Thursday, December 3, 2009

To help keep your parrot healthy and happy, you need to know how to care for him/her.

HOUSING-The bigger the cage, the better, but there are some general guidelines for cages. For a smaller cockatoo, its cage should be no smaller than 30" wide by 20" deep by 43" deep. For larger cockatoos (such as umbrella cockatoos), the cage should be no smaller than 40" wide by 30" deep by 50" tall, but no matter what size the bird, the cage must be made strong enough for a cockatoo to hang onto when (s)he climbs around, and can withstand a cockatoo's powerful beak. The bars of the cage shouldn't be any farther apart than 1".

Just as important for parrot care, would be toys. Toys should be made from very hard plastic or wood and should be brightly colored, zinc/lead free, and sturdy enough to withstand the great force of a cockatoo's strong beak.

Bells are also a wonderful toys for cockatoos, but make sure that the bell is made of a non-toxic metal. Stainless steel is safe for birds, however, be sure to get a bell for large birds. Bells that are too small can be easily taken apart, and small pieces can be swallowed, resulting in some real problems, even death.

A safe play gym, whether it is free standing, or mounts on the top of the cage is sure to bring plenty of fun.

Food is one of the most important things for good parrot care. A combination of a pelleted food and daily fresh fruits and vegetables will help to ensure a parrot's good health. Cockatoos can even have meats, however, beef and pork should be kept to a minimum, while more chicken and turkey is recommended. Cockatoos are not fussy eaters; however, do not give your cockatoo avocados, chocolate, or alcohol in any form. Deep fried should never be given to a cockatoo, nor should salted treats such as potato chips, pretzels that have salt, and saltines that have been salted. Diary products are safe for a Cockatoo; however, this too must be limited. Too much dairy product can cause diarrhea and dehydration from the diarrhea.

Good Cockatoo care also consists of time - your time. Cockatoos are very loving birds, and they are known for being 'cuddly' and they are demanding of their owners' time. They love to sit and have dinner with the family and at the same time they love their quiet time with their owner(s).

If a Cockatoo doesn't get the attention and love that it needs, (s)he can become quite loud and develop bad habits.

Many people who get cockatoos do not realize how demanding a cockatoo is, and soon become frustrated with them, leading up to the people either getting rid of the cockatoo or neglecting the cockatoo.

Medical care for a cockatoo should be done by a Certified Avian Veterinarian or an Exotic Animal Veterinarian. Many vets do not work with birds because this is a 'specialty field', and many vets do not know enough about birds.

So if you decide to get a Cockatoo, remember that they do require a lot of time, love, the right cages, toys, vet care, and food for the best cockatoo care that can be provided.

For information on parrot care, please click here. Danny L. publishes an online newsletter at TheTameParrot.com where you can find killer tips and techniques that will help you turn your naughty bird into a well-mannered and well-behaved pet.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/cockatoo-care-tips-234320.html
U.S. presidents and their families have typically liked animals. Creatures from mice to bears have made a home at the White House and its grounds. Mr Grover Cleveland, the 24nd President of USA from March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1897 had the following pets:

· Poodle

· Mockingbirds

President Grover Cleveland poses with his dog. Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms in the late 1800s.
The Canadian Eskimo Dog is an Arctic breed of dog, which is often considered to be North America’s oldest and rarest remaining purebred indigenous domestic canine. Other names include Qimmiq (Inuit for "dog") or what is considered to be the more politically correct Canadian Inuit Dog . Although once used as the preferred method of transportation by Inuit in the Canadian Arctic, traditional working dog teams became increasingly rare in the North after the 1960s, as snowmobiles became more popular, and tended to be faster and more efficient. Today many Northerners and Nunavutmiut (Inuit living in Nunavut) prefer to run the faster, though less hardy, mixed-breed Alaskan Huskies, limiting the popularity and indeed the probable survival of the increasingly rare Canadian Eskimo Dog.

Appearance

The Canadian Eskimo Dog should always be powerfully built, athletic, and imposing in appearance. It should be of "powerful physique giving the impression that he is not built for speed but rather for hard work." As is typical of spitz breeds, it has erect, triangular ears, and a heavily feathered tail that is carried over its back. Males should be distinctly more masculine than females, who are finer boned, smaller, and often have a slightly shorter coat.
Its superficial similarity to wolves was often noted by explorers during the Coppermine Expedition of 1819–1822. They noted that the ears of the Eskimo dogs they encountered were similar to those of American wolves, and their forelegs lacked the black mark above the wrist characteristic of European wolves. The most sure way to distinguish the two species was said to be through the length and posture of the tail, which was shorter and more curved in the dog.


