Why Your Cat Is Even More Interesting Than You Knew

Since cats are so adorable, they can brighten up your day with their funny antics. At times, they do some strange things that only a cat can imagine, and you will never figure out what they are thinking of. If you happen to own a pet cat, you will surely know what I am talking about. However, if you do not have a cat, but are planning to get one, you should realize that it could be a wonderful experience that will always make you smile.

A number of facts that will let you discover new things about cats as well as leave you laughing are as follows:

    There is a tendency for cats to only meow at people, and very seldom at other felines.
    Cats are capable of making 100 vocal sounds, whereas dogs are only able to make 10.
    If you talk to your cat more often, it will do the same.
    Kittens start to dream when they are more than a week old.
    Domestic cats sleep for a maximum of 14 hours, allowing them to store energy.
    Thirty percent (30%) of the time cats are awake are spent in grooming themselves.
    If you notice that your cat's tail is quivering while beside you, it is just a way of expressing her love and affection.
    The eyes of cats are tightly shut whenever they are happy.
    Do you ever wonder why mouse-flavored cat food is not available? The reason is cats that tried such food did not like the taste.
    Cats are known to clean themselves right after eating. By instinct, they have to get rid of the scent of food in order for predators to avoid smelling and running after them.
    Cats have very clear vision at night since their eyes reflect light.
    You should be proud when your cat licks you a lot because this shows that she feels protected when you are around and considers you as a family member.
    Man should first be ignored by a cat to fully understand how it feels to be rejected.
    You can train cats to use the toilet like their litter box, and even flush it once they are finished.
    If your cat gifts you with dead prey, do not feel disgusted. Instead, thank her since she considers this as her present to you.
    Most cats approach their owners who talk on the phone, and meow as if they want to join the conversation.
    Indoor cats have a longer life than outdoor cats.
    A cat will not use a dirty litter box, and would rather wait until it is cleaned.
    A cat cannot be forced to do something it does not like to.
    Cats never stay beside the right side of a closed-door.
    There are around 30 muscles in every ear of a cat. Each ear can rotate 180 degrees, and requires 12 muscles to be able to move.
    To display their affection, cats usually wrap the curly tip of their tail around their owner's arm.
    When a cat is frightened or angry, it will spread out her tail like a bush to appear larger and threatening.
    A curious cat will always find a closed-door challenging. That is the reason why your cat likes to accompany you inside your bathroom.

Training Your Parrot

Parrots are great pets for the family. you will notice very quickly that these breads of birds are very intelligent and quick learners which makes the training very easy and exciting for the trainer.

You must never forget that birds with great intelligence can easily get bored with their training, this means as the training instructor you must spend the time needed to make your parrot feel content with being in your presence.

This will include both time and patience to correctly train your bird. by taking your time and being patient you will create a bond with your parrot that will last a lifetime.

By following a few very easy steps you can easily start the training for your bird. First thing is when you start your training session always take the bird out of the cage and find a small quiet area away from the cage. This will make it much easier for your parrot to stay focused and devoted to the task at hand.

The next step is to eliminate all distractions in the training area. Distractions in the training area will cause your parrot to get sidetracked and will result in a poor learning session. make sure you turn off the stereo,cell phone and TV.

Remember this, Parrots are like raising your young children. Training sessions should be small periods of time, Parrots have very small attention spans so take your time and always be patient.

Another thing to remember choose your session time around the bird's daily schedule. One of the best times to start a training session Is right after a meal, Your bird will be content and pay attention to what you are teaching. Always compliment your parrot, The more the better. Parrots really appreciate being complimented.

OK now this is very important, In the beginning of your training if it does not seem to be working at a level you wish it was. Never let your parrot see your stress level If you get mad and show your stress level to your bird, This will cause a undesirable encounter for the parrot which will in return cause a focus and learning problem in future training sessions.

Now its time to teach your bird a new trick. If you use a treat to compliment the trick your bird will remember this and start to work for the treat. Another thing you should always remember is: Not just birds but all animals respond to training session better to compliment compared to punishment or yelling at them. Always avoid yelling or punishing your bird even when they are performing a trick wrong.

Ignoring bad conduct is always the best thing to do when in a training session with your bird. Parrots do not understand a unfavorable offer or punishment. So this being said understand that if you decide to respond to your parrots bad behavior this may in fact be taken into view from the bird as constructive attention. This in return will cause undesirable conclusions to the training sessions.

Also remember your parrot will always love food and treats for compliments, but always try to praise worthy conduct and promote play around time. otherwise, you will have a problem getting your bird to perform or participate in training tricks when a snack or treat is not offered.

