PetLvr.com - [The Blog]

Sitting patiently by your side, your dog nuzzles your thigh and scooches closer to the kitchen table. His sniffing gets frantic as if he is trying to create a vacuum to suck up your evening dinner. You say “no” in a firm voice, but he can’t resist the smells coming from your dish so a bark escapes from his mouth, which ends in a whine. He looks up at you with those pleading eyes-how can you resist? Just a crumb of bread and taste of hamburger won’t hurt, right? But over time that crumb and taste turns into an entire portion or maybe even a double portion. Before you know it, your dog or cat is too heavy and tired to move and its face is hidden in the rolls bulging from its neck.

Maybe you think you have more self-control than that, but approximately 500,000 pets have become obese, and there has been a 10% increase since the previous year. Although you and your pet receive immediate satisfaction from extra treats, the long-term affects can be lethal to your pet’s well being. Obese pets often suffer from respiratory problems such as asthma as well as other ailments like arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, liver problems, etc.

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Nothing is more essential to good training than good health. And the foundation of good health is a good diet.

Depending on your budget you may or may not be able to feed your dog a larger proportion of fresh meat, but at least be prepared to spend enough for a good dry food. Here are a few things to look for…

All dog foods are labeled with the ingredients in order by proportion. That is, the material that forms the largest percentage is listed first, followed by the second and then others.

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So, you have a new kitten. You can just dump some cat food in a bowl and get on with your life, right? Well, there’s a bit more to the process than this. To keep your kitten healthy, you will need to be sure that you meet all of his nutritional needs.

For the first few weeks of his life, your kitten received all of his nutrition from his mother. As he reached four to six weeks of age, the breeder probably began supplementing the mother cat’s milk with canned kitten food or with hard kitten chow moistened with water. By the time your kitten reached eight weeks of age, he was weaned and eating a diet of kitten food. Your breeder should have given you some of the food your kitten was eating or at least the name of the kitten chow.
If you want to change the kitten chow brand that your kitten is eating, you should still buy a small bag of the brand he is currently eating so that you can mix it with the new food. This way your kitten will be able to gradually adjust to the new food without upsetting his digestion.

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Suddenly, your crystal clear fish tank is looking a bit cloudy. In fact, you aren’t quite sure your fish are all still there, because the water isn’t clear enough for you to see them. When this happens, you have reached the point where your aquarium will need to be thoroughly cleaned before your fish become ill from swimming in the dirty water. Of course, you really shouldn’t wait until there’s a problem before cleaning your aquarium. Ideally, a tank should be cleaned every two weeks.

To begin cleaning the tank, you should start by unplugging filters, heaters and any other electronic devices to avoid getting electrocuted. You won’t need any soaps or detergents as the chemicals contained in them could be dangerous for your fish. Don’t remove the fish from the tank while cleaning as this will often cause more harm than good. The fish are used to their environment and will become stressed if they are moved. When cleaning your aquarium, only use dechlorinated water as a cleaning agent.

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Periodic Newsletter from The IAMS Company:
From: “Iams Dog”
To: hart (at) petlvr.com
Subject: Iams e-news: Water Safety Tips for You and

Doggy Water Safety 101

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By Ron Petracek

You are what you eat, and this goes for horses as well. Keeping your horse in optimal shape means knowing what to feed, how much to feed, and when to feed. To keep your horse at his healthiest and ensure that his nutritional needs are being met, follow these simple rules.

1.)Weigh your horse. You can’t feed your horse correctly unless you know his weight. But before you bring him into your bathroom and attempt to load him on your scale, you should know that there is an easier, more sensible method. To estimate your horse’s weight, measure his heart girth with a horse weight tape.

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By Andrew Markison

If you’ve ever watched as a cat “flipped” over fresh catnip perhaps you’ve been struck with the question; “what causes Catnip to affect cats that way?” Catnip is indeed an unusual phenomenon among cats, it has the ability to alter your cat’s behavior like nothing else can. So what exactly is the reason for what scientists have coined as “the Catnip effect”?

Unfortunately for such inquisitive minds the exact reason of why Catnip affects cats in such a manner remains mostly a mystery. There is however much that we do know about Catnip and cats even if we don’t have the ultimate answer of exactly “why?” yet answered.

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Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007
From: “Eukanuba SeniorCat”
Subject: Feed Your Senior Cat with Confidence

From The Experts - Eukanuba’s promise to your cat’s well-being

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By: Jim Brown

Fish food is made from plants or animals which are intended for the consumption of pet fishes to keep them alive and in good health. There are a lot of ways connected with fish food production. Some feeds are in pellet form, which are ideal for bigger fishes and those that belong under the bottom dweller category. Pellet feeds tend to sink to the bottom due to its weight and construction.

Another kind of fish food is called the flake food. This is quite the opposite of the pellet food because the structure alone of this type of fish food is made in such a way that it appears like a flaky substance enabling it to float and stay on the surface of the water.

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By Paul Counts

Pet Obesity is a growing concern according to a report which ranks the healthiest U.S. cities for t wcats and dogs based on 30 criteria, including weight, preventative care, air quality and pet-friendly legislation. As in humans, pet obesity is dangerous and unhealthy. It can lead to liver disease, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, joint, and even back problems. People who love their pets dearly don’t realize that they could be actually slowly killing their pets by overfeeding them.

The biggest contributor to pet obesity is overeating. Most pets will eahatever is put before them because it is their natural instinct. For example, dogs are natural scavengers that think every meal could be their last so they eat whenever food is offered to them. Many times dogs will eat even if they are not hungry because of this natural instinct. That is why it is important to feed your animals perfectly portioned meals which many automatic pet feeders can do for your animals.

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