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The Great Animal Info Site!
Hello all! This site is soon to be filled to the brim with animal information! So I hope you come by again, seeing as this site is nowhere near completion.
I've loved animals ever since I can remember, and have researched many different types. From dogs to sugar gliders I've done careful reading and comparing and now I hope to share what I've learned with others. I know that when I was looking around for info about animals I would have liked to have a site where all of the stuff I needed was just in one place.
I'll be playing around with layouts, backgrounds, banners, and all sorts of other fun stuff so hang with me and hopefully I'll have this working pretty soon!
Donkeys are much like horses, but are easier and less expensive to care for. I had one at one time, and she was a great friend, though a bit ornery. They come in three sizes; miniature, standard, and mammoth. Minis are used mostly for companionship, though they are also great for giving young children rides and sometimes to pull a small, light cart. Standards and mammoths are the sizes needed for riding. Donkeys are friendly, loyal, and loving, though these things can vary according to the animal and gender.
They can live to 25-30 years.
GENDER/AGE Jacks are not good for companionship, and are not good to have around children. Some people say that they are great, but they can be unpredictable. Mares are a little better, but when they go through their estrus they can be rather irate and can be pretty ornery at times even when they aren't in their estrus. Geldings are neutered jacks, and are the most laid back of all the donkeys. They aren't quite as ornery and can be more gentle. All of this depends on the animal, some jacks are sweeter and gentler than others, some geldings are bad tempered, some are the gentlest things you could ever come across. Some are brought up different than others, trained differently, and just plain old have different personalities.
You can start training your donkey at three years of age, and it can also support your weight at that age for short amounts of time, this of course also depends on you size and your donkey's size. A donkey is deemed mature at the age of five years.
TRAINING My donkey was green broke when I got her, and I found it difficult to train her, though it got easier as time went on. A good book is 'Training Mules and Donkeys' by Meredith Hodges. It can take anything from a year to five years to fully train one, but it is easier to train one if you get it at a young age.
Do you already have an animal in mind? [have you already decided on an animal and just need help with deciding on a breed?] Kids?: [do you have kids?] How much time do you have?: [how much time will you have to spend with your pet?] Space?: [how much space do you have for a pet?] What are you looking for?: [what are you looking for in a pet? quite and sociable? bouncy and playful? aloof and protective?]
PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THIS CODE
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[b]Do you already have an animal in mind?: [/b] [b]Kids?: [/b] [b]How much time do you have?: [/b] [b]Space?: [/b] [b]What are you looking for?: [/b]
Sugar gliders are not actually rodents, they are marsupials, for they really do have little pouches on their bellies! They are friendly when bonded well to their owner, but are definitely not what you would call 'calm' and 'laid back'. They are curious and inquisitive, always seeming to be into something if you let them out. My friend's glider loved to hide in her closet and they thought that they had lost him more than once. If they are socialized well with people, they may jump from family member to family member. Something else interesting about gliders is that many people that are allergic to other furry animals are often not allergic to sugar gliders.
They are a native of Australia, and so it is necessary to keep them pretty warm. I found that a ceramic heat lamp works the best, but be sure that it is not touching the cage, for it can heat the metal bars of the cage quite hot and can burn your little friend. Mine actually burnt the fur off of the top of his nose! If you have trouble keeping your glider warm enough, and have a heat lamp, you can drape a sheet over the top of and over the sides of his cage, and since heat rises, it'll get nice and warm fairly fast. The lowest temperature you should have your glider in is 70ºF, but that is the very very lowest, 80ºF is much better. The temperature shouldn't be allowed to vary much, it can stress out the glider and make it easier for him to get sick. Another thing to help keep it warm is to put a fleece pouch in its cage and fill it with fleece scraps.
It is best to keep your gliders in pairs, unless you plan to spend a lot of time with it. They need company and if it doesn't have a glider pal then you'll need to spend at least two hours every day with it.
They can live to be 10-15 years old.
CAGE Sugar gliders need a lot of space, 24in. deep by 24in. wide by 36in. tall is good for a pair of gliders. It is better for it to be taller than it is wide, it give the glider plenty of room to jump around. Use a cage that has metal bars, this give the glider something to climb on for exercise, makes sure that there is plenty of ventilation, and ensures that they can't chew their way through the cage. The bottom of the cage should have a pull out bottom so that you can change the cage easily, for it will need to be change at least once a week. Sugar gliders can get pretty smelly, though some gliders are more smelly than others. The whole cage needs to be cleaned out once a month, including the washing of any pouches, hammocks, or other toys that your glider may have. It is preferable that your glider's cage has bowls that attach to the side somehow, for a glider will tip its bowl over unless it is. It is best to use a plastic water bottle for your glider's water. Some say that glass is better, but seeing as a glider will chew on whatever it can, I don't think it is good for them to chew the glass because it can chip off and they can swallow it.
