pet connection

Let’s face it, pets can be addictive. This is especially true of exotic pets. Who can have just one parakeet or just one ferret? Perhaps more than dog and cat owners, exotic pet owners tend to have multiples of the same pet species and often more than one species. While it may seem like a good idea to pick up two guinea pigs at the pet store because they’re both so cute, who could possibly decide which one to take home? They’ll probably much happier if they’re not alone, right? Still, it should be noted that having multiple pets may not always be the best decision. While in some instances, it is true that having more than one of the same pet species (a small flock of birds, a herd of rabbits, a colony of chinchillas, etc.)  may seem to provide companionship and comfort to the animal, it is not always best for their human caretakers and may not actually be best for the animals, either. Here are a few points to think about if you’re considering purchasing or adopting more than one exotic pet of any species:

1. SPACE – Do you have the room to house more than exotic pet?

Many exotic pets have very specific requirements for housing, lighting, heat, and food that take up more space than that of the average cat or dog. The requirements for varying species can be radically different. Plus, different exotic species cannot usually be housed together because of the potential for fighting, injury, etc. Before you run out and purchase more than one exotic pet, be sure that you have the space to properly care for all these animals.

2. TIME – Do you have time to dedicate to more than one exotic animal?

To be properly socialized, many exotic pets (birds, reptiles, ferrets, rabbits, and rodents, alike) need to be handled and worked with daily, not only when they are first purchased or adopted, but also on an ongoing basis. Before you consider having more than one pet that will require socialization, be sure you have time available to dedicate to each of them. While some people think that getting a “playmate” for an exotic pet is the answer, not all pets necessarily want friends or roommates. Plus, the kind of socialization an exotic pet gets from being handled by a human cannot be substituted for by interaction with another un-socialized pet. To get a well-behaved, interactive animal, there is no substitution for regular human contact.

3. FINANCES – Do you have the money to care for more than one exotic pet?

Many people forget the fact that all pets (even exotic ones) need regular medical care, and veterinary care, especially on an emergency basis, can be costly. If you double the number of pets you own, you double the cost of care. And if one gets sick with something infectious (parasites, a virus, etc.), the likelihood is that both may get sick and require treatment. So, unless you are independently wealthy, you might want to think twice about doubling up on the number of exotic pets you have, or you may find yourself scrimping on basic medical care for each of them.

4. BREEDING CONTROL – How will you control unwanted breeding among your same-species pets?

There are 3 ways to ensure your same-species pets do not inbreed:

• Separate them by sex, and house them separately
• Own all only all males or all females
• Spay/neuter opposite sex pairs before housing them together

The problem is that not even same sex animals housed together are guaranteed to get along. Some same sex species will actually kill each other over territory, food, etc., when housed together. Be sure you think about this before buying that extra-large cage.

5. SPREAD OF DISEASE – Are the different exotic species suited to live in close quarters?

Even if you don’t house your different species of exotic pets together, there are some species that can potentially spread disease to each other if they are living in the same air space. Take guinea pigs and rabbits, for example. Each one carries a respiratory tract bacterium that does not affect the species that carries it but that can be spread to the other species through the air. Good reason not to house guinea pigs and rabbits in close proximity, don’t you think? Many pet owners aren’t aware of these little known facts until their pets are ill.

The point is, before you decide that since one exotic pet is fun, more than one will be even more fun, there are a lot of factors to consider. While we may like company, many exotic pets may not. And even if they are found in large groups in the wild, the same groupings may not be appropriate in captivity, because these pets have not necessarily been raised together. So, before you buy twice, be smart, and think twice.

Photo credit: tennesseeanimals.org, myhouserabbit.com

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Imagine, if you will, that you’re at a major airport (as I was a couple times last week), and you’re about to pass through security. Which is the better and safer option: the full body scanner, or a properly-trained dog? Last week, that very question was the subject of a noisy, contentious Congressional hearing.  From CNN.com,

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, led the dog caucus, arguing that canines are cheaper and less invasive than body scanners. Dogs are exceptional at sensing explosives, do not require software upgrades, don’t depreciate with use and might even be able to detect bombs implanted under a person’s skin.
“The single best way to find a bomb-making device or bomb-making materials is the canine,” Chaffetz said.

And dogs are widely accepted by the public, he said.

