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Pineapple posted:Most people buy the little kits were you get a water sample and add x drops of y bottle and match it against a color card. I have some multi-test strips I use occasionally but mostly the little test tubes.
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Jan 30, 2008 23:35
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I've always wanted a dog, and I've finally decided to get a Boston Terrier around mid-March, when I'll have 3 weeks off to be at home with it for the whole day. I was just wondering if anyone knew any breeders in British Columbia or northern Washington that might have puppies available around that time. I know it's kind of a location specific question, but I just thought I'd ask here to see if anyone knows of one. I've contacted all the breeders on the Boston Terrier Club of Canada website, but only one has responded and all her puppies that would be available around then are already taken.
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Jan 31, 2008 04:30
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Okay; quick question about pet Mice and temperature. My two babies, Virgil and Dante, are year-old mice, and I was wondering if there was a particular temperature I could keep the upstairs for them that would be most healthful/comfortable for them. They live together in the same cage, and always have, because they basically display what I can only think seems like mated behavior (sleeping together, doing naughty things, sharing food, building nests for eachother, co-grooming).  They've never tried to tear each-other to bits, so I'm fine with it. But, this winter is especially chilly, and I wanted to know if I could help get them a bit warmer. It's generally between 67 to 73 upstairs. Should it be more towards the 73 than the 67? I make sure they have plenty of bedding, so they -seem- okay. I'm just prone to worrying. ChaosMuffins fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Feb 1, 2008 |
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Feb 1, 2008 01:49
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Not really an animal question per se but it's related to animals at least! Does anyone have any links to forums or good resources for hobby farms? Googling is turning up little to none; and I'd like to find communities that are goon-endorsed. Thanks in advance!
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Feb 2, 2008 22:58
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My cousin's friend (16 years old) got a mouse, and didn't want it. Now it's my mouse. Anyways, I've done some reading online and am trying my best to keep it happy and healthy. But I have some problems. Ever place I have read suggests that you have a second mouse. The problem is, mine is a male. I don't want mouse babies, nor do I want another male so that they try to kill each other. Suggestions? Secondly, I keep the cage clean, but the nest itself is quite stinky. I don't want to force the guy to build a new nest every time I clean his cage. What should I do?
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Feb 3, 2008 00:12
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You don't need another mouse if you have a male. They're much more solitary than females. As long as he has plenty of stimulation (exercise wheel, chew toys, maybe even hiding his food and making him hunt for it) he shouldn't be terribly lonely. What is he building his nest of? You could try giving him scraps of fabric and letting him build a nest of that, and you can machine wash them and just give him a new piece when you clean the cage. If he has a little "house" you can stuff it in there or let him drag it in there to form a nest. If he doesn't have a "house" in the cage, you should think about getting one. That way even when you clear out his nest he has a place to hide. What's your setup like? I've kept mice a few times in my life, they can be wonderful pets.
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Feb 3, 2008 00:24
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RazorBunny posted:You don't need another mouse if you have a male. They're much more solitary than females. As long as he has plenty of stimulation (exercise wheel, chew toys, maybe even hiding his food and making him hunt for it) he shouldn't be terribly lonely. It's mostly shavings and toilet paper he has shredded. I could easily give him some cloth, I just wanted to make sure he wouldn't get pissed at having to remake a nest a lot. He doesn't have a little house, but that is simply because I just got him. I'm planning on picking one (along with a new wheel and some chew toys) up tonight. The cage itself is about two feet by one foot metal grate with a solid bottom.
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Feb 3, 2008 00:47
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BiohazrD posted:It's mostly shavings and toilet paper he has shredded. I could easily give him some cloth, I just wanted to make sure he wouldn't get pissed at having to remake a nest a lot. What kind of shavings are you using? Some wood shavings are bad for them. They seem to enjoy making their nests, I wouldn't worry about it pissing him off.
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Feb 3, 2008 00:49
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RazorBunny posted:What kind of shavings are you using? Some wood shavings are bad for them. I can't remember what kind, it's the same stuff we use as bedding for our horses (not the red stuff).
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Feb 3, 2008 00:52
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I don't know much about dog shows. Let's pretend I have a dog, of a rare breed, that is a crappy representation of whatever breed. Let's also pretend that I have all the money in the world, and I somehow pay off all the other people that might show the same breed as my dog. This means I always win "Best of Breed" because no one else ever enters. Could my pretend dog ever become a champion? It would never win group awards, because its such a poorly bred dog, but it always win breed wins, because its so rare / I'm so evil...