Repeating the tricks over and over again is very important to being successful in the training of your pet. The more you repeat the better your parrot will get. Just keep repeating these training steps over and over, And in time your parrot will learn the tricks and it will get easier for your bird to complete the trick. This general instructions concept will work for easy tricks as well as advanced talents.

For instance start out with a easy trick like having your parrot sit on your finger on demand. Use only 1 Keyword for each trick, And use the keyword every time you practice the trick. Remember never force or push your bird to train. If your bird seems to be tired or uninterested in training, Immediately stop the session and start the training session at a later time.

As time goes on and your parrot starts to learn tricks and commands you can start moving the training area closer to the bird's cage. As the confidence builds in your parrots unique skill they will begin to perform more and more in the household as well as there own bird cage.

Parrots learn amazingly fast in almost all cases. Not only by repeating training sessions but by just listening to sounds around them. So be careful what you repeat around them because chances are you will hear your own words sometime in the near future.

Just remember a few important things training a parrot requires a lot of patience and time. To make the partnership worthwhile you have to exchange love and take the time to understand your bird. With love training and proper care you can and will end up with a well trained bird and friendship that will last a lifetime.

How to Create a Homemade Bird House

A bird house can be a real treat for your children if you are planning to build one this summer. These shelters for birds add an elegant touch to your backyard. Moreover it can be painted or decorated with glass mosaic windows which will make the little house look even more beautiful. Other embellishments such as flowers can also be used to give it a whimsical effect. Mostly, wooden houses are made to rest on a post. In order to flaunt your creativity, you can also choose to decorate and paint the post on which the house stands.

Bring your kids along and make a homemade wooden house that your children will love. Here's a 4-step guide to creating a wonderful addition to your house.

Step 1

First and foremost, you should find a good stencil of either flowers, butterflies or other crafts that you think would go best with the exterior of the wooden bird house. Also, pick some exterior paints and a strong exterior sealer to give your bird house the protection it needs.

Step 2

Once you have decided on the stencils, secure them on the exterior of the wooden house using painter's tape. Next, apply paint on your stencil brush and dab lightly in its open areas. However, if you are using stamps for decoration, apply the paint directly onto the stamp and press it firmly on the exterior of your bird house. The outlines can then be done using a template and filled in with craft paints.

Step 3

After the exterior is complete, the next step involves making the roof for the wooden house. The roof can either be made into a shingle or metal roof. There are two ways of doing this. The first and also the easiest way to it is using a sheet of copper; however, if you want to make it look more neat, you can use craft sticks which need to be neatly cut and lined to form the bird house roof.

Step 4

Then come the windows for your birds' shelter. To make it look grand, make use of mosaic windows. In order to give it more detail, stick to it tiny pieces of broken ceramic or porcelain tiles. If you are up for a more creative touch, make a themed house. For instance, use sea shells to make a beach themed wooden bird house.

4 simple steps and your homemade bird house is ready to attract purple martins finding a comfortable shelter. If you find the process time consuming or difficult, you can choose to buy a ready-made purple martin house which would be a great option. There are many online stores that offer a wide variety of Martin houses to choose from.

Catching Birds

Every morning we prop the door open with a chair to let the cat go in and out for a couple of hours. We call this her exercise time and she is usually in and asleep under the bed before I remember to close the door. A couple of days ago, a very small bird got trapped in our lanai when the door was still open. The bird was very frightened and kept hitting the screen in its attempts to get out. Carefully I herded it towards the door until it found the open space and quickly disappeared from sight. I heaved a sigh of relief.

Although this was a very small bird (a sparrow? I'm not good at bird recognition), the Florida birds I'm most familiar with are the larger shore birds. We live next door to a wildlife preserve, 487 acres of inland waterways, walking and biking trails, native plants, small animals and birds which often make their way next door to our area.

Every day, we can feast our eyes on blue herons, roseate spoonbills, white egrets, wood storks, ibises, ospreys, hawks, cormorants, pelicans and (sometimes) eagles resting on our lawns or fishing in our man-made lakes that are stocked with fish. When I walk in the late afternoon, I often take binoculars along to get a better view of the birds that are just out of eye sight. I never tire of watching them.

Birds have been in our life and even in our house since our middle daughter was in grade school and we were living in California. She fell in love with the smaller tropical birds that you see in pet shops. The first bird was a cockatiel that was hand raised and very tame. He loved to sit on heads and shoulders and once he chose to do this to a TV repairman just as he bent over the back of our TV set. I heard his scream from the other end of the house. I don't know who was more frightened, the bird or the repairman.