Coat and colour

The coat is very thick and dense, with a soft undercoat and stiff, coarse guard hairs. The Eskimo Dog has a mane of thicker fur around its neck, which is quite impressive in the males and adds an illusion of additional size. This mane is smaller in females. Eskimo Dogs can be almost any colour, and no one colour or colour pattern should dominate. Solid white dogs are often seen, as well as white dogs with patches of another colour on the head or both body and head. Solid liver or black coloured dogs are common as well. Many of the solid coloured dogs have white mask-like markings on the face, sometimes with spots over the eyes. Others might have white socks and nose stripes with no eye spots or mask.

Size

There is significant variance in size among Canadian Eskimo Dogs, and the weight and height should be proportionate to each other. The average size of Canadian Eskimo Dogs is:
• Height (at the withers)
o Males: 58 - 70 cm (23 - 28 in)
o Females: 50 - 60 cm (19½ - 23½ in)
• Weight
o Males: 30 - 40 kg (66 - 88 lb)
o Females: 18 - 30 kg (40 - 66 lb)

Temperament

The Canadian Eskimo Dog's temperament reflects its original work and environment. It is loyal, tough, brave, intelligent, and alert. It is affectionate and gentle, and develops a deep bond with its owner and is intensely loyal. When used as sled dogs, they were often required to forage and hunt for their own food. Consequently, many Canadian Eskimo Dogs have stronger prey drive than some other breeds. Owing to their original environment, they take pure delight in cold weather, often preferring to sleep outside in cold climates. Like most spitz breeds they can be very vocal.

Care and training

Canadian Eskimo Dogs need a very large amount of exercise. They cannot just be walked, they need higher intensity work, requiring more exercise than many dog owners can give. This need for work and stimulation also makes them well suited for dog sports, such as carting, mushing, and skijoring. They are very trainable and submissive, unlike many spitz breeds, as well as intelligent. The Canadian Eskimo Dog is best kept in a cold climate, and is prone to heatstroke. Its coat is fairly easy to care for most times of the year, needing brushing only one or two times a week. However when it sheds (which happens once a year) it will need grooming every day.
Historically, Inuit would put their dogs to the harness as soon as they could walk, and would acquire the habit of pulling sledges in their attempts to break free. At the age of two months, the pups would be placed with adult dogs. Sometimes, ten pups would be put under the lead of an older animal which, coupled with frequent beatings from their masters, would educate the pups.


History

The Canadian Eskimo Dog is known to have been resident in the Arctic for at least 4000 years. The Canadian Eskimo Dog was first bred by the Thule people, while research has shown that it is related to the Greenland dog, with very little significant genetic differences. It is sometimes considered the same breed by authorities, although the Greenland dog can be criticized for lacking any proper breeding program, questioning its validity as a pure breed. The Native Canadians never considered the dog as part of the animal kingdom (uumajuit), but merely as a tool for human existence. It was, and still is (to a very limited extent), used by the Canadian Inuit as multi-purpose dogs, often put to work hunting seals and other Arctic game, and hauling supplies and people. Explorers noted that the dogs were capable of tracking a seal hole from a great distance, and were occasionally used to hunt polar bears. The dogs were reported to be so enthusiastic in hunting bears that, sometimes, their handlers shouted "nennook" (their name for the bear) to encourage them when pulling sledges. The dogs however would not pursue wolves, and would howl fearfully at their approach. Frozen dog urine was used by Native Canadians as a medicine, and their fur was more prized than that of wolves, due to its greater resistance to wear. In times of famine, the dogs would be used as an emergency food source. Though once assumed to be a tamed wolf or wolf-dog hybrid by explorers, including Charles Darwin due to similarities in appearance and vocalisations, genetic testing has shown that the Eskimo dog has no recent wolf anscestry.
In the 1800s and early 1900s this breed was in demand for polar expeditions. When snowmobiles came into use, the population numbers started rapidly declining, because snowmobiles are faster and need less care. In the 1920s there were approximately 20,000 dogs living in the Canadian Arctic, and the breed had been accepted for showing by both the AKC and CKC; however, in 1959 the AKC dropped the breed from its registry because of extremely low numbers. By 1963 there was supposedly only one dog registered with the CKC, and when this dog died there were still no others registered.
It probably would have gone extinct if not for the Eskimo Dog Research Foundation (EDRF). The EDRF was founded in 1972 by William Carpenter and John McGrath and was largely funded by the Canadian Government and the Northwest Territories, with some support from the CKC. The EDRF purchased dogs from the small (about 200 dogs) population remaining in the Canadian Arctic from remote Inuit camps on Baffin Island, Boothia Peninsula, and Melville Peninsula. The EDRF then began breeding dogs in order to increase numbers.
The Canadian Eskimo Dog is still very rare; however, it is becoming more popular in Arctic tourism, with an increasing number of sled dog teams that entertain tourists. This new-found popularity is because tourists often enjoy seeing the dogs in their natural environment doing what they are meant for. On May 1st, 2000, the Canadian territory of Nunavut officially adopted the "Canadian Inuit Dog" as the animal symbol of the territory, thus sealing the name of their traditional dog, qimmiq in the Inuktitut language. This was recorded in the Hansard 01/05/2000 of the Legislative Assembly of the Nunavut Territory.