“Who doesn’t like dogs?” chimed in Inspector William Parker, head of Amtrak’s K-9 unit.

Canines are missing one thing that body scanners have, Chaffetz said. Lobbyists.

“That’s what the problem is,” Chaffetz said. “If you look at those lobbyists who pushed through those machines, they should be ashamed of themselves, because there is a better way to do this and it’s with the canines.”

Transportation Security Administration Assistant Administrator John Sammon promised to look into feasible (and potentially more intelligent) alternatives to the scanners we endure today.

Oakland Zoo’s new veterinary hospital: In the past, any time the well-regarded Oakland Zoo needed veterinary care for its animals, they had to be shipped more than an hour north, to the world-class hospital at the University of California, Davis. Now, according to SFGate, Oakland will have their own facility.

The Oakland Zoo broke ground Wednesday on a state-of-the-art veterinary hospital to treat its 600 animals and help train veterinary students. When completed next summer, it will be the largest zoo veterinary hospital in Northern California, second statewide only to the hospital at the San Diego Zoo.

“This is a tremendous step up for us,” said the zoo’s director, Dr. Joel Parrott. “It’s the beginning of a new era for the zoo.”

It won’t come cheap. The hospital will cost $10.8 million, but it will be able to handle everything from the zoo’s smallest amphibians to their largest mammals.

The latest from Joplin: Our own Phyllis DeGioia reports for VIN News on the ongoing progress being made in Joplin, Missouri’s recovery from May 22′s devastating tornado.

Veterinary clinics are not quite back to life-as-usual, but they’re well on their way.

Dr. Jim Christman’s Parkview Animal Hospital is operating out of a trailer in the clinic’s parking lot. Early reports that the clinic would close permanently were erroneous; the clinic will re-open in mid-August.

“The entire inside was destroyed and the back wall and runs were torn apart, but as far as the structural part, it was okay. We had to replace bricks on the front,” said Rachel Schwartz, a receptionist at Parkview. “All of our boarders were okay. We lost some clients; we had several that passed away.”

Dr. Ben Leavens of Main Street Pet Care also lost a few clients to the tornado, though he has no tally of how many among his 15,000 patients were affected.

Work on his 10,000-square-foot clinic and 5,000 square-feet parking structure isn’t quite done – the roof was lost and water damage was extensive, and the HVAC system destroyed – but the business has been open since July 5. “We’re extra busy now that we’re open,” Leavens said. “All areas are up and running.” That includes grooming, boarding and day-care services.

In a little less than two months, Joplin has made tremendous progress.

News from north of the border: I was in Toronto all last week, and I brought back two great stories. One, sent in by reader Anne Ahiers, tells us about a blog you should read, called I Want a Pound Dog. Additionally, I found a refreshing column by Amberly McAteer in Toronto’s Globe and Mail about the heartwarming surprise of finding the right shelter pet.

Tortoise news: Good news/bad news stories in the hard shell world, courtesy of SchnauzerFan. First the good news: a reunion in Iowa that will make you smile. Sadly, we must bid a sad farewell to Methuselah (pictured at right, circa 1954), who passed away at one hundred thirty years of age.

“I’ve known Methuselah since I was around 3 years old, so losing him is like losing an old, good friend,” said John Brockelsby, director of public relations at Reptile Gardens. “I had a lot of daily contact with him so having to say goodbye was very sad.”

By the way, the boy riding Methuselah in the picture is Mr. Brockelsby, when he was probably around three years old.

News of the weird: Once more, I must warn you the following story is not from The Onion. It was sent to me by Susan Fox, who tirelessly scours news tickers for the strangest, most head-shaking tidbits she can find, then generously forwards them to me so I can share them with you. This story is hard to stomach and even more difficult to believe (do check out the dog’s name), but I have to have faith that SFGate didn’t make it up. Nobody’s that demented.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credit: Bomb-sniffing dog, cnn.com. John Brockelsby and Methuselah, RapidCityJournal.com

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Some dogs just can’t resist the water. No one knows that better than Gina Spadafori, who shares her tips on keeping dogs safe while letting them swim in this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature.

My retrievers love to swim so much that one of them once attempted to squeeze herself through a cracked window to jump out of a moving car heading over the Mississippi River.

