Every dog has given their owner the puppy eyes. Some people have even mastered the technique themselves. It’s commonly associated with the dog trying to get you to give them something like a piece of food. Now, what’s it all about?

According to an article in Science Magazine, Japanese researchers in 2015 studied the behavior of dogs and their owners. They found that when dogs give their owners puppy eyes it releases oxytocin in their brain. This creates a feel-good bonding feeling in the dog. When owners receive the gaze, that also releases oxytocin in their brains.

The researches found that puppy eyes are a bonding tool that dogs use to get closer to their owners. Babies and parents do the same thing when trying to establish that early relationship.

The researchers tested wolves as well to see if they gave puppy eyes. The wolves scarcely looked at their owners, because to wolves eye contact is more of a threat than a bonding tool.

This suggests that domesticated dogs evolved a clever technique mimicking the bonding behaviors of parents and children.

So, the next time your pup gives you the eyes they’re trying to tell you that they love you.

Puppy Dog Eyes Explained By Science

The cockatiel is one of the most popular species of parrots around. This can mean that you will scream at you while biting you, but also a loving companion.

Cockatiels are small birds, but they require large, high-quality, stainless steel cages. The cage you choose should be as large as you can afford, and will also serve as your bird’s home for the rest of its life.

Inside the cage, you’ll want to place multiple perches that your cockatiel can wrap 3/4 of its foot around. The perches should come in a variety of shapes and sizes to promote healthy foot exercise.

Toys that can be shredded or foraged around with by your cockatiel are ideal.

Feeding seed to your bird is imporant, but it is even more important is not feeding your bird only seed. Cockatiels also need fruit, vegetables, grain, and legumes.

Cockatiels also love to be bathed either in a fine mist or wading in a shallow water dish.

Cockatiel Care: Care And Diet

Cockatiel.com

Maybe you’re scared of spiders. And maybe you’re even more scared of big, furry spiders. Well, if you ever want to alleviate those fears you should definitely consider adopting a tarantula. It sounds scary, but tarantulas are actually prettt docile, slow creatures that are easy to take care of.

Tarantulas don’t need gigantic cages, but they will need a fair amount of substrate to burrow. Hiding places such as small logs should be placed in the cage. The cage should also be placed in a darker area of the room away from direct sunlight.

Spiders need to drink too, so a shallow water dish needs to be provided. You can put pebbles in the dish, so the spider has something to climb onto and prevent drowning.

Female tarantulas are better suited as pets. They can live for up to 20 years in captivity. Male spiders will only live for a couple of years tops. The males will also spend most their time stressed out trying to escape in order to find a mate.

Tarantulas As Pets

Advantages/Disadvantages Of Spiders As Pets

 

My dog is a schnoodle, so he’s half schnauzer and half poodle. He doesn’t shed much at all and is one of the breeds known as “hypoallergenic” dogs. This means that he’s not supposed to affect allergy-sufferers such as pretty much everyone in my family except me.

The good news is that he really doesn’t shed at all. That’s good, because he doesn’t spread around dander, which are dead flakes of skin. People who are allergic to dogs react to the dander, because they’re coated in allergy-inducing proteins. This is the bad news; there is no such thing as “hypoallergenic” dogs.

According to the Mayo Clinic, all dogs have allergy-inducing proteins in their saliva and urine. These proteins stick to dander and shed fur. Breeds that don’t shed or only shed a little can definitely help allergy-sufferers, but they are not “allergy free.”

To reduce allergy symptoms: you can adopt a smaller dog, keep your dog out of your bedroom, use air purifiers, bathe your dog once a week, or regularly shampoo your carpet.

American Kennel Club: Allergy-Friendly Breeds

Huff Post: No Such Thing As Hypoallergenic

 

Have you ever dreamed of owning your very own very slow, easily stressed out scaly lizard? Then the veiled chameleon is the one for you!

Veiled chameleons are indigenous to countries in the Middle East, but are still accustomed to a fair amount of rainfall. The chameleon can grow up to 2 feet. Males have a lifespan of 6-8 years. Females only live between 4-6 years because of the stress of breeding and laying eggs.

The ideal cage for a chameleon is a screen enclosure 2 feet wide by 2 feet long and 4 feet tall. Tank enclosures should not be used to house them. They’re too small and don’t have the proper ventilation.

Heat rocks are required to help regulate the chameleon’s temperature. UVB lights will also be required to run 12 hours a day. Crickets can be fed to your lizard once or twice a day.

Reptiles Magazine: Veiled Chameleon

Youtube: How To Care For Chameleons

 

 

Taking care of your pets is practically a full-time job. They really are your children, and you need to treat them as such. In the case of reptiles and amphibians, it even means setting up their own personal misting systems.

Misting systems are very important to keeping up the right level humidity for your reptile. Humidity is the amount of moisture in the air. You can measure it as a percentage using a humidistat.