he Bengal is a relatively new hybrid breed of cat, which exhibits the "wild" markings (such as large spots, rosettes, and a light/white belly), and body structure reminiscent of the wild Asian Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). The Bengal cat has a desirable "wild" appearance with a gentle domestic cat temperament, provided it is separated by at least three generations from the original crossing between a domestic feline and an Asian Leopard Cat.
The name Bengal was derived from the taxonomic name of the Asian Leopard Cat (ALC), as shown above, and not from the more widely known Bengal tiger species, which is unrelated to the Bengal's ancestry.

History

The world's first official cat show, held at The Crystal Palace in London on 13 July 1871, gave birth to the modern Cat Fancies. The breeds shown were the Persian, Angoras, Manx, Abyssinian, the Royal Cats of Siam, and domestic cats crossed with wild cats (hybrids) as well as wild species. The 1875 cat show in Edinburgh included a special class for "Wild or Hybrid between Wild and Domestic Cats"; this was won by an Ocelot (purebred, not hybrid). The first displayed hybrids were based on Scottish Wildcats (Felis silvestris grampia) and Caffre Cats (the Egyptian variant of the North African Wildcat Felis silvestris lybica), not ALCs, but it shows that the first Cat Fancy happily embraced hybrids.
The earliest mention of an ALC/domestic cross was in 1889, Harrison Weir wrote in "Our Cats and All About Them"
There is a rich-coloured brown tabby hybrid to be seen at the Zoological Society Gardens in Regent's Park, between the wild cat of Bengal and a tabby she-cat. It is handsome, but very wild. These hybrids, I am told, will breed again with tame variety, or with others. However in 1927, Mr Boden-Kloss wrote to the magazine "Cat Gossip" [3] regarding hybrids between wild and domestic cats in Malaya: "I have never heard of hybrids between bengalensis (the Leopard Cat) and domestic cats. One of the wild tribes of the Malay Peninsula has domesticated cats, and I have seen the woman suckling bengalensis kittens, but I do not know whether the latter survive and breed with the others!"
The earliest mention of a confirmed ALC/domestic cross was in 1934 in a Belgian scientific journal, and in 1941 a Japanese cat publication printed an article about one that was kept as a pet. (As a point of interest, Jean Mill/Sugden, the person that was later to become the greatest influence of the development of the modern Bengal, submitted a term paper for her genetics class at UC Davis on the subject of cross breeding cats in 1946.)
The 1960s was a period when many well known breeders, including Jean Sugden, produced ALC/domestic crosses, but records indicate that none of them took it past the F2 stage. Several zoos in Europe also produced a number of F1 ALC crosses. During this period there was an epidemic of feline leukemia virus and it became known that many wild cats seemed to have a natural immunity to the disease. As a result of this, Loyola University would start a research program in the 1970s to investigate if this natural immunity could be bred in or replicated.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s there was a great deal of activity with hybrids, but there was no significant effort to create an actual breed from them. A number of Cat clubs formed that oriented on hybrids and a few oriented specifically on something William Engler, a member of the Long Island Ocelot Club and a breeder, called a Bengal.

