What Does Your Pet Say About You? Infographic by PetPremium.com
So, what does your pet say about you?
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Endangered Malayan Tiger Cubs Born at Busch Gardens Tampa
Three endangered Malayan tiger cubs were born at Busch Gardens Tampa Sunday, March 31. The litter consists of two males and one female. Each cub weighs between six and seven pounds, and is currently being monitored around the clock by the park’s animal care team.
These births are critical to help preserve the species. Malayan tigers are critically endangered. Scientists estimate that only 500 remain in the wild. These newborn cubs will add to the genetic diversity of the Malayan tiger population and contribute to conservation efforts for the species.
The births are part of park’s partnership in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plan® (SSP). The mission of the SSP is to cooperatively manage specific, and typically threatened or endangered, species populations within AZA-accredited facilities. There are currently just over 50 Malayan tigers in the Species Survival Plan.
Malayan tiger cub births in managed care are rare – just one successful birth in 2012 as part of the SSP. These are the first Malayan tigers born at Busch Gardens Tampa and the first offspring for both the mother Bzui and father Mata.
The tiger cubs, along with Bzui and Mata, are currently behind the scenes and are being monitored around the clock by the park’s animal care team.
In approximately one month, the Busch Gardens animal care team will start introducing the cubs to the Jungala habitat. The cubs will rotate separate sessions on the habitat with the Bengal tiger groups that currently reside there. Until then the cubs will remain behind the scenes with their mother and keepers. Anyone interested in the cubs can follow their progress on BuschGardensTampaBlog.com.
One of the male cubs is suffering from anemia and has developed a rare but benign skin condition that also occurs in both wild and domestic felines. The condition is being monitored by Busch Gardens’ veterinarians. The cub is currently in serious condition and is undergoing treatments.
Found only in the southern tip of Thailand and the Malay Peninsula, it’s estimated that only 500 Malayan tigers remain in the wild. Habitat fragmentation caused by logging and the development of roads and commercial poaching are the two leading causes. The species also often comes into conflict with people over livestock predation.
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Back to School with PetMD University
When I heard about PetMD University, I was excited to get back to school! Of course, it didn’t hurt that all the topics were about dogs and cats, and how we can help them live healthy, happy lives.
It’s easy to get started, just create your free account, choose dog or cat, and then enroll in the courses you most want to know about. For my first course I enrolled in Exercising with your Dog. As you can see, I completed the course and became “certified” in that area! I even got an “A” grade!
The course will take you through a series of articles, slide shows, and quizzes geared to teach you more about the topic. For example, in my course I learned how to start exercising with our dog, the benefits to both dog and human, and signs to watch out for concerning over exertion.
PetMD University offers a wide range of courses too, for example in the dog section you can learn about puppy basics, being social with your dog, heart worms, skin care, emergency preparedness and more! I just signed up for the course called Dogs: Being Social and Being Alone. This is what it looks like when you just sign up for a course. As you can see, my course syllabus is laid out in an easy to follow format, and as I go through the course each section I finish will get checked off.
The nice part about doing these classes online is that you can get started anytime you want to, and you can come back to them anytime you want to as well. You can reread articles, and retake quizzes as often as you would like (and you can retake quizzes if you don’t get the grade you hoped for too).
I enjoyed the articles and felt like I learned new things in the courses, and it was fun to earn my badges too. The articles are well written and easy to follow along with, making the learning easy and fun.
In addition to the courses, the site offers a lot of other great information about pet care as well. There is a health library, symptom checker, blogs, news, and even an “ask a vet” area. I can’t wait to spend even more time on the site exploring all there is to learn.
Ready for some homework?
- Take a course on PetMDU.com! I’d love to know what course you took and what grade you earned.
- Join me and other pet lovers on Twitter May 14, 2013 at 8:00 PM EST for a special #BlogPawsChat with staff members of PetMD University!
- Be sure to use both of these hashtags in your tweets to join the chat: #petMD #BlogPawsChat
RSVP with your Twitter handle on the linky list below. I hope to see you there!
Posted in cats, dogs, pet care, websites
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Keeping Ducks and Geese as Pets
Ducks and geese may not be a particularly unusual sight in the wild, but have you ever thought about keeping them as pets? They can make excellent, if slightly quirky, pets.
Ducks and geese make excellent pets because it is interesting to watch them as they go about their activities and engage with their environment. As well as ducks and geese bringing their character and personalities to your life, females also lay eggs that you can cook with. Goose eggs are around two to three times bigger than chicken eggs and duck eggs are just slightly larger than chicken eggs. Although the reputation of duck eggs was damaged slightly a few years ago because they were linked to an outbreak of salmonella, they are said to be particularly good for baking. The slightly larger size and higher yoke to white ratio are thought to make baked goods richer and more moist compared to when using chicken eggs.
Before you get too keen on the idea, it is important to remember ducks and geese need adequate outside space, shelter and access to enough water to allow them to perform their natural water-related behaviours including preening. Many of the requirements of ducks and geese are similar to each other and to chickens, but there are some differences. Geese need access to more grass as they tend to spend a significant amount more of their time grazing than ducks do.
Unlike older birds, ducklings (young ducks) and goslings (young geese) do not have waterproofing on their feathers. If you acquire ducklings or goslings, then for the first weeks of their life they should be given access to shallow water instead of deep water. Deep enough water should be provided for adult ducks and geese, so they can swim, preen and feed in it. Adequate shelter from wind, rain and heat should also be provided for all ducks and geese.
Ducks and geese eat a variety of foods including algae, berries, grass, insects and small fish. They obtain most of this themselves by foraging in the water and grazing on grassy land. More specifically, ducks tend to feed more from the water and geese from grassy land. Whilst feeding them a small amount of bread shouldn’t harm them, this should not make up a large proportion of their diet as it does not include the nutrients they require.
So if you fancy having pets that produce free eggs, consider keeping ducks or geese. Don’t forget that there are a number of different breeds, so it’s worth doing some research on the breeds that are best suited to your requirements.
Written by Sally White on behalf of Vet Supply Shop.
Posted in guest post, wildlife
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