Anyone who has owned one would
readily aggree that hamsters, girlbils, and mice provide an owner with
hours of amusement and years of companionship. Rabbits are fabulous
for those who are looking for a quiet playmate, while rats and ferrets
are hyperactive and surprisingly intelligent. Guinea pigs are another
very popular choice for a small pet. A website dedicated to guinea
pigs boasts on their front page that there is no question that "guinea
pigs make excellent pets [and are] docile, low maintenance, and
unbelievably cute."
I strongly beg to differ, unless "docile" means "boring" and "low
maintenance" means that you only need to scoop up piggy pellet poop
every few minutes. Calling a guinea pig "unbelievably cute" is at,
very best, a far stretch. Their bodies are shaped like a packing tube,
fat through the middle and flat at both ends.
To anyone who is considering purchasing a guinea pig and is convinced
that no other rodent will do, I would urge them to go to a local
lumber yard and get themselves a lovely block of wood instead. I am
convinced that after weighing the positives and negatives, an ordinary
log would prove to be a far better pet than a guinea pig.
For the sake of specifics, let's assume that the common guinea pig is
being compared to a standard block of Northern Red Oak wood, commonly
used for firewood.
Consider first that very little is actually known about the history of
the guinea pig. No one is exactly sure where these creatures
originally came from, so their native habitat may have been a sandy
desert, a forrest, or mountain regions. This emptiness of information
regarding the species' past does no...
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...to a short attention span, the guinea pig may lose
interest in the poop before it has finished consuming (re-consuming?)
it, and drops it where they are standing, often in a high-traffic area
of a carpeted floor.
Although a pet wooden block has some similarity to the guinea pig in
that it naturally is very still, he makes no nerve-grinding cries for
attention and produces no waste product what-so-ever. This last fact
alone sends a wooden block soaring above a guinea pig in the contest
of who would make a better pet.
Compound all these painful piggy truths with the undeniable fact that,
even in apperance, a guinea pig is nothing more than a fur-covered log
with eyeballs, it leads to the question, "Well, what does the guinea
pig do that the block of wood doesn't do better?"
The answer, quite simply, is nothing.
Sex the baby mice as soon as they are weaned. Separate the males into another cage (not the one with the father).
If the mouse were dropped into a similar cage, it would be safe to assume that
Humans are social beings where the need for constant interactions is always revolving around them. Psychopathology creates crucial aspects which lead people to substance abuse. In an experiment conducted by Bruce Alexander and his colleagues, on rodents, concluded that psychiatric distress caused drug addiction. Alexander and his teammates set out to identify a cause of drug addiction, in which they experimented on two set of rodents; one group cage kept in isolation and the other in a replicate of an ideal rat park with social interactions. Both groups received a choice between consuming H2O or morphine water with sucrose. The caged rat almost always choose to consume the morphine water over pure water. In contrast, the rodents placed in rat park selected the pure water over the morphine water.
The social behaviour of the house mouse is not rigidly fixed into species-specific patterns but is instead adaptable to the environmental conditions, such as the availability of food and space.[24][25] This adaptability allows house mice to inhabit diverse areas ranging from sandy dunes to apartment buildings.[24]
A soft purr, a gentle paw. A pet cat is a luxury that humans have indulged in for thousands of years, from their beginnings in Africa and the Middle East, all the way to homes here in 2014. Cats rival dogs as the most common pet in the United States, with 30.4% of houses owning 2.1 cats each (“U.S. Pet Ownership Statistics”).While working cats, such as farm cats, barn cats, and other rural, semi-feral animals may be kept for specific purposes of keeping pest animals at bay, the vast majority of kept cats in the US are pet cats, kept in homes for companionship and affection. Cat owners want the best for their pets, and as such is important to keep pet cat indoors, for their own safety as well as the safety of the local wildlife.
"Rodents." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 July 2010. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.
Goatman is bloodthirsty, fearless, and always on the prowl. Sometimes he wanders into people’s back yards and eats their pets. Owners will find their pets the next day with only the carcasses remaining. Kids are warned not to take the shortcut home through the forest because Goatman might eat them. One time a few kids took the shortcut home at night and this one kid fell behind.
“If somebody is too stupid to understand the fundamental immorality of dog fighting, you’re never going to be able to explain it to him” (Kevin Hench). Most people think that pit bulls have locking jaws. This is false however; no dog breed in the whole world has locking jaws. Dogs are not always aggressive how they are raised and trained determines the behavior of a dog. Dogs have tendencies to be aggressive only if not trained properly. The discrimination against pit bulls is wrong and uncalled for. Pit bulls are not the only culprits of attacks and death to humans. Dog fighting and stray pits are the fault of the people who own them. It is man kind’s job to take care of and be responsible for their dogs. Why should the dogs be punished for the actions of their owners? Pit bulls especially take the blame more than any other breed. This is an excellent breed if trained correctly. Pit bulls make excellent family pets to own because of the facts, traits, and the standards and guidelines for breeding and training associated with these breeds.
trapped in the house and it is also trying to get out. From my background knowledge, the
Would you like to live a happy and productive life? Then get pets! I must admit it is hard to believe that domesticated animals can promote mental and physical health, but many studies have shown that they can. On the other hand, you must find a pet that is compatible with you or with your life style. Maintaining good mental health is crucial for living a "normal" life.
turn into animals but when one of them turns into a rat it has no tail,
rodent infestation of storage facilities or the recycling of rotten hams and meat scraps. If
During my life, I have had different pets ranging from cats and dogs to hamsters and a lizard. Being in the United States Army, having cats as pets is much easier to take care of as opposed to having a dog as a pet. There are many reasons as to how I came to this decision, but the deciding factors were based upon bathroom use, feeding, and the amount of attention and time that both cats and dogs require. While these factors are not all inclusive they are just the ones that had the most impact on my decision when picking a type of a pet. I am currently watching my Soldiers dog while he and his wife are on leave in the United States and this is reinforcing how much easier military life is with a cat rather than a dog.
Would you like to live a happy and productive life? Then get pets! I must admit it is hard to believe that domesticated animals can promote mental and physical health, but many studies have shown that they can. People who own pets have been known to lead longer and happier lives than those without them. As we get older, we become less active. The more inactive we become, the higher our risk of death. We therefore need something in our lives to keep us busy so we don’t die prematurely, and a pet is just the thing to do it. This is probably because of the companionship, exercise, and responsibility that they provide. On the other hand, you must find a pet that is compatible with you or with your life style. Maintaining good mental health is crucial for living a normal life.
Handling and caring for rodents (including hamsters and gerbils) or even fish, puts humans at risk for the below-mentioned infections.