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It depends on what you want out of a dog. Do you want something playful and active, large or small? Calm and independent or highly intelligent and in need of a lot of training? Your best bet is to figure out what it is you want exactly first, then you can start to consider breeds that would match your criteria.
I miss my house bunnies. I lost them a long time ago, but we had them all spayed and neutered and lived in a 9 foot by 4 foot indoor pen together. There was no top, but the pen walls were about 4.5 feet tall and they never tried to get out. I had everything from a 6 month old to a 9 year old living in there and they loved it. My largest bunny was a massive lop mix, almost 13 pounds with the smallest being a 4 pound Netherland Dwarf. All were rescues from a shelter and 2 were abandoned at the front door of a pet store. They could binky freely all day or just be lazy and munch on hay. They were some of the most fun pets I’ve ever had, not to mention the way they begged for attention by standing up on their back legs waiting for me to pet them when I would walk by lol.
Before I had that pen, I had one much larger in a basement with the same bunnies when we lived in a previous location. It was a pen made up about the size of a medium sized bedroom. They even had their own furniture (plastic toddler chairs and table) that they would run under and jump on top of. Bunnies love as much space and good footing as you can give them since they are so active. They could be loud sometimes with their big ball toys with the bell inside. :p
I considered both of those breeds as well. Now I’m thinking of caving and just going with an arab or arab cross (there is one with mustang in his pedigree on equinenow)
Oh yes, they LOVE to steal things! LOL. We found a stash of socks under out couch once thanks to our little weasel. And she’s only allowed out with supervision! She still got those socks past us!
Your motley sounds like my little African House Snake. If I even walk past her enclosure she’s striking at the side trying to eat me (she’s only 3 foot long as an adult lol) She would eat every day if I let her.
My husband’s carpet pythons are the same as well, but much larger. I don’t mess with them so much, because they’re not afraid to lay their teeth into human skin if they mistake us for a rat.
If the humidity in his enclosure is good, then he won’t have trouble shedding. Stuck shed can become dangerous and lead to health issues, so check your humidity first. Using glass tanks is one reason for this to happen, as these don’t allow much humidity at all. They need it roughly about 60 to 70%, unlike humans that keep it around 30%.
Products on the market don’t really do much in the way of aiding a good shed. You can try soaking them in lukewarm water for a few moments and gently rubbing the stuck shed with your finger tips, but don’t attempt to pull it off. When it’s dry, it can pull of scales as well and cause a wound.
It’s pretty normal for this species to go off feed for a while. That’s one reason a lot of seasoned owners say that BPs aren’t the best first snakes to own (corns being a better choice.) A BP will stop eating if he becomes stressed, his husbandry isn’t right (too hot, too cold, too much space, not enough space,) if he is dehydrated (can tell by saggy skin,) has had poor sheds or if it is simply that time of the year. When it gets colder out, they tend to stop eating and will brumate.
I do this with our snakes, especially my rescued male 2008 ball python. He was rescued by an old friend of mine as a captive hatched neonate who had never had a meal in his life. He was sitting in a pet store with a 90 dollar price tag on him, looking like he was about to die of dehydration and starvation. You could see his ribs, spine, and his skin was dried and sagging. She had to force feed him with a pinky pump for about 5 months until he finally ate on his own. I adopted him right after he started eating on his own. He is so touchy that if I change anything in his enclosure he’ll go off feed for a few weeks. But in winter he’ll stop all together from October to March. When he starts refusing food, I take him off heat completely so that his metabolism won’t make him use up energy. If he does, he could lose weight and that becomes dangerous. I try not to check on him as often, but I can’t help it. Every day I”m looking for signs of weight loss and dehydration, but he’s still good! lol
Thanks! Most of these animals came from rescues that we got involved with. Now I”m volunteering with a dog rescue, and my husband has to keep reminding me that I can’t foster or adopt anymore rescues for now LOL
Toy Australian Shepherd (1 year old,) Jack Russel mix (3 years old,) Husky/lab mix (8 years old.)
I don’t know if I would say more difficult, but their care is definitely different. My ferret I adopted from a rescue as a 1 year old is now 7, elderly for ferrets. She was found as a stray in a big city, animal control picked her up and sent her to Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary, where I then brought her home.
