Happy Memorial Day - Safe Pet Travel Tips

Hopefully everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend. Keep you and your pet safe. Below is my obligatory car travel safety tips that I tend to post from time to time. Here they are from petfinder.com.

Take your companion animal for a veterinary check-up and obtain a health certificate and documentation of inoculations.

If your pet has never been in a car, take him on short trips to condition him for the journey. Remember, traveling can be very stressful for a pet; you should try to eliminate as much stress as you can.

Animals should be secure during the trip and not allowed to jump around or hang out of the window. For this reason, a crate or carrier is recommended:
A strong, wire mesh crate, not permitted for air travel, is preferable for car trips because it allows ample ventilation.

The crate must be large enough for your pet to stand, turn around and lie down in.
Line the bottom with towels to absorb accidents. Attach bowls for food and water, to be given at intervals during the trip.

Accustom your pet to the crate prior to the journey.
Your pet should wear a flat-buckled ID collar with its name, your address and telephone number. For additional protection, consider tattooing him.

Try to avoid traveling in extreme weather conditions. If you must travel in hot weather, do it in the morning or evening.

Exercise and water should be given during rest stops. Do not allow your pet to run loose at rest areas. No matter how well trained an animal is, this is a new experience and an accident could happen.

Under no circumstances leave animal alone in a parked car. It takes only minutes for an animal to develop heatstroke in hot conditions or to freeze in cold.

If you are planning to stay in a hotel, make arrangements prior to starting your trip. Your pet should be a welcome guest.

When you arrive at your destination, keep your pet in a calm, quiet area and give him plenty of time to adjust to his new environment.

Tranquilization is not recommended.

Pet Owners, Makers of Tainted Food Reach Deal

Unfortunately a story like this never has a happy ending. But, I remain hopeful for the future of the pet food industry:

**Hopefully the amount that the food companies have to pay, along with the loss of business, is enough of a wake-up call.

**Hopefully these companies will realize that if anything like this happens again in the future, it's in their best interest to recall the foods as fast as possible and not try to fight it, and make the situation even worse, like they did in March,2007.

**Hopefully this will teach the companies that it is better to spend money to inspect where the food is coming from, and to investigate any changes in ingredients before making the food.

**The costs of doing it any differently are just too great.


Here is the AP story -
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer
Fri May 23, 7:00 AM ET

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - Companies that were sued over contaminated pet food linked to the deaths of perhaps thousands of dogs and cats have agreed to pay $24 million to pet owners in the United States and Canada.

The settlement is detailed in papers filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Camden. It still needs a judge's approval.

"The settlement attempts to reimburse pet owners for all of their economic damages," said Russell Paul, a lawyer for plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The deal would affect people who incurred expenses directly related to the illness or death of a pet linked to the food, which was at the center of the biggest-ever U.S. pet food recall in 2007.

Nearly 300 people sued about 30 companies in state and federal courts. They and perhaps thousands of other pet owners would be eligible for payments under the deal.

Ontario-based Menu Foods Income Fund, which makes dog and cat food under about 90 brand names, and other firms that make or sell pet food announced April 1 that they were settling lawsuits with pet owners.

The pet food was discovered to contain wheat gluten imported from China that was contaminated with melamine, a chemical used to make plastics. Though Menu was the first company to issue recalls, four other companies eventually recalled pet foods, too.

Some of the companies have already paid out more than $8 million to people whose pets were sickened or killed after eating the contaminated food.

Under the terms of the deal announced Thursday, pet owners could be reimbursed for all reasonable expenditures, including veterinarian bills and burial or cremation costs.

Pet owners could also ask for the fair market value of their deceased pets, if that is higher than the costs incurred. Owners who do not have documentation of their expenses can get up to $900 each. All claims are subject to a review.

The companies say they will donate any money left in the fund after claims are paid out to animal welfare charities.

The settlement details were originally to have been filed in court about two weeks ago, but it took longer than expected to hash out the deal, partly because it had to be made to conform with both U.S. and Canadian law.

A court hearing on the settlement is scheduled for May 30.

Dog Feeding Frequency

How often do you feed your dog? According to a story by Long Tail Pet Products (Marketing arm of the Dog Pause Bowl See review) there is an emerging concensus among vets and dog nutritionists that feeding your dog twice or even three times a day is preferable to feeding your dog once a day.

By dividing meal time into several events during the day, you reduce the amount of food per mealtime and balance out the digestive activity of your dog.

By using multiple feedings, you help your dog better align his caloric requirements with energy needs throughout the day. No longer does your dog go through one long cycle of digestion and energy conversion as he or she digests a huge quantity of food.

You know how you feel after a big meal? Your dog feels the same way when a huge meal sits in his stomach. Break the total amount of food into multiple meals and you'll find your dog has more energy and has more balanced behavior throughout the day.

Lost Parrot Recites Address

Read Full Article

"When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.

Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said.
He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.
"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs."

I'm not sure who's smarter - The parrot for learning it and saying it, or the owner for teaching him how!

Dogs For Disabled Vets

http://www.petside.com/news/the-dog-tags-program.html

The Dog Tags program can be found via the link above. It's a unique program that benefits disabled soldiers coming home from war. But, the program also involves prisoners who are training these dogs. Essentially, there are two programs working together:

The Dog Tags Program: More and more soldiers are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with disabling injuries that make it difficult to cope with the challenges of daily life. For this reason, Puppies Behind Bars has started the Dog Tags program.

