PetLvr.com - [The Blog]

As you may know, I feed my dog a raw diet, and advocate whole prey model raw feeding for anyone who’s willing and able to make the switch to this more complex and natural method of feeding pets. However, most people can’t or don’t want to feed raw. If you’re feeding a dry or canned food, take a moment to make sure that none of these undesirable ingredients are included.
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Sometimes dogs refuse food. Failing to eat can be indicative of as little as a mild upset tummy, or of conditions as serious as bloat or organ failure. So, how do you tell the difference? When in doubt, always consult a vet. However, you may be able to determine the cause of your dog’s loss of appetite on your own, by observing the dog and the surrounding environment carefully.

Is it a small dog, and/or is the food different?

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No matter how much you love your pet, chances are, you hate shedding. Unless you own a non-shedding breed like a Standard Poodle, there’s also a good chance shedding is a fact of life. However, sometimes a pet develops a shedding problem that defies logic and the vacuum cleaner. If your pet is dropping hair like it’s going out of style, you may need to take some extra steps to keep a little more hair on the dog or the groomer’s floor, rather than on your dry-clean only pants.

1. Rule out a Health Problem

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Almost as addicting as sugar, the adorable squirrel-like sugar gliders are hard to resist. Times Online says that sugar gliders are the latest animal craze in Britain, and why wouldn’t you want a small, flying marsupial from Australia in your home? But before you soar, you should have a crash course in pet ownership because this is one unusual pet to own.

These darling exotic animals have the energy level of a chinchilla, so prepare yourself especially if you have had mellow animals in the past. So that they expend their energy, it’s best to have a 24 x 24 cage with accessories like toys, a nest box or hammock, branches, ropes, ladders, exercise wheel, etc. These animals also have sharp nails and teeth, which they use in their natural habitat to hide and fend off larger predators. However, their nails can be trimmed and as long as they don’t feel threatened they will most likely not scratch or bite.

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Because my other job is with a social networking site, the term “Power User” has crept into my vocabulary. A Power User is an individual who doesn’t just use a particular website or application, but uses it in ways and to an extent that the average user doesn’t even consider. Think of people with hundreds of thousands of Myspace friends, or the users who don’t just use Facebook, but write and distribute applications for it just for fun. Those are Power Users.

I realized recently that Power Users have an equivalent in the pet world. An average user can use and enjoy a website like Myspace, but a Power User delves into every nook and cranny of the application and makes it a passion. Similarly, an average owner can certainly provide great care for a pet, but there is a class of pet owners I’ll call Power Pawrents® who go above and beyond and make pet ownership central to their lives and identities.

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For dogs with allergies, exposure to even a small amount of a food or environmental allergen can mean days of itching miserably, sneezing, and even outbreaks of hives or skin sores. Some dogs who have allergies can manage them with diet and lifestyle changes, but others need regular injections for life, and treatment with a steroid like prednisone during particularly problematic times. In rare cases, a dog can develop an allergy severe enough to be life-threatening.

So, it follows that where allergies in dogs are concerned, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you make allergy prevention a priority from day one, you can reduce your dog’s chance of developing allergies later in life. More →