Our daughter had two parakeets in a cage in her room. One, Marco, was very tame and could be let out for short periods. One day she called and asked me to bring the two birds to school for show and tell. Obediently I picked up the cage with the two birds and headed for the car. But when I placed them on the driveway to retrieve the car keys from my pocket, the cage door swung open and Marco flew the coop. Horrified, I watched him until he settled in a large tree by the corner of the house. I waited a few minutes, then decided I'd better take the remaining bird to school where our daughter was waiting,

At school, I handed her the cage, mumbling something about Marco's absence. But after the show and tell was over, I knew I had to tell her the truth. She burst into tears and asked to go home to look for him.

When we returned to the house, I was surprised to find that Marco had remained in the tree but on a much higher branch. I pointed him out to our daughter and when I saw her sad face, I knew what I had to do. I retrieved the extra birdcage from the house and loaded it with bird seed. Then, cage in hand, I started to climb the tree. I'm no athlete and climbing trees was never something I did well (even in my prime) but I was determined. With help from a step ladder, I reached a V in the tree and when I looked up, I saw Marco watching my every move. Carefully I maneuvered to the next protruding branch and, when I looked down, I knew this was my limit.

I balanced the cage on a branch above me, door open and hoped the seed looked good to a hungry bird. Marco cocked his head, looked at the bird seed and looked at me. He hopped down to a closer branch. Fifteen minutes later, he came a bit closer. My legs were cramped, my back hurt and the ground was much too far away but my daughter's tearful face at the bottom of the tree kept me going. Marco moved again, his eyes on the cage. Then - bang- he was in and I secured the cage door. My grateful daughter took the cage from me and I carefully made my way down the tree, very happy to feel the ground beneath my feet.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the last bird escapade. About a year later, my daughter decided to raise finches to sell to pet stores. We constructed an aviary in the back yard and soon it was occupied by dozens of finches. But our building skills left something to be desired and a few weeks later, we discovered at least half the finches had escaped through an opening in the screen that had come loose over the door. The escapees were flying overhead and perching on top of the aviary. I remembered the method I had used to trap Marco and thought maybe it would work again.

I grabbed the old birdcage, filled it with seed and then surveyed the yard. There was no tree to climb but there was a small one to hide behind. I tied a fishing line to the cage door and left the cage in front of the tree. Then I released enough line to get me behind the tree. I kneeled down and pulled the line taught so the cage door was wide open.

It didn't take long before the first finch hopped over to the door, enticed (I hoped) by the bird seed within. As soon as he hopped in, I let the fishing line go and the door swung shut. After I returned the finch to the aviary I repeated the exercise again and again, until we had most of the birds back in the aviary which, by now, had been patched up.

However, the birds were only part of the menagerie. We also had two dogs, a cat, a rabbit, two chickens and one duck. A friend of ours would bring his son to our house to visit because the child thought our yard was the zoo! And he might have been right.

When we moved from California to Syracuse, New York, the aviary had to go but the pet birds - one parakeet, one cockatiel and an African grey parrot - came with us, in addition to two dogs. We traveled by air to our new home and created quite a stir at baggage claim when the three crates holding the larger creatures rolled down the belt. I hand-carried the parakeet and cockatiel in a small cage. They, too, startled other passengers with their small vocabularies: hello, how are you, good-bye and cockadoodle-doo.

A year later, when my daughter left for college, we found a wonderful new home for the cockatiel and parakeet with a woman who had an equally tame female cockatiel. The last I heard both cockatiels spent most days riding on her shoulders and the parakeet followed close behind. The African grey parrot got sick and, when I learned that the veterinarian treating him had a room at home just for her parrots, I offered her ours in return for the bill. It was a win-win but most of all, I knew the parrot had a good home.

I'm very happy now to enjoy the birds in the wild and at a distance and to pet other people's dogs when I pass them on the street. My husband and I presently have close contact with only one cat - she is more than enough to take care of (and sometimes, too much!). But the zoo years - along with our children's childhoods - were precious and the memories will be there forever.

Food for Aquarium Fish

Fish like all animals require food. The food they eat should contain all the ingredients necessary for healthy growth and wellbeing. Too often, owners give only one type of food to fish.

This results in deficiencies which result in stunted growth and other abnormalities.

Healthy fish should be vigorous in motion, bright-colored with proper proportions. Examine your fish regularly for any signs of poor nutrition.

To provide proper nutrition, it is first necessary to understand the dietary habits of fish. Some fish are carnivores (meat-eating). Some are herbivores (plant-eating). While most fish are omnivores (eating both plant and animal food).