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Feb 3, 2008 08:50
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Meow Cadet posted:I don't know much about dog shows. As far as I know, for the AKC Champion title you need 15 'points' and 2 'majors'. You win points by winning your class, but the number of points you win is based on the number of dogs of the same sex that you're competing against. So any win might provide you between 1 and 5 points depending on the entry numbers. A 'major' is a 3, 4 or 5 point win, so even if you took 50 1 point wins, you would never get the 'Champion' title. So the dog in your scenario wouldn't be able to take Champion, no  .Also, judges are under no obligation to place a dog that doesn't meet standard, so far as I'm aware. So if there were only one lovely dog in the class they wouldn't have to grant it a win at all. A question though; how does the point system work with rare breeds? Is it more difficult to get a CH. title with an otterhound than a lab simply because there aren't enough otterhounds around for you to win over?
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Feb 3, 2008 09:09
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notsoape posted:A question though; how does the point system work with rare breeds? Is it more difficult to get a CH. title with an otterhound than a lab simply because there aren't enough otterhounds around for you to win over? I don't show dogs myself but I do know that the point scale is adjusted to try to compensate a little bit for this. A 5 point win for an otterhound is over a lot less dogs than a 5 point win for a lab, in my understanding.
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Feb 3, 2008 09:18
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I keep seeing aquarium threads with all kinds of amazing, beautiful things growing on the rocks, and I was just curious if that was something that grows naturally when you buy and keep a live-rock happy for a long time, or if people somehow otherwise buy them?
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Feb 3, 2008 09:20
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Why are there no North American Monkeys/Primates? Climate? Food? Predators? Do we know?
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Feb 3, 2008 09:27
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I'm a bit worried aout our 6 year old diabetic cat Alexei. He vomited 3 times last night but wasn't acting like he was ill. There were no hairballs in his vomit and he hasn't coughed any up for a few months. Today he threw up a very small amount of clear liquid but then seemed to be fine again. Aout 5-10 mins later he started acting really nervous and ran away from my husband who was carrying a bowl of water to clean the floor. Now he's hiding behind the couch in the spare bedroom and he won't come out or make any noise which is very out of character for him. We're supposed to be going out for a meal later on but I don't know if it's ok to leave him or not. With it being a Sunday do you think it's ok to wait until tomorrow to call a vet? I'm not sure what to do for the best. Any help would be greatly appreciated! edit to add: Well we were just about to ring the emergency vets when I noticed that he'd come out of hiding. He's sat at the top of the stairs and he's very quiet but he's just wolfed down some wet food so we're going to leave it a couple of hours and see how he is then. lazyjane fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Feb 3, 2008 |
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Feb 3, 2008 14:40
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I don't know what to make of this. My two angel fish have blue fins... I noticed this while I was doing a water change a couple days ago. I thought it might just be due to stress but the fins are still blue. They are both about a year and a half old. You can see the blue in her bottom fin.  Not the best picture, but you can see how blue those fins are! Is this normal?
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Feb 4, 2008 02:59
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notsoape posted:A question though; how does the point system work with rare breeds? Is it more difficult to get a CH. title with an otterhound than a lab simply because there aren't enough otterhounds around for you to win over? Points can also be earned by placing 1st in group, or by going all the way to Best of Show. I've wanted to get into showing eventually, and have thought a little about the relationship between breed popularity and ease of getting a title. Very popular breeds can be tougher to win in, and lots of people end up getting professional handlers to give their dog the edge against the 40+ other dogs in their breed. The rarest breeds can have trouble having enough dogs in once place to get a major, a lot more traveling may be involved for getting that championship, but owner-handlers are more common. I'm sure that Solana could give a much better explanation, considering she's actually been through it. MoCookies fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Feb 4, 2008 |
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Feb 4, 2008 03:36
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VyperRDH posted:I don't know what to make of this. My two angel fish have blue fins... I noticed this while I was doing a water change a couple days ago. I thought it might just be due to stress but the fins are still blue. They are both about a year and a half old. Nice angelfish! Looks like a half-black and a gold to me, are they a pair? And no worries, that blue tint is just iridescence from the scales on those pelvic fins. It shouldn't be a concern as far as I know. When I kept and bred angels as a teen some of the types of angels I had showed that nice blue tint, and others didn't- just depended on the colour variation/type of angelfish.
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Feb 4, 2008 14:12
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Shouganai posted:Nice angelfish! Looks like a half-black and a gold to me, are they a pair? And no worries, that blue tint is just iridescence from the scales on those pelvic fins. It shouldn't be a concern as far as I know. When I kept and bred angels as a teen some of the types of angels I had showed that nice blue tint, and others didn't- just depended on the colour variation/type of angelfish. Yep, they are a pair, though when I bought them that wasn't the intent. They were in a tank with about 50 others and I told the guy at the pet store to get me any gold and a half-black one. I got lucky. The half-black is Silver Bullet (female) and Casper is the gold one (male). Good to know the blue fins is normal! I love my angelfish.
