while back. "How do I get my cat to accept my new pet rabbit as part of the household?"

 

Yeah... It immediately thought of this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quack-quack/2...s-11951562@N08/

 

Not what you want to happen it the rabbit is supposed to be a pet...... Cats can get along with rabbits, if they don't feel the need to eat them. the easiest way is to supervise them when you put them together. That way you can keep the cat from hurting the bunny and assess whether the cat actually wants to hurt the bunny.

 

In the case of birds, yeah put their cages where they can see/talk to each other. That way they can get used to each other and stuff. then maybe you could go from there if that works.

[Kestra15]

In America, dog shoots you. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/dog-shoots-owner-in-buttocks.html

[Kelkelen]

I think my leopard gecko has eye problems. She has a hard time hunting crickets, and even when she corners one, she'll lunge for it when she's too far away. All she manages to do is scare it into hopping across the terrarium. I realize her depth perception probably isn't as good as a humans', but...is this kind of problem normal?

My friend's fat-tailed gecko was pretty near-sighted (or something!) too. Eventually, he started removing the crickets' hind legs before giving them to her, to make sure she could catch them.

 

She was fairly stupid, though. I mean, she'd bite the whole spoon the cricket was on, and just hang there. Anyway, I think it's a fairly normal issue with some geckos, and wouldn't worry too much. So long as she's still able to catch a cricket within half a day of you providing it, I'd say she's just fine.

[sir_horsey_XIX]

We have three dogs, two GSDs and a Labrador.

 

Our eldest German Shepherd, Ranger, has some... neurotic behavior when it comes to eating food. We think he might have been neglected or possibly abused before we got him as a puppy, because he's always been sort of scared of men. Took my dad forever to earn his trust, whereas he just latched onto my sister, me, and my mom. Now to get to the problem.

 

My Dad's usually the one who feeds the hounds in the morning, and gives them their morning pills and cheese. If my mom is not home (like, you know, off to work) and I or my sister are sleeping (so, to Ranger, it's like there are no girls in the house), he refuses to eat his breakfast. He will not take the pill and cheese from my dad. He goes out into the yard and sits. He will sit for hours until one of the girls gets up. Then he comes back inside, will eat, and behaves as if nothing ever happened.

 

And there lies our conundrum. Obviously, Dad can't seem to win him over with food in the morning. He gets fed in the evening with no problems, no matter who feeds him. It's his switch back to completely normal that's a little strange.

 

He is 4 years old and he had a few other odd behaviors we've had to train or fix, but this one's quite puzzling to us. Any ideas?

If it's possible, you could try and let the all the dogs only eat when your dad is the only one there in the morning. As soon as a girl gets up, food goes away. After missing a few breakfasts, the dog may do one or both of these things: 1) Feel jealous of the other dogs and overcome his behavior because he's tired of being the only one who doesn't get to eat. 2) Hunger, which is an extremely powerful motivator in dogs when used properly, will cause him to stop caring about whatever triggers his behavior and just eat.

 

Now, note that I say a few breakfasts missing. If he doesn't show any signs of changing his behavior by, at the most, one week, you should stop this method because he may be willing to starve himself if he will go that far. That means you may need a behaviorist.

 

If that works, even if it means Ranger so much as comes in and sniffs the food with a hungry look on his face, your dad should call a girl into the room to give the dog praises, happy attention, etc. and accompany him while he eats. It seems the dog wants a girl in the house with him when he eats, so by letting a girl in when he shows interest in breakfast when he's alone with your dad, that reinforces the behavior you want by giving him what he wants when he does what you want.

 

If you get far enough where he is regularly showing a slight interest in food before a girl is called, you can up it a notch to where he has to lick the food until he gets used to that and so on.

 

That's what I would reccomend, but everyone in the house has to do 2 things or else it won't work and may even worsen the problem: 1)Be zealously consistent. One slip in the training routine and that will(and possibly greatly) reinforce the behavior you don't want. 2)Don't feel sorry for the dog. Showing it weakness during a mildly stressful thing like this will tell him that his behavior is justified because even his masters are weak in that situation.

 

Hope this helps.

[Foxpaw]

This does help, thank you! We've been wondering how we could work on this with him for some time, and there are days poor Dad just throws his hands up and lets Ranger go sit outside until one of us comes downstairs or home from wherever we are.