They are more in depth than simply allowing a cat to roam your home. They need at leas 4 hours of play time outside of their cage a day. The rest of their day is spent sleeping. What I like to do is give a ferret-proofed room to my ferret that she is allowed to run about in for about 4 hours, then she’s back in her cage. Her waste smells far worse than my dogs’ or cat’s. It must be cleaned daily to prevent bacterial overgrowth which could make her sick. She needs her nails clipped every week instead of every 2 weeks like my cat, as they grow quickly and can inhibit her walking. She eats a high quality cat food (most ferret foods on the market today are crap.) For litter, I use wood pellets, the same kind that you would use in a wood burning stove. It’s only 4 bucks for a 40lb bag and easy to clean up. She requires weekly changing of her hammocks and blankets because, well, who wants to sleep on dirty linens!?
Aside from that, it is law in the US that a ferret must receive rabies vaccination. If you take your pet anywhere outside of your home, you should also get a distemper vaccine. The biggest issue here is that there is a high risk of vaccination reactions in ferrets that can be deadly. Make sure you have a great exotics vet that knows all about ferrets before you let them stick a needle in her.
For the most part, toys are easy to do. They love piles of laundry to play in, PVC tunnels (i.e. plumbing pipes) from the hardware store, and hammocks. Even more so, get a squeaky toy to be used only when you are playing with her (don’t leave a plushy with her alone, as they may eat the stuffing and need emergency surgery.)
Other than all this, ferrets I think are pretty easy to care for. 🙂
Exactly. I think they should be allowed to compete in sports, and it should be more widely accepted. Mix breeds, depending on each individual, can be amazing working or sporting dogs, and competing is a great way for a handler to challenge themselves and their training skills. It goes beyond just having a companion, but helps the two bond closer and work as a team to accomplish one goal – a dog’s pedigree should not interfere with that.
I know there are some clubs that are open to rescues, but not that many. I will be competing with my Toy aussie in TDAA soon enough, and I believe they allow ANY dog, purebred, mixed breed, altered or not to compete as long as they are under 20″ (this is for toy sized dogs, after all.)
Blankets are probably the worst thing to give an outdoor dog in cold weather. They absorb moisture and then freeze, making them totally useless for a dog. Hay or straw actually contains a lot of heat, and if she were to toss some piles in an elevated dog house that is properly insulated, most northern breed dogs would be perfectly fine as far as staying warm (these breeds being Siberian Husky, Newfoundland, Akita, Alaskan Malamute, Samoyed, and basically anything with a double coat.) That said, the vast majority of dogs are far far happier when they are with their humans. Being pack animals, they can easily become distressed, fearful, anxious, and develop and assortment of behavioral problems when kept outdoors in kennels 24/7.
The few exceptions would be livestock guardian dogs, like the Anatolian Shepherd or Great Pyrenees in which they are working and prefer to be out with the goats or sheep, guarding against predators.
A lot of people advise against raising 2 puppies together, primarily because the common owner would fail at training 2 dogs adaquately at the same time. The best hing you can do is make sure they can be trained, exercised, and played with separately with ease. Puppies can bond very closely together and may completely disregard you if you’re not proactive in training them when apart. Spend as much 1 on 1 time with them away from one another to really make it work.
It can be successful, it just all depends on how much time and effort you put into it. I would also advise keeping them in separate crates or pens instead of together when they are confined, such as night time or when you are at work. This will teach them to become comfortable away from each other instead of depending on one another. The reason for this is that when two dogs, especially puppies, bond so tightly that they depend on one another it can cause problems in their adulthoods, such as dog aggression or reactivity and behavioral problems that can happen due to a lack of their trusting you as leader (this can be anything from leash pulling to excessive barking, or even lunging at strangers on a walk.)
This is a really good article that may help http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/13_1/features/Problems-Adopting-Two-Puppies-At-Once_16190-1.html
Dogs are never too old to learn. They actually love to learn new things throughout their lifetime. The oldest dog I rescued I took in at 10 years old and he learned a few commands after arriving with me (he has since passed away at 12 years old.) My border collie/husky rescue came to me at 3 years old without knowing a single command. By the time she was 6 she knew almost 200!
Adult dogs can often times be easier to train as they have a longer attention span and are more forgiving of owner mistakes, such as missing the mark for a behavior before rewarding.