October 26th, 2009 by Peter
I was surprised the other weekend when my auntie came home with a pet turtle it is just one of those pets you rarely here about. We then spent the day learning up on how to care for the turtle so here is some tips if you are considering buying one as your next pet but seriously do take into account the amount of effort that is needed to look after it properly!
Firstly you have to decide on the housing of the turtle, a 20 gallon tank is the best one as the turtle grows in a rapid speed and needs plenty of space to swim in. When you have bought inches the tank make sure you pour the water in to at least 7 inches giving the turtle space to flip over, also make sure you have a selection of smooth rocks as the turtle can not be under the water at all times and needs somewhere to bask.
One thing that has to always be your main priority is keeping the tank clean and i would highly recommend buying a canister filter as turtles produce copious amounts of waste! It is also important is drained and replaced with fresh water daily.
Heating and lighting is a huge part of a turtles life, temperature has to be between 70-80 degrees at all time. If the temperature is to low then the turtle may not eat when it goes into hibernation. This is easily achieved as all you need to do is install a heat lamp and UV light. The expose to the light makes sure the turtle does not get bone disease.
When feeding your turtle go for variety like insects, worms and raw fish this type of food is easy for the turtle to eat and will not decompose in water.
I hope the advice has helped and good luck with your new turtle!
August 19th, 2009 by Peter
Do you find that when your taking your dog for a walk you end up being dragged along like its actually him taking you for the walk?
If so, you need to make sure that you teach your dog not to pull on the lead. It’s understandable that dogs get excited to take a trip out of the house, so a little bit of pulling isn’t going to hurt. The one thing that you need to remember is, it’s the people that the dog is running towards that might get scared, for example young children and the elderly. An excitable dog can be extremely hazardous!
You need to experiment a number of different techniques to stop your dog pulling on the lead. I’ll tell you a few of mine in the next post.
August 14th, 2009 by Peter
Trying to keep your dog to ’stay’ can sometimes be hard work. There are however, great techniques you can use to try and fix this problem.
Firstly, get your dog to sit in one place. Once they are sitting, walk backwards slowing shouting “stay” every couple of seconds. The best thing to do is alter the distance each time. Start with a short distance, if it stays, reward it with a yummy treat. Next time, try and walk a bit further away and again, reward them if they do well.
Make sure that you use the same place to try out this sort of training so that it stays familiar.
August 13th, 2009 by Peter
The way dogs greet each other is the way they greet humans too, normally by jumping up on them, wagging their tails! For some people, they want their dog to stay sat in it’s bed when they arrive home, however, this reaction is simply the dog saying ‘hello’.
To try and calm the dog down there are a few things you can do:
- Turn your back when it jumps up and try to ignore it.
- Grab a treat and move it nearer and nearer the dogs nose until it is eventually sat down.
Remember that you have to try and be consistent so that you don’t confuse your dog! Also, try and remember that he is only trying to say hello!
