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Pet Tips: Cockatiel Care Basic

From www.articlealley.com.

Acockatiel needs social interaction in order to thrive. Cockatiels like to do things like eat, groom themselves (preening) and play with members of their flock, so these are some basic needs you will have to fulfill. If you don’t have much spare time to spend wth your bird, consider buying two cockatiels of the same sex so they can interact with each other. Two same sex cockatiels kept together in a large cage will form a strong social bond between themselves.

Cockatiel Care Basic – Maintenance and Cleaning
Change the cage paper daily. Black and white newsprint is alright to use, but don’t use the colored print or glossy advertising inserts. Many of these are colored with lead ink.

Take your cockatiel out before cleaning the cage. For cleaning the cage, the Oxyfresh line of products are ideal. Rinse all toys and the cage thoroughly. Perches should be scraped clean. The product Pet Focus is very good for disinfecting and comes in a ready to use form.

Cockatiels’ down gives off a powdery dust. This is a sign of a healthy bird.

Cockatiel Care Basic – Food and Water
Your cockatiel needs various components in his diet to keep him healthy. Do not feed your bird only seed. You will also need to feed (organic is best) pellets and healthy fresh greens and beans. Foundation Formula and Harrison’s are two organic pellets that can be purchased.

The remainder of your cockatiel’s diet should be organic and consist of greens like rinsed, fresh spinach and kale. Lettuce is not very nutritous and consists mostly of water. Other additives to their diet should be cooked vegetables like pasta, beans, corn, and rice. The use of organic foods are stressed here because there may be pesticide residues on produce and seed that is not organic. Roudybush is not organic, but is a high quality food naturally preserved. Cockatiels prefer this food and will thrive on it.

When you are feeding a diet with pellets, do not add vitamins to the water. Most pellets have vitamins added to them Read the manufacturers instructions on the bag.

Provide clean, fresh water for your cockatiel on a daily basis. The stainless steel cups should be cleaned twice daily if food gets in the water. Do not place the bird’s perches above food and water dishes. If droppings should get in the water, change the water immediately.

Cockatiel care basic is essential if you are going to have a healthy, happy bird. Please visit us at Cockatiel Care Secrets for more free information on caring for your cockatiel.

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Source: www.articlealley.com.

PetPedia: Shetland Sheepdog

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Shetland Sheepdog, often known as the Sheltie and sometimes as the Shetland Collie, is a breed of dog in the pastoral dog group, resembling a miniature Rough Collie. Shelties are family-oriented dogs that can be as at home in a flat in a town as in a house in the country. They have a thick double coat that can come in many different colors and patterns. They are vocal dogs, with few health problems; among those they are prone to are hip dysplasia and thyroid problems. They are very good house and family dogs. A sheltie is very protective and good with children if properly socialized with them while it is a puppy. Despite its name the Shetland Sheepdog is only remotely connected with the original herding dog of the Shetland Isles, instead deriving mainly from a mixture of the Rough Collie with several toy breeds.

Coat and Colours
Shelties have a double coat, which means that they have two layers of fur that make up their coat. The long, rough guard hairs lie on top of the thick, soft undercoat. The guard hairs are water-repellent, while the undercoat provides relief from both high and low temperatures. There are three main colourations: sable, which ranges from golden to mahogany; tri-colour, made up of black, white and tan; and blue merle, made up of grey over other colours.
Bi-Black (white and black) and bi-blue (white, black and grey) are less common but still acceptable. The best-known colour is the sable, which is dominant over other colours. Shaded, or mahogany, sables can sometimes be mistaken for tri-coloured Shelties due to the large amount of dark shading on their coats. Another name for a shaded sable is a tri-factored sable and white. This name comes from the breeding of a tri-colour to a sable and white, or a tri-factored sable to another tri-factored sable. Another acceptable colour in the show ring, but much less seen, is the sable merle, which can often be hard to distinguish from regular sables after puppyhood. The sable merle would have patches of dark brown on a light brown background, as compared to the black and gray of a blue merle.
There are two additional coat colours that are quite rare because they are unacceptable in the breed ring. The colour-headed white (majority of fur white, with the head ‘normally’ marked) can occur when two white-factored dogs are mated. Double merles, a product of breeding two merle Shelties together, can be bred but have a higher incidence of deafness or blindness than the other coat colours. There have been reports of a brindle Sheltie but many Sheltie enthusiasts agree that a cross sometime in the ancestry of that specific Sheltie could have produced a brindle.

Height and Weight
The breed standard for height is from 13 to 16 inches (33 to 41 cm). A measurement outside this range will result in dismissal from the conformation ring, and three dismissals result in the dog being banned from any more conformation classes. Shelties normally weigh around 14–25 pounds (6.4–11 kg).

Temperament
The Shetland Sheepdog is an outstanding companion dog and is intensely loyal. It is lively, intelligent, trainable, and willing to please and obey. Shelties are loving, loyal, and affectionate with their family, but are naturally aloof with strangers; for this reason Shelties must be socialised. Some can be quite reserved. Shelties do well with children if they are reared with them from an early age; however, their small size makes it easy for a child to accidentally injure them, so supervision is necessary. Exercise caution when considering an adult Sheltie for a family with young children; they may not be compatible.
Shelties are vocal dogs. They are intensely loyal, affectionate and responsive to their owner; reserved but not shy or fearful. Some shelties display a terrier-like personality, which tends to be hyper, and always on the go; however, this temperament is not sanctioned in the breed standard. Some Shelties can be very timid but this temperament is specifically discouraged by the breed standard. Tendencies towards shyness can be reduced through proper socialisation. The average Sheltie is an excellent watch dog, giving alarm barks when a person is at the door, or a car is in the driveway.

Activity level
The herding instinct is strong in many Shelties. They love to chase and herd things, including squirrels, ducks, and children. Shelties love to run in wide-open areas.
Shelties usually love to play. They do best with a sensitive, attentive, owner. The Sheltie is, above all, a herder and likes to be kept busy, although their activity level usually coincides with their owner’s level. Shelties also are very smart, making them highly trainable. Shelties are very good with children. Neglecting a Sheltie’s need for exercise and intellectual stimulation can result in undesirable behaviors, including excessive barking, phobias, and nervousness. Fortunately, the reverse is also true: annoying behaviors can be lessened greatly by an hour of exercise that engages the dog with its owner.

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