 

Ranger has gone on half-way 'hunger strikes' in the past, so to speak. If my mother, who he is most attached to, goes on a business trip, he won't eat breakfast AND there are nights he won't eat all his dinner for as long as she's gone. Even when he stops eating in the mornings, despite a girl's presence, he usually starts eating all of his dinner after 1 or 2 days of this because he gets hungry, fortunately. We'll keep an eye on him nonetheless, while we try this (we're open to anything at this point, since food is usually the motivator!). We'd like him to be a stable, happy dog and this does not speak of stability. :/

 

I hadn't thought to use one of us girls showing up as a reward for him when he shows any signs of improvement, that actually seems like a good idea and makes sense.

 

What is it the Dog Whisperer says? Consistency with rules, boundaries and limitations? I think we can get the consistency down, this will just require a slight modification in our behavior already (Food goes away when a girl comes down if he doesn't show any interest, instead of just taking it away after a while; also we start using us gals as a reward). It's the showing weakness that we'll need to work on! Dad gets frustrated and the rest of us can feel pity, that's not what Ranger needs.

 

We shall try this solution for a while (a month or more) and see if we get results! *salutes* (never thought I'd find good advice about it on a dragon cave forum. )

Edited December 2, 2011 by Foxpaw

[Imbecamiel]

Mmm, from my own experience I'd say sir horsey's advice sounds excellent, I'd definitely second it. And I'd add - try to make sure no one's scolding him or otherwise displaying anger during that timeframe (particularly your dad, since he's a source of nervousness), even if things get frustrating for a while. Anxiety-fueled behavior like that is only likely to be upped by that, and the dog doesn't actually know what it's doing wrong.

 

My own dog went through phases of ridiculousness over food, especially breakfast times. He had to have a couple of fairly major surgeries before he was a year old, and being a new dog owner at the time I handled some things rather poorly because I felt so sorry for him, especially since his breed tends to be rather clingy and very people-oriented as it is.

 

I'd expected some natural picking over food for a while early on when he wasn't feeling well, but with time things got worse rather than better, to where I had stand by him to coax him to eat - because no one else would quite do - and then he'd only eat out of certain dishes (not dog dishes), and then he would eat off the spoon as I took food out of the can, but not otherwise... For a while I felt pretty helpless to do anything to improve it, because he was on medications that he couldn't take on an empty stomach so I really needed him to eat - which meant he got reinforcement for his poor behavior longer than he should have. But finally, when he was well on his way to recovery, I decided that enough was enough, and I was not going to spoon-feed this dog, even if he was pathetic and not feeling well.

 

He was not pleased at first, and I think it took a good week to really get things to where we could see steady improvement. But we'd have a set time frame, put the food down, no coaxing, if he didn't eat he didn't get a second chance, and no treats or snacks until the next meal. Though he got praise when he did go over to it or start eating, there were some times when it actually worked best to just ignore him entirely until he was done, or only give a few low-key words of encouragement rather than effusive praise, because he'd get so worked up and distracted by that that he wouldn't go back to eating again. You'll have to see what works best for your dog.

 

He did go through occasional phases throughout his life where he'd refuse to eat, almost always over breakfasts, rather than dinner. Usually it'd be triggered by some other factor, like when he was anxious because he could tell we were going to go somewhere but didn't know if he was coming with, or we were on vacation and he was distracted and keyed up over the new surroundings. But whenever it cropped up again, so long as we responded consistently it rarely took more than one or two missed meals to remind him of how things work and get him back on track.

 

I hope things work out well with your dog!

[sir_horsey_XIX]

Thanks. I'm glad I could be of help. Hope it goes well.

[626lavaheart]

Q: can someone help me with a bug Identification? :X

 

ok so my dogs get normal fleas all the time, mostly those big females that are brownish red and the size of a grain of rice. And our dog had puppies.. so the puppies got fleas. So we do routine old fashion brush downs on the puppies (they don't get to many, usually a thorough brushing gets you 3-4 of them). HOWEVER! this time we found a abnormally large FLEA (and I say flea because it looked like a flea in every way) it was at least 3 times bigger than a normal flea (----- <that long and [ <that wide) I've seen ticks and I'm pretty sure it wasn't one... but when I did thorough search on google I couldn't turn up anything on abnormally large fleas.... so does anyone know what kind of bug it is? and weather I should give the puppies flea treatment? ( I haven't yet because they're too young)

 

P.S. I didn't find any other abnormally large fleas on the parents...