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Feb 4, 2008 16:46
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Okay, here's my animal question that doesn't deserve its own thread: Should I be upset at my friend who wants to try and breed his chinchilla? This person used to be the most irresponsible human being I knew, I haven't spent much time around him lately, maybe he's improved. I don't even know where to begin. Is it okay to post the chat log? If not, I can delete it. But it's just easier this way.  : im trying to get my chinchilla to screw my bosses chinchilla and have babies haha : they like eachother but they wont do the nasty yet : Why on Earth would you do that? : Do you know how hard it is to raise newborn anything? : chinchillas are easy, we looked it up researched it for a month before we decided to do it : the mother chinchilla does all the work : she only has one or two kits : And what if there's a problem in the birthing process? You prepared to lose all the kits and the mother? : its not that common, as long as theyre in a clean environment and you keep her away from sand baths shell be fine shes old enough and developed enough to handle it, everyone who breeds has to start somewhere : I just don't see the need for more breeding, I guess. : You have homes lined up already? : yeah : i plan on keeping one if there are two and someone at work who has plenty of rodents wants one : has had*I don't know, PI. I don't think I'd let this guy look after a pet rock for more than a weekend, and now he wants to breed exotics? His is the male, his boss' is the female. It just kind of rankles me.
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Feb 6, 2008 21:34
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RazorBunny posted:
Well it isn't great, but it could be a whole hell of a lot worse. They have at least have homes lined up for the babies and did a little research. I doubt you're going to talk him out of it, so maybe just encourage them to talk to a good exotics vet, and hope that this guy's boss is more responsible than he is. It doesn't sound like they're having much luck anyway, so you may be worrying for nothing 
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Feb 6, 2008 21:51
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Sorry if this has been asked already. We have a four year old neutered male cat, which we got from a farm when he was 10 months old. He's always been an outdoorsy cat because he was brought up as a mouser, but very recently he refuses to keep his collar on. We have had to replace his normal collar with a safety collar that snaps open because he got his old one stuck around his mouth -- this obviously distressed him and us a great deal. Is this a common problem with cats, and is there a safe way we can retrain him to keep his collar on. He will sometimes wander off for a couple of days at a time and I'm concerned someone will think him a stray and try to take him in. [edit] We've experimented with removing the bell and different styles and tightness to see if it was those factors which were annoying him, and nothing has helped. Donkey Darko fucked around with this message at 12:43 on Feb 7, 2008 |
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Feb 7, 2008 12:40
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Mr. Mnemonik posted:Sorry if this has been asked already. We have a four year old neutered male cat, which we got from a farm when he was 10 months old. He's always been an outdoorsy cat because he was brought up as a mouser, but very recently he refuses to keep his collar on. We have had to replace his normal collar with a safety collar that snaps open because he got his old one stuck around his mouth -- this obviously distressed him and us a great deal. You should have him microchipped in case someone sees him and thinks he's a stray that needs a new home. Obviously the safest thing would be to teach him to be an indoors cat, but barring that, he may be at more danger by someone shooting at or poisoning a "stray" than by wearing a non-safety collar.
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Feb 7, 2008 17:10
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My fiance and I are looking into rescuing a dog and it just so happens that one of the rescues we are interested in is having a meet and greet this weekend. I was wondering what we should really expect when attending a meet and greet. Also, what questions we should be asking, etc. Thanks for any advice/experiences
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Feb 8, 2008 18:31
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Mr. Mnemonik posted:he got his old one stuck around his mouth -- this obviously distressed him and us a great deal. This is a hurdle in getting pretty much any cat to wear a collar. There should be a tightness that prevents him from getting his lower jaw to it, and also from choking him, you just have to find it. He will do the "GET IT OFF OF MEEE" dance no matter what but they usually get used to it after a few days. I've never had an outdoorsy cat though, so I don't know how you'd supervise him during those first few days. If it's the dangly thing that bothers him they have collars that you can get your phone number printed onto, also. Microchipping is good too, but people don't always know those exist and sometimes never bother scanning for them. :/
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Feb 8, 2008 20:15
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My friend has a 7-9 (don't remember the age) month old ragdoll kitten (Female) and since she isn't a goon, wants me to ask for her: "Will she ever learn to clean her rear end and paws better and stop smelling like poop?" I'm guessing its just a kitten thing, since I work at a shelter and the kittens are usually a little stinky, but they're almost always short haired kittens- could it have something to do with her having long fur between her toes and near her rear end?
