Featured Articles
Cats are Affectionate – Pet tip 190
Different people get house cats for different reasons. Some people are simply cat people; they love everything about cats and often have a few of them. Other people get cats as a compromise. They want to get a pet but …
Dog Breeds that Travel Well
For the vacation-enthusiasts who love to travel, having a dog can have an enormous influence on where, when and how often you can travel. For example, a dog that is very large (i.e. Irish Wolfhound, Great Dane, St. Bernard) will …
Cancer in Cats and Dogs – Pet tip 230
The word cancer scares the heck out of most people. Most of us know someone that has had cancer and many of us know of friends or family members that have died of cancer. In terms of a basic definition, …
Ear Problems in Cats – Pet tip 104
Just like humans, cats can have the occasional problem with their ears and just like humans their internal ears (their ear canals) are made up of three sections; the outer or external ear, the middle ear and inner ear. Infection …
Cat Games – Think Like a Cat – Pet tip 195
Many cat lovers realize how important play is to their cat’s well being. Especially given that more and more cat owners are keeping their cats indoors due to health and safety concerns, games are indeed important. Games keep your kitty …
Cat Diabetes
In North America, one of the up and coming disease “epidemics” to be noted in people is diabetes (diabetes mellitus). This is a disease that most often affects obese, middle-aged patients. Coincidently, the same phenomenon can be found in our …
Cat Vocalizations
Cats are capable of communication on several levels. Their body language can tell other cats if they are feeling tense or relaxed. They can mark their territory with urine, or with scent particles from their faces to claim ownership of objects and spaces and they can also communicate vocally. This article will explore a few of the common vocalizations that cats make. Some of the vocalizations are meant mostly for humans, while other sounds are meant for other cats, humans or predators.
One of the most common sounds a cat owner is likely to hear from its cat is the famous meow. There are many different types of ‘meows’ and they are generally reserved for communicating with humans and not with other cats.
Zoonosis in Exotic Pets
You most likely already know that humans can catch diseases from wild animals. You’ve probably also given thought to the diseases that we can get through our interactions with pets. However, if you own, or are thinking about owning, an …
White Cats
White cats, like all white animals in general, are both valuable – and vulnerable. The white of their coat is not a real colour but rather the absence of colour, which also means absence of protection from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. It is the variety and distribution of natural “dyes” in an animal’s skin and fur that explain different coat colours and patterns. One of these dyes is melanin, the chief protector of skin against ultraviolet radiation. The skin of white cats has either no melanin at all or very little of it, which is why they are far more vulnerable to sunburn and cancer of the skin than coloured cats. The “classical” wild-type cat is a brown tabby, which combines optimal protection from the sun with a camouflage pattern that hides it from predators.