[amerylis]

It is worth giving all pets regular flea treatment as a preventative measure. As long as you follow the packaging and it says it can be used on dogs of that age I'd reccomend treating all your dogs not least because fleas can get into bedding etc and will bite you.

Edited December 31, 2011 by amerylis

[Moonbeam22]

Good luck with your guinea pig~

 

I believe I can ask a question now?

 

Q: My pet bird is scared of other birds...What do I do?

Had it been living alone it's whole life? Perhaps when it was a baby, it was bullied over food and attention. Some birds enjoy the company of other birds. Mine are both really attached to me,, and don't really care for one another. If your bird is scared, take him away from the other bird(s), and calm him down. Try sweet talking him, or rubbing his head to let him know everything's okay. I suggest keeping him away from the others completely, because birds can easily die from a heart attack.

 

 

Q: My two female guinea pigs are going through their normal hormonal phase. They are rumbling, mounting, etc., which I am used to. However, I JUST cleaned their cage, and it smells really awful. Do females spray a certain scent when in season, and should it be smelled by humans?

 

Q: My two lovebirds (most likely male, but we are Not 100% sure) are also going through their normal hormonal phase too. The younger.one, Dusty, has been eating and regurging (vomiting) for about 6 weeks now, when previous phases only lasted 2 or 3 weeks. (don't worry this is normal too. they do this in the wild to attract a mate) Should it be lasting this long?

 

Thanks!

Edited December 31, 2011 by Moonbeam22

[dr.bieber229]

About the guinea pigs, they are territory marking. They are plainly feeling the need because their hormones are making them want solitude. So they are spray marking because one of the piggies can sense the other.

[626lavaheart]

It is worth giving all pets regular flea treatment as a preventative measure. As long as you follow the packaging and it says it can be used on dogs of that age I'd reccomend treating all your dogs not least because fleas can get into bedding etc and will bite you.

 

they're to young for the flea treatment we have and are going to be given to new homes soon... I'm more worried that some new species of flea has started attacking the dogs and that I should warn the new owner...

Edited December 31, 2011 by 626lavaheart

[7Deadly$ins]

they're to young for the flea treatment we have and are going to be given to new homes soon... I'm more worried that some new species of flea has started attacking the dogs and that I should warn the new owner...

It is not at all responsible to give a puppy away if it has fleas, but it's even less responsible if the owners don't know about it.

[JaziandCo]

Puppies should only begiven away at optimal health. If you can't use what you have, then get something you can use.

[626lavaheart]

YES the soon to be owners know they have fleas. AND all the people we're giving them to are family friends. I also flea comb the puppies every day and the parents, and we wash the bedding every other day, and we give them new newspaper every day.

 

I've raised several litters of puppies (not with this pair, which is owned by my mom, the rest were raised at my dad's house)

 

I AM worried about the biggest bloodsucking flea ive ever seen in my life. I'm however now thinking that the flea must of been a freak of nature or something... because through all the google searches I've done nothing pops up...

 

(srry if that sounded harsh...... I'm mad because I've been try to get rid of these fleas forever and my family doesn't have the money to buy good flea treatments for the dogs.)

Edited January 1, 2012 by 626lavaheart

[7Deadly$ins]

I don't really mean to be harsh, but I think if you can't afford medical care for the puppies then you shouldn't be raising them.

 

I take animal raising very seriously because there are enough dogs and cats being put to sleep every day for there to be so many casual breeders.

Edited January 1, 2012 by 7Deadly$ins

[JaziandCo]

Why are you breeding if you don't have money to take care of the puppies? =X It seems like a simple thing, if you're a responsible breeder you should be more than capable of keeping fleas to a minimum.

 

Around here puppies have to be at least 8 weeks old to be sold. That's old enough for things like frontline and the like.

 

The "flea" you've described sounds like a dog tick to me. They turn nasty and huge and a brownish-cream when they've eaten. However, it also could have been a deer tick. Either way, if your pups are picking up ticks it's way past time for you to be stepping up and figuring something out about it. If you still have the creature, take it to your vet to identify.

 

It's not very responsible or even kind to give away puppies that could have parasites and infections from said parasites, especially when you deal with things like worms and lyme disease.

[626lavaheart]

no it didn't look like either of those... It looked like a flea.