Club newsletters detailing the production of Bengals and Safaris started being published and members of these clubs bred some second and third generation Bengals. These were registered with the American Cat Fanciers Association (A.C.F.A.) in 1977 as experimental and were shown at several A.C.F.A. cat shows throughout the 1970s.
Around this time, Jean Sugden resurfaced again (although she had remarried and was now Jean Mill), and the following quote explains her increased interest in renewing her breeding efforts.
She contacted Dr. Willard Centerwall in Riverside who had produced a number of F1s using domestic tabbies at Loma Linda University for his Centerwall project into Feline Leukemia. Once the F1s had donated blood samples for his research, he needed homes for them. He gave Jean 4 hybrids. She later received another 5 hybrids from another source, but originally from the same Centerwall project.
Contrary to popular belief, Jean did not use local domestics to create her first Bengals. She felt the ALC was a genetically superior animal and wished to avoid weakening this element. Around 1982, the Mills made a trip to India where a zoo curator showed them a feral Indian Mau. This was how the famous rosetted domestic called "Millwood Tory of Delhi" came to be found in virtually all Bengal pedigrees.
Credit also needs to be given at this point to Greg and Elizabeth Kent, who developed their own line of Bengals using ALCs and Egyptian Maus. This was a very successful line and many modern Bengals will find it in their pedigree.
Jean Mills and the Kents worked hard to popularize the breed, and when the public saw the result of their work, word spread quickly. As the number of breeders and owners grew, it led to the formation of T.I.C.A.'s Bengal Breed Section. T.I.C.A. adopted the first written breed standard in 1986 and the first Bengal Bulletin was published in Nov/Dec 1988.
Shortly after The International Bengal Cat Society (T.I.B.C.S.), the Bengal Breeders Alliance (B.B.A.) and the Authentic Bengal Cat League (A.B.C.L.) were formed. These organizations exist to promote good breeding practices, discourage unscrupulous breeders, and attempt to educate people about the Bengal breed.
The breed is now T.I.C.A.'s most popular registered breed but it is still not fully recognized by some modern cat fancies. This is somewhat ironic considering all modern Cat Fancies can trace their existence to the original show held in 1871, a show that welcomed hybrids.


New developments

• The British government agency, DEFRA, has proposed revising regulations under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 to remove licencing requirements for keeping of Bengal cats in the United Kingdom.
There are currently several varieties of domestic cat being developed from the Bengal:
• The Serengeti cat - developed from crosses with Oriental Shorthair or Siamese with the aim to produce a domestic cat mimicking the appearance of an African Serval, without actually incorporating Serval genes by hybridization.
• The Toyger - developed from crosses with domestic cats with the aim to produce a striped "toy Tiger".
• The Cheetoh - an attempt to blend two existing domestic breeds of spotted cats with defined characteristics (Bengal and Ocicat), into a third breed.


Peter's woven grass pet bed is the ultimate in natural grass cage accessories, that protects your pets sensititve paws from wire cage bottoms and is safe to chew.
Serena Williams reaches out to pet her dog Jackie during a break at the Arthur Ashe Kid's Tennis Day Festival in 2002 New York.

Jackie is a Jack Russell Terrier. She is travels with tennis ace Serena Williams to throughout the tennis tournament season. Jackie travels in a small carry-on bag, be it in a plane or a hotel and is said to be very well behaved.

Florida green watersnake is a harmless North American species of water snake.

N. floridana is the largest and most dominate watersnake in North America. Fully grown it will reach 30-55 in (76-140 cm). Its coloration is solid greenish-brownish with whitish belly in adults. Juveniles have about 50 dark bars down their dorsum and on their sides, which fade gradually with age.

Habitat

N. floridana are found throughout Florida and in parts of southern Georgia with two isolated populations in western and southern South Carolina. They prefer choked vegetation and calm waters such as swamps and marshes. They can also be found in lakes, ponds, ditches, and slow rivers and occasionally in brackish water. In South Carolina it is considered imperiled.

Diet

The diet consists of small aquatic life such as frogs, tadpoles, salamanders, and fish.