The Puppies Behind Bars Program: Puppies Behind Bars is a program which trains inmates to raise Golden Retriever and Labrador puppies to become service dogs for the disabled and explosive detection canines for law enforcement.

There are many ways to help this program, including helping an inmate train a dog, and by making a donation.

Personally, I love the fact that dogs are helping these disabled soldiers to life a better life. Maybe more non-prisoners can come forward and help train these dogs? For me, the thought of making a donation to help a prisoner doesn't entice me to act. What are your thoughts?

Dog Eats Too Fast? Try DogPause Bowl

For more information, check out http://www.dogpausebowl.com/.
Health professionals always say that it's best to chew your food thoroughly and eat your food slowly. Unfortunately, I've always been a fast eater. So, it was only fitting that when we adopted our second dog, Kelso, last summer, he was a fast eater too.

Since it's not healthy for humans to eat fast, I figured it can't be good for dogs either. That's why when the makers of dogpause contacted me about checking out their new dog bowl, I was more then happy to oblige.

It is important to note that dogs who eat fast can suffer from vomiting, gagging, choking, flatulence and belching.

Kelso has had the occasional vomit after eating too fast, and cleaning it up is never an easy task. And it's usually later that night, or the next morning when it happens.

So, we were more then happy to try the dogpause bowl. The result - It definitely slowed him down. And the design of the bowl is so simple (see picture). Four separate compartments, that are deep enough that the dog has to work a bit for the food. To me, it seemed as though it made it tougher for Kelso to take the big bites he's used to taking. Rather then having the food in a big bowl where he can fit as much in his mouth as possible, he instead could only take in a little bit of food at once.

Kelso still eat everything in the bowl (as always), but it took him at least 2-3 minutes longer. It may not seem like a lot, but since he usually eats his food within 2-3 minutes in a regular dog bowl, this essentially doubled the amount of time it takes him to eat.

The bowl itself is sturdy, strong, and easy to clean and comes in two different colors - blue and red.

After trying the bowl out, I checked out their website on why the bowl works. And everything they said about why it's better proved true in my little trial.The DogPause dog bowl works to slow down the pace of eating and aid with portion control in the following ways:
-Divides the bowl into 4 feeding zones
-Each feeding zone is 1/2 cup in capacity and designed to "block" the dog from putting his full snout into the bowl; this slows down eating pace as your dog needs to use his tongue for each bite -After your dog finishes each zone, he must re-position himself for the next zone
-The bowl is designed to slide a little on the floor, further slowing down the dog as he needs to re-position for each bite.

They aren't sold in major retailers, so check out their website for details.

A Cat Personality Test

We've all seen the ads for those dating services which match people based on their personality profiles. But what if you could pick your cat, based on their personalities? According to a recent article, many animal shelters are starting to do just that.

The program is aimed at ending human-animal mismatches, a common reason cats are returned to a shelter after they're adopted.

The article, which can be found http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_re_us/cat_personality,
talks about how the program rates the animals on confidence and sociability. It then tallies those assessments to place the cat into nine personality categories, which can be matched with a family's situation and desires.

Poop Pick-Up Service

I wrote about this a while ago, but it seems these type of companies are becoming more popular and more are joining the industry.

What do these companies do? Well, are you too pooped to scoop? Would you rather do anything else in the world then clean up your yard after your pet has been out there doing his duty? There are several small businesses that will do the dirty work for you. “There is a never ending supply of the stuff and you have better things to do,” claims one such service. These companies will come to your house, clean up the mess, bag it up, disinfect the area, and take it all with them once they’re done.

It’s an interesting business and I can appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit of these folks. Dog waste can pollute the environment if not disposed of properly and apparently this is a needed service for people who just don’t want to deal with the problem themselves.

Betta Fish Don't Need Isolation

One of the most common misconceptions of betta fish is that they must be in a bowl all by themselves. Mostly because of the stories that they are fighting fish and because these fish are seen in stores in those little plastic cups.

Although Bettas don't get along with their own kind, they can make a good community aquarium fish and get along with other community type fish. I've have one with tetras and an angel fish without any problems.

Because they are used to being in confinement and are very shy by nature, I found that it likes to hide in the caves and plants I had set up in my aquarium. Having plants, artificial or real, is important for housing a Betta in a community aquarium.

It's been very popular lately to have a betta in a bowl with a plant in it...you see them displayed at malls and boardwalks all the time. While the plant may look good and make a nice display on a desk or end table, bettas are carnivores....in other words, they don't feed off of the plant. They need to be fed food formulated specifically for them like any other tropical fish.

As with any fish, it is better to house it in an aquarium with a filter. However, if you do decide to house it in one of those bowls, it must be cleaned out frequently, as it needs fresh, clean, de-chlorinated water. Otherwise, the water will contain ammonia caused by fish waste and uneaten food. The ammonia is toxic to fish.

Bettas have a special respiratory organ that allows them to breath air directly from the surface. In fact they inherently must do so. Bettas must have access to the water surface to breath air directly from the atmosphere.In their natural habitat, Bettas often come from warm, tropical climates. Bettas thrive on heat, and will become increasingly listless when the water temperature falls below 75 degrees F.