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Feb 13, 2008 19:45
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Whispering Machines posted:My friend has a 7-9 (don't remember the age) month old ragdoll kitten (Female) and since she isn't a goon, wants me to ask for her: "Will she ever learn to clean her rear end and paws better and stop smelling like poop?" I have a long-haired cat (not a ragdoll, though), and when we first brought him home from the shelter we noticed this was a problem. He would get poo poo caught in the fluff around his bum, even just tiny, unnoticeable amounts, and it would cause him to smell awful. He was 11 months old when we brought him home, so I don't think it was really an issue with his age. We've just had to buy an electric razor and shave around his bum area ever so often so that there's no long fur for it to get caught in. No need to shave completely, just make the fur short in that area. If your friend's kitten is having the problem with poop in her paws as well as her rear end-fur, it probably is related to fur between the toes like you think. That can also be shaved pretty easily with an electric shaver, and though the kitten in question will probably not be too happy to go through the experience, it will probably help a lot with the smell. Ragdolls have quite long fur from what I've seen so I'm betting this is the issue.
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Feb 13, 2008 20:38
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The ragdoll kitten may have lost his mother very early, in which case he will need his owner to teach him how to groom. She can do this by wiping him with a wet paper towel every day, until he starts to mimic this with his tongue. If he tries to groom himself but doesn't do it very well, it may just be the long hair in difficult places.
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Feb 13, 2008 21:07
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Good ideas, thanks guys
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Feb 13, 2008 23:29
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We have a new kitten who just recently (like, yesterday) started chirping at our other cat all the time. She just follows him around and chirps and meows at him. She doesn't even want to play, she just wants to chirp at him. If you pick her up she just chirps at you The thing is that our cat that she's following isn't even anatomically male anymore. Not only was he neutered but he had his penis removed about 3 years ago to the day. Is our kitten going into heat or is it something else?
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Feb 14, 2008 17:35
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Ok, so my pet mouse mentioned earlier this thread has escaped from his cage into my apartment. I have a general idea where he is, but he's goddamn impossible to catch. How do I go about getting him?
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Feb 15, 2008 06:05
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BiohazrD posted:Ok, so my pet mouse mentioned earlier this thread has escaped from his cage into my apartment. I have a general idea where he is, but he's goddamn impossible to catch. you could try one of thees. http://www.amazon.com/Kness-101-Ketch-All-Live-Mouse/dp/B0006DR49Q
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Feb 15, 2008 07:05
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RurouNNy posted:My fiance and I are looking into rescuing a dog and it just so happens that one of the rescues we are interested in is having a meet and greet this weekend. I was wondering what we should really expect when attending a meet and greet. Also, what questions we should be asking, etc. Thanks for any advice/experiences I was just feeling bad that no one had answered your question and you've probably already gone to the meet and greet. I'll go ahead and give my $0.02 just in case it'll help. If the dog is being fostered by someone, then you'll end up getting a lot more info on the dog than if they're from a shelter situation. Don't expect too much bonding immediately from the dog, especially the more shy individuals, the busyness of a meet-and-greet and the stress of living in a shelter can be significant impediments to making that bond. The more info you know about the dog the more informed your decision will be, but sometimes you just know that a certain dog is YOUR dog. That's how I ended up with Fern. If I were in your situation, I'd just be trying to find out every scrap of information possible. Ideally, I'd want to know how dog-friendly he is, if he's resource aggressive, food aggressive, cat-aggressive, how well-mannered he is around kids, how much obedience training he's had, how well he walks on a leash, what kinds of toys he likes, if he's heartworm negative, how he reacts to new situations, if he's crate-trained, how housebroken he is, and most importantly his energy level. Really, there's no right or wrong answer to any of the questions, but you'll just have to think about how much time/energy you have to deal with socialization and training issues on top of the regular dog stuff. As long as you're being realistic about the limitations of your lifestyle and experience, you'll be fine. Don't get discouraged if you don't find the right dog for you immediately, sometimes it takes a little while, but its worth it.
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Feb 15, 2008 16:30
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I need more dog tricks.... Leela is figuring them out pretty fast. I have even been teaching her that the doorbell lets her outside. I have one of those wireless doorbells, I set up a second button, changed the chirp on it so we can tell its her, and now she hits the button with her nose when she wants to go out. She sits, stands, ups (front paws in the air), shakes both hands, rolls over, lays down... I'm trying to teach her the thing where you pretend to shoot them and they fall over, but havent been very successful with that one yet. What are some other tricks she can do that dont require dog training stuff (teeter-totters, those tube things, those sticks that they go in-out-in-out of...)
