PET FOOD NEWS
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If you have a new cat or kittens, you may have some questions about how to care for them. Feel free to send in your questions through the email address below and I'll be sure to include an answer here (if I can). If you're having an emergency, please contact someone near you, such as your vet, in case you need to take the animal in to the office. I am not a vet.
This month's tip:
How do you train a kitten to use the litter box if they aren't with their mother anymore?
The first point is important, and that is, it's not a good idea to remove kittens from their mothers too early, as she does teach her little ones some important life skills.
However, sometimes orphans come into our lives and we have to do the training. This is where Nature comes in, too. You see, kittens are born with the instinct to scratch around in the sand, which they find to be great fun at first. But that's how they learn.... playing builds skills, too.
Really, all you have to do is show them the sand. Set them down in the box and let them do what comes naturally.
As they grow older, social factors come into play and you will have to work those out somehow, because that is something their mother would show them and you probably don't know about it.
Cats like their privacy, and they can become territorial. This means they need their own litter box. But the boxes should not be side-by-side. They will not see the boxes as separate entities if they are too close. If you don't have room to move them far enough apart, at least build a "wall" between them, perhaps in the form of a cardboard box.
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How Safe Are Flea Control Products?
Flea control products can be very toxic and can even harm or kill your pets. Pharmaceutical companies are more interested in their profit margins than in the health of your cat or dog, and they can get away with it because the legal fallout is much less complicated than when humans are injured.
Currently, a new cry of outrage is building over a product called Cheristin For Cats. Originally released as Comfortis and Assurity a few years ago, it was pulled from the market, then repackaged and released under the new name.
This product has the potential to become the centerpiece of a much larger problem due to the far-reaching effects of its effective ingredient, spinosad, which also is used as a pesticide on food crops. Spinosad has the ability to cross the blood brain barrier and results in a horrific death due to neurotoxic paralysis....but only when a certain genetic mutation is present in the victim's DNA. That is the caveat emptor, making it pretty important to be tested for the mutation...IF you can find a lab that does the test! This problem is too new to have all the possiblities covered yet.
A pet owner's best option is to prevent the problem by not using this product. For dogs, the product is called Trifexis. Maybe you've heard of it.
For more information on its use in cats, see my blog, here:
Holidays and Observances This Month, or, How About Some Cat Trivia Instead?
I couldn't find much for August, so this month I'm going to share some Cat Trivia with you.
Cats who spend a lot of time in front of the television will shed more fur... from the added exposure to light.
Most orange cats are Male. The orange color gene is on the "x" chromosome.
Both cats and humans have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion. (That's why we love em!)
"Beware of people who dislike cats" is an Irish proverb.
"Malia" is a common name for a female cat in Hawaii (meaning "Mary" or "pretty girl").
Cats are not loners, they don't always land on their feet, and they don't have 9 lives.
The Chinese zodiac has 12 animals representing the 12 signs but the cat isn't one of them.
It is an Italian superstition that if a cat sneezes it's a good omen for everyone who hears it.
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Traveling This Summer?
Guide to Pet-Friendly Parks
Always remember to check with your local shelter
to see what they need. Your donation will go directly
to the animals, in sharp contrast to some of the large
national groups, whose donation income goes toward
large administrative salaries and other expenses, not
necessarily for animals.
Note:
This issue is shorter than usual. I just got hit with a virus and had to shut down right away. All my story notes are on the other computer. Please learn from my experience and be sure to keep your antivirus programs up to date, back up your data, and keep your computer updated, too.
To see previous newsletters:
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