Pleasing 4 Pets

Before you really consider buying a snake, there are plenty of things to think about. Here’s a nice long list for you, I won’t bother trying to pad it out or make it wordy. Just make sure you have a serious think about each one of these points, maybe even write down the answers.

• Why do I want a snake?
• Do I know what type I want?
• How big is it going to get?
• What size vivarium will it need as a hatchling, and at full size?
• What does it eat?
• Where will i store its food?
• How long will it live?
• What temperature does its vivarium need to be?
• Who will look after it if I’m away?
• Where’s my nearest reptile vet?
• Can you cope with killing smaller animals (rodents, worms, crickets) to feed your snake?

There are plenty of other considerations, but just bear in mind – a snake is not a simple pet to look after. They need constant care and attention and their habitat needs to have shade, water, constant heat and humidity and needs to be cleaned very often. Don’t buy a snake before you’ve thought all this through. It’s not fair on the poor thing.

Yep, that’s right – you either love them or you hate them. Very few people I know would say ‘I don’t mind snakes’ but if you want to prove me wrong, go ahead, give it your best shot.

Having a pet snake is something that fascinated me since I was tiny; our primary school had a communal pet snake – a read and black corn snake, that we got to hold on to from as young as 5.
One big thing to bear in mind is that they are not really like other domestic pets (cats, dogs, rabbits). They are closer to fish in that they will spend most of their time in their vivarium, to be looked at and fed. Many species of snake are happy enough to be handled, but they will not like being cuddled like a kitten.

Corn snakes are by far the most common species of pet snake, and that is for very good reason. They are pretty docile, don’t grow to a huge size, and they come in all sorts of colours.
I love snakes. Can you tell?

Fleas are the bane of any cat owner’s existence. They bite, they spread, they get into the carpets, beds and even clothes. If you don’t get rid of them early on, it will be pretty difficult to do as they live in the carpet.

At least fleas can’t live on humans. Our blood is too rich for them, so even though they bite us they can’t use our flesh to live. Good to know.
Flea collars are one way of helping to protec
t your beloved feline from them, but their effectiveness does want after a relatively short while.

Spot-On flea treatment and house flea spray are probably the best way to keep them away. Use the Spot-On every month or two and spray your carpets at least every six months.
Hopefully that’ll keep the pesky pets at bay.

Most people try to find a new puppy or kitten from someone they know whose pet has a litter. But there are hundreds of animals in shelters who have nowhere to go and need to be looked after.

Although most people would far prefer to bring up an animal from youth, there are older pets who have been abandoned, or whose owners have died and they need homes just as much as the young ones. In fact, the older animals are usually left longer, so are likely to feel even less loved.

There are so many animals abandoned at the side of the road, or just thrown out when their owners get sick of them or can’t afford to look after them any more, that it is actually really selfish to not get a pet from a local shelter.

So, if you’re looking for a new pet – give your local animal shelter a call. You can give a lonely animal a home, and help out the shelter at the same time.

Ever come downstairs in the morning to find a pile of cat vomit on the carpet? Do your cats bully each other to get to the food? Do they try to trip you up whenever you’re in the kitchen, constantly getting under your feet?

They have as much food as is recommended, but they are sick because of how much they eat. A good old catch 22.

Often, the reason cats are sick isn’t because they are eating too much, but that they are eating too quickly. If there are more than two cats, they may feel that their food is threatened, so will eat it quickly before anyone else gets chance to.

Or, if they are fed at irregular intervals, they may feel they don’t know when the next batch of food is going to be there, so they scoff it all down as quickly as they can.

One solution (which worked for a good friend’s two cats, and for my four cats) is to leave a full bowl of biscuits down at all times. That way, if they’re hungry, they can eat. Put down meat once (or twice) a day at set times, and they may eat what they want and go back to it later.

You may find yourself throwing away bits of dried meat in the bottom of bowls more often than before, but I can guarantee that’s better than scooping up half-digested biscuits.