Carnivorous fish need a protein based diet. These include dried worms, shrimp, etc. Herbivorous fish require plant-based food. Examples are Spirulina, peas, etc.

Hence, try to find out the natural food for the fish you keep. There are different types of fishfeed available in the market. If you have a community aquarium, it is best to add a mixture of animal based and plant-based food.

Adding natural plants to the aquarium gives a source of food to herbivorous fish.

Another reason for poor nutrition among fish is the wrong of choice of type of fishfeed. Fish feed can be broadly categorized into floating food and sinking food.

Choose the type of food depending on the fish you have. Surface floating food will not be accessible to fish living the middle regions or in the bottom. These fish will become malnourished. Sinking food which slowly sinks to the bottom gives a chance to these fish to have food.

Hence, provide a combination of floating and sinking food to your fish. Ensure that the food are in proper size. Small fish with their small mouths cannot handle big chunks of food. These fish will go hungry.

When food is added to fish. The food may float in the surface of the water. This makes the food available to surface fish which stay in the surface. However, there are many species of fish which do not come to the surface.

These fish will not get food. Hence, when feeding it is necessary to choose your food depending on the fish you have. Sinking Food is a special type of food which sinks once it is dropped into the tank. This ensures that middle level fish also get a chance to eat.

There are different types of sinking food depending on the rate of sinking.

If you have nocturnal fish, drop some food before switching the lights off. This will ensure that the fish which forage at night will be able to eat.

Flaked Food is fish food which has been made into flakes. The food is mixed and then extruded or heated which produces the layers known as flakes. Flakes are very popular among hobbyists. Virtually all types of fish food can be made into flakes. flaked food

The flakes are small in size and usually float in the water. This gives time for the fish to eat them. The Flake are usually fortified with minerals.

The size of the flake should be suitable for the fish. Small fish may not be able to eat large flakes.

Flakes usually come in sealed containers. They usually have a best-before date.

Store Flakes in a cool dry place. Moisture and light should not be allowed to reach the flake foods.

How To Keep Your Cat Warm In Winter?

Cats enjoy being warm and cozy all the time. This is the reason why they sit in bowls, boxes and other sunny places in the house. You will usually find them taking a nap at the warmest spot of the room. Winter hurts them the most as they have a very thin coat (skin) that just doesn't provide enough insulation. Your beloved baby needs some extra care during this season and this applies to all the pets.

There are various ways through which you can ensure that your kitty spends her fall comfortably. You just need to put in a bit of effort for the same. Here are some of the tips through which you can take care of your kitty.

1. Keep them indoor
Try to keep your pet inside the house as much as possible. Felines have a habit of following the sun rays where they will find a warm place on their own. However, if you get time, you can take your kitty to the park or in the lawn when it's bright and sunny outside. She can have a cozy power nap there.

2. Warm cat bed
Keep the bed of the feline warm by using layers of bed. Bedding is important for keeping a pet warm during winter. It will be better if you make the bed in the shape of a tent and cover it with the blanket. This way the kitty will simply curl inside it and you will not have to cover her up all the time. Cushions, old clothes and winter wear can make the perfect bedding for your feline.

3. Keep a balance of heat
Don't keep them in front of the heater and blower for a long time. As, when they go out of the room, their body will find it difficult to adjust to the sudden change in temperature. Keep the temperature of the room balanced. Only turn on the heater for some time and then let the body of the kitty adjust the change slowly. Moreover, make sure that even the temperature of the bed heats up to only the temperature of the cat's body.

4. Keep the body covered
Try to keep her body covered as much as possible. You can even get cat apparel for her. There are a lot of dresses available for kitties in the market. Few of them even features hoods, that can keep the ears away from the winter chill. The feline will love the bright and attractive color of these apparel. Make sure that the fit is not restricting the movement of the feline. Check the fabric before buying them. The material should be soft and should be lightweight. Don't make them spend the entire day in clothes, this will irritate them. Put them on when it's extremely cold or when the feline is going out.

5. Exercise and balance diet
Make sure that the kitty is not being lazy as this will restrict the temperature regulation. Take out some time and play with her. The play session should involve some physical exercise. It is important for them to retain their energy by sleeping, but it is equally important to exercise, in order to maintain the blood circulation.

Indoor animals have different dietary needs. Take care of what they eat and how much they eat. Especially for senior cats, it is important that they are taken care of, during this season. Felines are like children, you need to be careful while raising them up. Just stick to the basic! Keep these points in mind and you can prove to be the best fur parent.