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Feb 15, 2008 22:59
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"Spin" is a pretty easy one. Start by leading the dog around in a small circle while it's sniffing a treat, giving the command 'spin!' then reward. The dog will learn it before you know it, and you can gradually transition into just making a 'spin' movement with your hand as a signal. 'Speak' is also a command that my terrier learned pretty easily, mostly because she likes the sound of her own voice  . Hold a toy up and get her all excited til she begins to bark at you, associate that with the command 'speak!' and reward her with the toy. The nice thing about this command is that you can include a 'be quiet!' command, which can be very useful in tackling nuisance barking.Speaking of nuisance barking, as a teenager I had some success teaching Meg to come get me if one of her toys was out of her reach, rather than standing there barking at it. It's a pretty complicated command as it requires a series of behaviours - 1, leave the toy alone. 2, come find me. 3, sit. 4, bark. 5, take me to the toy. It's also a behaviour she had to do of her own initiative (much like the bell ringing you describe), rather than waiting for a prompt from me. The way I went about it was pretty simply to put one of her toys up on a high surface, wait for her to get all  and start barking at it, then tell her; 'No Meg, come here'. First I rewarded her for simply dashing over to me, then dashing back to the toy, then gradually started to ask her to 'sit' and 'speak' when she reached me. I never pursued it to the extent that she would come and get me in another room, but with a bit more practice I'm sure she would have got there.The 'bow' command is pretty cute. I actually taught it just putting my arm underneath her as she went from a 'stand' to a 'down', giving the 'down' hand signal but giving her the 'bow' command (my down command is 'lie down', so they didn't sound too similar). She also knows 'slam!', where she goes from a begging position into a down - this is safe because she is tiny, I wouldn't try it with heavier/long backed dogs! Teaching the dog the name of specific toys is another impressive one, although I never got there with Meg. It's really useful to practice calling the dog towards you then putting your hand up and telling them 'sit!' or 'down!' - this could be life saving in an emergency situation. Meg also knows two types of giving a paw - one where she actually puts it into my hand, the other where she 'waves' and lifts her paw above her head . Another which I haven't tried with Meg but looks good is teaching them to fetch e.g. your hat, coat etc when you ask for it. Man, I love teaching dog tricks. Which sucks, because my next two dogs are likely to be a saluki and an elderly beagle  . Meg will just have to live forever, so I can keep training her new things .
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Feb 15, 2008 23:29
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Question: Are laser pointers a safe toy for cats as long as the laser in not pointed in her eyes?
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Feb 16, 2008 01:00
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vikingstrike posted:Question: Are laser pointers a safe toy for cats as long as the laser in not pointed in her eyes? Perfectly safe. Just watch out that you don't shine it on a reflective surface.
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Feb 16, 2008 01:04
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vikingstrike posted:Question: Are laser pointers a safe toy for cats as long as the laser in not pointed in her eyes? I've heard that a good technique to avoid the cats getting too frustrated is to shine the dot onto a treat on the floor before switching it off, so the cat can finally 'catch' something
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Feb 16, 2008 01:07
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notsoape posted:I've heard that a good technique to avoid the cats getting too frustrated is to shine the dot onto a treat on the floor before switching it off, so the cat can finally 'catch' something That's what I was most worried about, and that seems to be a perfect solution. Thanks!
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Feb 16, 2008 01:10
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My school is retiring its current mascot, a purebred rough collie. The student body is starting to request that we adopt or rescue the next one, and I've thrown my two cents into one of the facebook groups (I think we should start a new tradition of instead of Collies, we always adopt from shelters to raise awareness since so many people see our mascot. Mutts aren't healthier than purebreds who come from long lines of champions with OFA and CERF tests, but adopting would send out a great message). Anyway, someone replied to me:quote:That's not necessarily true. To get the perfect breed standards for pure bred dogs, they have gone through generations and generations of inbreeding, so they are more prone to health problems/shorter lives/etc. For mixes, most of them are more than just one breed, which will combine genetics of the various breeds and cut down on the effects of inbreeding. So, yes, mutts often live much longer than purebred dogs. My first instinct was to call her an idiot, because of the puggle for example: comes from a dog bred for running, and a dog bred for squashed nose which is just asking for problems. But then I realized that I really don't know much about dog breeding. Is she right that inbreeding occurs? If so, how far back in the lines do they go before they decide it's okay to inbreed?
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Feb 16, 2008 22:47
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