PetLvr.com - [The Blog]

Every pet looks its best with a healthy, shiny coat. Whether it’s the family cat or a show-ring star, pets deserve proper skin and coat care. Healthy skin and coat can also indicate overall health and wellness, and a sudden change in the health of the skin and coat often indicates an underlying medical problem. For these reasons, every owner should take time to maintain and inspect their pet’s skin and coat regularly. These three tips will help you keep your pet looking and feeling great.

1. Brush Daily (no need to floss)

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Over the last few years, I have noticed the trend of purchasing pets from pet stores has gradually shifted to purchasing pets from breeders. More and more pet stores have moved away from selling larger pets, namely dogs and cats and have focused on small mammals, reptiles and fish.

I personally have always purchased small animals from pet stores. It never crossed my mind to look elsewhere for any small pet and I seemed inclined to suffer through the short life spans of several caged animals.

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Wouldn’t a goldfish in a fish bowl be a cute gift for your six-year-old? It’ll teach her responsibility and be a source of constant entertainment. It’s a classic, seen in movies, comic strips, and children’s books for centuries. Right?

Wrong.

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Hello! I’m Gemma Argent

As an introduction, I’d like to say that I have been around animals my entire life. Animals, simply put, are a part of my life. I went to college initially as a pre-vet student, but ended up changing that to a major in wildlife biology and environmental resource management. Growing up, I had a sampling of the usual pets; guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, turtles, fish, chameleons and cats. Then when I grew up and moved out of my parents home, I decided to try something a bit more exotic.

My First Iguana

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Hello to all readers of the LVR series of blogs and everyone who is part of the HART network. My name is Robert, you can find my author page here . I will be here at PetLvr.com and also over at FishLvr.com, where I will be writing about my passion in life…Fish!

I have had a few pets throughout my life including rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and rats but the ones that I have a real obsession with are my pet fish. My first encounter with keeping aquarium fish started in my childhood when my sister and I kept a pair of goldfish in a small aquarium. We cleaned the water out once a week and fed the fish daily.

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So you promised your child a pet for his birthday, or for Christmas, or if she did a particularly difficult chore, and forgot about it. Of course, the kid didn’t, and now you’re on the hook, but aren’t sure you’re really ready for a new family pet. It’s not an uncommon predicament, and today we’ll explore how you can handle this situation without disappointing your child or taking on a committment for which the family isn’t ready.

First, it’s important to figure out whether or not your family really is prepared for a new pet. Ask yourself the following questions: More →

Pets serve many benefits to seniors. They are wonderful companions and the health benefits are outstanding. Did you know that having senior pet ownership has many medically beneficial qualities? It’s true! Many seniors with pet companion realize these benefits:

1. A reduction in stress and anxiety

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A good filter is probably the most important piece of equipment you can add to your aquarium. Aquarium filters usually provide biological, chemical or mechanical filtration. You might want to get a filter that provides all three kinds of filtration in one, as this will make your tank easier to maintain.

Your fish will be healthier as well. A biological filter will reduce the toxicity of the tank, a mechanical filter will keep the water clear and a chemical filter will remove dissolved waste in the water and prevent the water in your tank from becoming yellow.

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In order to maintain your aquarium, you may want to purchase a maintenance crew. This crew is actually a group of scavengers that will feed on algae and on uneaten food at the bottom of the aquarium. Some scavengers can dwell in community tanks without causing harm to the fish while some may eat or attack smaller fish, so be sure that you only buy community friendly scavengers. Why not add a few of these cleaning machines to your aquarium’s maintenance crew?

Algae in your tank is proof that your tank can support life on its own. Unfortunately, most tanks are plagued by more algae growth than is actually necessary. Luckily, this is where algae-eaters come in.

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Bettas, also known as Japanese fighting fish, are so beautiful that they don’t look quite real. You’ve probably seen these fish housed separately in tiny bowls at your local fish store. This is because male betas will fight with each other until there is only one male left. However, this is not a good way to care for your betta once you bring it home.

When purchasing bettas for your aquarium, you should only buy one male fish. You can add several female betas to the tank if it is on the large side. Male bettas are known for the way they constantly fight aggressively with each other, so putting more than one of them in the same aquarium is a bad idea. Female bettas also fight amongst themselves, but not as aggressively as male bettas.

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