High humidity vivariums require high pressure systems. According to Reptiles Magazine, the highest pressure systems usually run at about 250 psi. This makes it very efficient at creating fine mist and fog.

To get water running through the pump, you’ll need to set up a water container underneath the vivarium. You need to put in purified water or set up a water filtration unit. When the water goes in, it also has to go out. So, a drainage unit needs to be installed to let water out.

Josh’s Frogs: Misting Systems

 

 

My dog is a Cinco de Mayo baby. He’ll turn 8 years old in less than a month. Dog years are supposed to be 7 years for every one human year. That would make my dog about 56 years old. But, how do dogs really age, and is 7 years an accurate estimate?

According to the BBC, domesticated dogs are a unique animal when it comes to aging. Dogs are the most varied kinds of animals on the planet. Some can weigh less than 10lb while other weigh 200. In the animal kingdom, the bigger animals such as elephants and whales live the longest. Smaller animals such as mice and shrews live short lives. For dogs, it’s the other way around.

Larger dogs may only live to be around 6 or 7 years, while smaller dogs can live to be almost 20. This is due to small dogs spending less time as juveniles and more time as adults. Large dogs can take up to 2 years to reach full maturity. When small dogs hit adulthood they age slower than bigger dogs. Your border terrior could be older than a bulldog at 2, but then younger than the bulldog at 5.

Dogs age based on their size. A big great dane could age 13 years for every human year. A small dachshund could only age 4 years for every one human year. The 7 year estimate doesn’t apply to every dog given how many different breeds there are in the world.

The Telegraph: 7 Years Myth

Goldfish and glass bowls go together like Trump and bad hair. Everyone knows that just as Donald Trump has terrible hair that goldfish should be put in those round bowls. Well, the truth is that bowls are terrible containers for goldfish, and you should never put one in them. (To be clear, Trump is still a lizard man with bad hair)

The biggest complaint against using bowls is that they are way too small. Goldfish start out as tiny creatures, but they can grow to good sizes of up to and over 6 inches. Due to the small real estate there isn’t enough oxygen in the water. With a small surface area comes less oxygen which leads to a dead fish.

Bowls are the definition of boring when it comes to fish tanks. There is simply no room for interior decorating outside of a little bit gravel. Not only will this bore you, but it will also bore your fish. Your fish might even just stop eating or swimming.

A big reason to not get a bowl is that most cannot equip a filter to keep the water clean. This leads to a dirty bowl and an even deader fish.

If you do get a goldfish, you would be wise to spend a little extra to get him a friend or two. Goldfish are social creatures who prefer some company. Since you can’t even keep one fish in a bowl, there is no way that you can keep a few more in them either.

Goldfish Care 

Your First Goldfish Tank

 

 

 

 

Can our dogs understand what we say to them? It’s been well documented that dogs will respond to the inflections and emotional cues in our voices when speaking to them. But, can they understand and give actual meaning to our words?

To answer this question, a graduate student at the University of Sussex named Victoria Ratliffe conducted an experiement with 250 dogs. According to NPR, Ratcliffe placed speakers next to the right and left ears of every dog. The speakers played commands to the dogs such as “to come.” The commands were sometimes said with inflections while others had no inflections or just gibberish.

Ratcliffe recorded a pattern in which way the dogs turned their heads. When told commands with emotion, 80% of the dogs turned to the left. When they were told commands with meaningful words, most turned to the right.

The results found that dogs are indeed able to differentiate between meaningful and meaningless sounds. It also suggested that dogs have speech broken up into two parts in their brain; left for emotion and right for meaning.

If you want to tell your dogs a meaningful command, you should say it in their right ear. For emotional commands, say it in the left for the dogs to best understand.

Discover Magazine: Words We Say To Dogs

 

 

You might think of your dogs as your own kids, but what do they think? Many people that our domesticated pups still have the thinking of their grandpuppy wolf ancestors. This leads them to thinking of you and your family as being a mythical wolfpack.

Dogs are dogs. They understand that humans are not dogs and certainly not wolves. According to world-renowned dog trainer Victoria Stilwell, a true wolfpack actually functions similarly to human family with a mother, a father, and the pups. The idea of packs of wolves striving to be the dominant alpha male comes from captive wolves put under stress by having to live with other strange wolves.

If you choose to adopt more than one dog into your family, you need to be able to make time for them. A mistake that some owners make is thinking that having multiple dogs to keep each other busy will make up for being a busy or neglectful owner. The dogs will probably grow up showing behaviorful issues and will have created their own social order excluding you.

You need to make time to care for your pups, and not act like you need to be dominant and force your dog into submission. This is a damaging myth. You do need to be a guiding force in training your pup and setting up rules and consequences for breaking them.

When a dog growls or snarls at you for something you did, they are not trying to assert dominance. They are most likely reacting to you breaking a rule and then trying to enforce the broken rule with a consequence.

All Dogs Gym: Dog Social Hierarchy