 

it was also moving around quickly like a flea...

Edited January 1, 2012 by 626lavaheart

[Tiffashy]

Then you would need to take it to a vet if you could afford it. Fleas and ticks can lead up to a nasty infection. You should look up on google to see more detail about fleas and ticks. I believe ticks are more dangerous and they need to be dealt with speical treatment or your pet would by dying slowly.

[Kiran]

One of my kittens has been really sick lately. He appeared at our house one day, and won't leave, but we know someone owned him before because he's the friendliest kitten you've ever seen. I'd say he's about four months old, but we're not really sure. We've had him for a few weeks, and he's never shown any signs of being unhealthy until today. We normally keep him outside, but we sometimes let him inside for awhile.

 

So anyway, on New Years Eve we brought him inside to stay up late with us, and he walked around a bit and we had to keep chasing him around to put him back on a couch so he would't get into any trouble. After awhile he started snoozing nicely, so we kept him inside until the countdown. My mom and dad went to bed hours ago, and my sister went to bed after midnight, but I stayed up until 2:00 playing Pokemon Black and wondering what to do with the kitten. I could't just throw him back outside, with the kitten sleeping so nicely, but I couldn't bring him into my 'room' either, because my room is just an area in the basement, where a kitten could get into a lot of trouble unsupervised. So I decided just to let the kitten sleep, and fell asleep on the other couch.

 

The next morning, I woke up, and so did my mom, but the kitten was still sleeping. We waited for hours, but he didn't wake up 'till about... eleven? Then he woke up, and I put him outside, where he threw up so greeny-yellowy mucus. We gave him some water, and he drank it, but he also stepped into the dish, so we had to bring him back inside. Since then he has just been sleeping, occasionally getting up to sit somewhere else, but very rarely. He keeps throwing up the mucus, and he isn't responding to food, and it is REALLY hard to get him to drink water.

 

We have no idea what is wrong with him. We thought it might be chocolate, at first, because there was some in the living room, but I don't think so. He didn't seem to move from the time I fell asleep to the time I woke up, and doesn't have muscle tremors or anything. My sister has been coughing for days, and months ago (in the summer, maybe?) a litter of kittens that seemed perfectly healthy died quite suddenly, except so two who lasted longed. One of them died of the disease, and the other one seemed completely fine until the poor, stupid thing crawled into the furnace vent (long story that I don't want to tell right now). We have a bunch of other cats that seem fine and have been fine since the moment they were born, but it might just be that they are resistant to the disease.

 

Even if no one knows how to help, we'd really like to know what's wrong with him. And please don't say 'go to the vet' because we've never gone to the vet with cats, and probably never will. If a cat gets sick in our house, we try the best we can to save it, but we're not going to the vet.

[JaziandCo]

Why don't you guys go to vets? o.O That's the first place I would go, because a vet is the only person who can accurately say exactly what's wrong. It sounds to me like the little guy got into something outside and he drastically needs some medical attention.

[7Deadly$ins]

If you aren't willing to go to the vet, then I don't really see how you can consider it the best you can. At least take the poor thing to a shelter, since they can probably help it better than you can under those circumstances.

[TheDarkCynder]

Even if no one knows how to help, we'd really like to know what's wrong with him. And please don't say 'go to the vet' because we've never gone to the vet with cats, and probably never will. If a cat gets sick in our house, we try the best we can to save it, but we're not going to the vet.

You really either need to see a vet or hand the kitten over to a shelter. In many places, denying a sick animal veterinary care is classified as animal cruelty and is punishable in court.

[Nine]

Since you refuse to go to the vet, I'd guess that none of your cats have ever been vaccinated? Do you handle young kittens without washing your hands, or are they kept outside at young ages or in unsanitary conditions? Do they use litterboxes, and if so is the litter changed frequently? Is it rainy, cold, or wet where you live? The entire litter of kittens that died so suddenly as you describe is worrisome, but there are so many factors to consider.

 

I'm not sure why you don't want to go to the vet, because that is the safest, healthiest, most responsible option for those kinds of situations.

[Moonbeam22]

The only way that kitten is going to survive is if you take it to the vet. Before you even started taking care of it, you should have gotten it vaccinated. If you don't get it medical help soon, it will die, or have to be put down. If you have never taken any of your cats to the vet, that is lazy and unsafe. You and your cats are at risk if they haven't had shots.