Heather was a smart dog, but the very sight of the Big River overwhelmed her common sense. She wanted to swim, and had it been possible, she would have.

Had she survived the fall, that is.

To be sure, most dogs aren’t so crazy about water to leap off a tall bridge, but all dogs can be at risk when water is involved. Many dogs enjoy swimming as much as people do, and cool times in the local swimming spot or backyard pool are one of the best parts of summer.

But play it safe. The keys to water safety for dogs are prevention, preparedness and awareness.

Check out Gina’s tips here.

And from Dr. Marty Becker and Mikkel Becker:

On an average weekday, Canadian pet owners spend nearly twice as much time surfing the Internet (48 minutes) and three times as much time watching television (79 minutes) as they do playing with/exercising their pets (25 minutes). The statistics come from Canada’s “Pet Wellness Report,” a research study of 1,000 Canadian dog or cat owners and 100 veterinarians conducted by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.

Read all that and more here!

Photo: Gina’s FayBee gets wet with friends.

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I’ve seen Shakespeare’s comedy “As You Like It” multiple times. I never remember seeing a performance that included actual dead rabbits onstage during the performance. Nevertheless, that’s precisely what the Royal Shakespeare Company was proposing to do as part of New York’s Lincoln Center Festival this summer. As you can imagine, the outcry was swift and furious. RabbitWise quickly mobilized the forces, and on Sunday,

Michael Boyd, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and director of As You Like It, released the following statement today:

The Royal Shakespeare Company has decided not to use rabbits for its performances of As You Like It in New York.

The production opened in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2009 in the rural heart of the U.K. The dead rabbits used for the performances in Britain—part of a scene illustrating the contrast between court and countryside, where life was harsher and people hunted and prepared their own food—were sourced locally from gamekeepers as part of a farming control program.

The RSC and the RSPCA (the U.K. equivalent of the ASPCA) were satisfied that the rabbits used for the performances in Britain were sourced responsibly and killed humanely.

The moral of the story is: making your voice heard can make all the difference. (Thanks to Mary Cvetan for the heads up).

Rabbit bust in Oakland: Staying on the bunny theme, but with not as happy an ending, a scene out of a bad episode of “Cops” played itself out last week in Oakland, Calif. last week, when nearly two dozen rabbits were seized from a home in Lake Merritt. According to SFGate, the seized animals were malnourished and deformed.

The bunny bust comes just as Oakland enters into the debate over urban agriculture regulations, deciding how to monitor livestock – its treatment and slaughter – in one of the country’s hotbeds of urban homesteading.

“This blurs the lines for animal cruelty. When is it OK to raise something for food, and when is it cruelty?” said Megan Webb, director of Oakland animal services. “This is an issue we’re all going to have to sort out.”

In the case of the 21 rabbits, a neighbor alerted the East Bay SPCA to the rabbits’ condition last week, and on Tuesday, staff from Oakland animal services and the SPCA raided the home.

The additional details are grim, so read at your own peril. Thanks to Susan Fox for the link.

Generics meet veterinarians: It was just a matter of time. Generic medications are finding their way into the veterinary market.

Border Collie beach cleanup: Four different readers wanted to see this story covered, and it’s easy to understand why. Anyone who’s spent time at coastal beaches is familiar with the screech and the mess of seagulls. I’m a sailor, so I have a particular antipathy toward the obnoxious winged rats. The new solution? Border Collies! Back to SFGate:

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report today that suggests that using border collies to harass gulls has helped improve water quality at Illinois area beaches.

Trained to distinguish gulls from other varieties of birds, the collies patrol beaches from dawn to dusk to chase away gulls, whose droppings have been shown to contribute to E. Coli contamination.

Check out the accompanying video. I loves me some Border Collies.

Austin’s a doggy kinda town: Austin, Tex. is already a great city to visit and to live in. It already stands as a shining light of No Kill success. According to the Austin American-Statesman, it just got better if you’re a dog.

Differences between dog and cat people: Business Insider cites a survey from hunch.com that tries to detail the societal differences between dog and cat people. Check it out and see if you fit any of the survey results. I don’t, but perhaps you will.

Note: I’ll be away next week, but Christie Keith will be filling in as your news anchor. See you in two weeks.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Image credits: Shakespeare, loc.gov. Ranger, bcxfour.

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