FEEDING There are many different feeding methods for sugar gliders. Here is the one I used though: The staple diet was Diamond cat food (any cat food would work though, as long as it isn't a cheap brand), I would give mine about six pieces every night with either some fruit or some veggies, depending on the night. When I gave him fruit I would usually give mine a little yogurt, and on nights that I gave him vegetables I'd give him a piece of hard-boiled egg. I used frozen fruits and veggies quite a bit, though I tried to give him fresh food as often as possible. Applesauce was something else that I would give as a fruit, mine really liked that. I would sprinkle the whole meal with a vitamin and mineral supplement, as well as a calcium supplement, though you don't really have to give them the calcium supplement as much (or at all according to some people) if you give the glider yogurt regularly.
There are premade sugar glider foods that you can give your glider, though you should always give them fresh foods to go with it.
Good foods to feed: carrots (good source of beta carotene) apples berries (if they're okay for a person they're okay for a glider) hard-boiled eggs (good source of protein) yogurt (good source of calcium)
Okay to feed, but not too often: green leafy veggies broccoli (can make them smelly) nuts and seeds (can make them fat real fast)
Never feed: avacados oranges chocolate any other drink but water
Leadbeaters Mix Recipe 1/2 cup apple juice 1/2 cup honey 1 boiled egg with a shell 1/2 cup gerber dry cereal 1 jar gerber baby food (chicken/turkey NO ONIONS OR GARLIC) 1/2 cup wheat germ 1 tsp vionate
Blend all in blender and freeze in an ice cube tray. Feed a half a cube per sugar glider, lasts about a month.
BONDING Bonding is probably the most important part of sugar glider care. Sugar gliders can be taken from their parents at the age of 6 months and when they are it is good to start bonding right away. There are bonding pouches that you can buy, but it is good to look for one that has rounded corners, and a mesh front is another good thing to look for. The rounded corners are good to have so that you don't have to worry as much about your glider smothering itself. It is is a chilly day then you can put fleece in with it, or fabric from an old shirt of yours. That brings us to a way that you can bond better with your glider. Get an old shirt that you don't mind getting cut up and where it for a day or two, then cut it up into pieces and put it in your glider's pouches. This gets the glider used to your scent. You should wear your bonding pouch as much as possible, the more you wear it the tamer your glider will be. I didn't just wear mine at home, I wore it to the store and to any other places that I went. I always kept it safely tucked away in the pouch so that it couldn't get away and it got pretty well bonded. If you want it to like other people, this is the stage that you need to introduce them, for though your glider will always be the most bonded to the one that wears them in the pouch, it is possible for them to be friendly with others too. Mine didn't mind running around on my brother and sister's shoulders and playing in their hair, but he always liked to return to me after a while. He was also pretty good with other people that weren't family too. If you keep you glider in the pouch for a while, it is good to offer him a drink from his water bottle after a little, and you can also drop a piece of apple in his pouch for him to munch on while he is with you. Be sure to make his stay in the pouch enjoyable, if he finds the pouch to be something that he is stuffed in without anything to eat or drink, he will not want to go back there.
I have kept cockatiels for quite a while, bred and raised them. They are friendly and inquisitive if hand-fed. If a cockatiel isn't hand-fed then they are not nearly as friendly as they might be. They can learn to whistle, and some can learn to talk too, males are usually the best to get if you want that though. They can also learn tricks too, such as fetching, stepping up, and other things. They can live to be 20 to 25 years old.
BUYING To buy a cockatiel you can either get one from a breeder or a pet store, then of course there are those ads in the paper and flyers advertising, "Cockatiel for Sale!" or, "Free Cockatiel!". Well, the best place to get a cockatiel from is a breeder, they are not exposed to diseases while being shipped and also do not go through the stress that some pet store birds go through. Some pet stores get their birds from local breeders, these are second best. Then there are the stores that ship in cockatiels from far off breeders and the birds are exposed to sicknesses and are stressed out. The flyers and ads can sometimes have fine birds, but one should still be cautious. Why are they selling the bird? What has it been eating while it stayed with the previous owners? Has it been having an all seed diet? Where has it been? Has it been in a dark dusty room? In all of these cases one should ask if the bird has been hand-fed. This means that it has been taken away from its parents and a person has fed it until it is weaned. This makes for a much friendlier bird. When looking for a cockatiel, look for one with bright plumage, no discharge from its nostrils, and bright eyes. It should not have noisy breathing and should be active. A bird that stays huddled up with its feathers fluffed out in the corner is not healthy.
FEEDING Seed diets are sold at most stores for cockatiels, but they are not the best thing to feed your 'tiel. It is best to mix the seed diet with the specially formulated cockatiel pellets. It is also good to give your 'tiel fresh fruits and veggies, they can be fed just about anything that people can eat.
Never feed: - avocados {though some say that it is fine to feed this to parrots in the right portions} - chocolate - anything other than water to drink
TRAINING If your parrot is not tame then you can start training it by getting it out of its cage with a towel so that it cannot bite you. Hold it against you and stroke it through the towel and on its head once it calms down a little. Little by little you should be able to let it out of the towel. Some like to wear gloves even at this stage, including myself, just to be on the safe side. Once you have it so that it isn't trying to take a chunk out of your hand then you can start teaching it to step up. Simply place a finger, or arm if it is a large parrot, on its chest a bit above its legs and tell it to 'Step up'. Of course, giving the parrot treats helps to tame it.
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