#they were displaying a lot of mating behavior and these big males were trying to mount these already paired newts 😭😭

[metalgearemily]

THE ROUGH SKINNED NEWT!!

[bobbinacrosstheequator]

March 24, 2023 (afternoon) North Seymour Island

Ahhhh, nature.  It’s simply hard to beat.  Our last afternoon in the Galapagos was nothing short of spectacular. After a nice lunch on the back deck and a little relaxation, the seas were calm enough so it was time to set off on our final snorkeling adventure.  We launched from the pangas, near some cliffs that extended into the water. Looking down and toward the cliff, we could see lots of big boulders where the beautiful fish could hide.  Cliffs to the right, schools of fish to the left.  And sharks!  Yay! And this time, it wasn’t just fleeting looks, they swam under, toward and away from us.  Medium-sized, some with white tips on dorsal fin and tail. So cool! We spotted a few fur seals darting about under water and were totally satisfied when Carolina called for us to head to the pangas.  And then there was wild fipping and flopping; we could see the fins of multiple rays splashing around at the surface.  Carolina said that anyone still in the water should head that way. Turns out it was a frenzy of mating eagle rays with their polka dotted fins popping in and out of the water.  WOW! Multiple boys trying to get to the girl.  Such a show to end our snorkeling!

And as if to make sure our snorkeling didn’t beat out land activities, our walk in the afternoon was equally amazing. It started out on a sandy path with sea lions hooting and honking and playing in ponds at the shoreline, quite a few yellow iguanas wandering about or posing, and birds birds birds on the inland side.  Loads of frigate birds flew above, and the males - showing off to get the girl - sat on scruffy trees with their red throats inflated and on full display, even from a distance – as Carolina would say: to entice a “girlfriend.” They would flap their wings wildly and call out to get attention.  Turns out mating season is whenever there’s enough food around and the time is now.  Carolina has a sense of humor about the wildlife. In the case of frigate birds, she described the girls as choosing their mates based not only on the male’s looks, but also the “neighborhood” he chose.  We saw some blue-footed boobies up close and personal, one sitting on her two eggs and great views as the two flirted with each other and later as another couple sealed the deal and mated! … doesn’t get more real than that. It was nice that Carolina let us stay at each viewing point long enough to truly appreciate the goings on and the fascinating behaviors of these creatures. And as a tiny bonus, a Sally Lightfoot crab jumped in our boat; Wilfrido gently caught the “hitchhiker” and tossed him back in the water.

Back on the Passion, we had a lovely farewell cocktail with the crew followed by a delightful dinner on the back deck, complete with a birthday cake for someone’s milestone birthday.  HB (tomorrow), Jillebob!

Back in the room, the chaos of packing a duffel – such a challenge, particularly knowing that we have some stringent weight limits coming up in Costa Rica.  We did as much organization as we could bear and then crashed – to wrap up tomorrow morning.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Strigops habroptila

By Kimberely Collins, CC BY 2.0

Etymology: Owl Face

First Described By: Gray, 1845

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoromorpha, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostaylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Neoaves, Inopinaves, Telluraves, Australaves, Eufalconimorphae, Psittacopasserae, Psittaciformes, Strigopoidea, Strigopidae

Status: Extant, Critically Endangered

Time and Place: From 12,000 years ago to today, in the Holocene of the Quaternary 

The Kākāpō lives entirely within New Zealand 

(Green shows the Maximum Distribution known; yellow fossil evidence. By Msikma, CC BY-SA 3.0) 

Physical Description: The Kākāpō is probably one of the most visually distinctive birds, being a giant lump of a parrot! They get up to 64 centimeters in length and weigh up to 3 kilograms just to be extra. They are rotund to the extreme, with males larger than females; they are green in color, with brown stripes on their wings leading back to the ends of their wings and their tails. They have more of an olive color on their chests, and brown on their faces, with lime green stripes across their eyes. Their beaks are basically invisible, constantly surrounded by feather fluff. And, what’s of extreme importance - they can’t fly! They’re too big! And their wings are quite short indeed - they have the smallest relative wing size of any parrot! Instead, they use their wings to break their falls when landing from trees. They are also able to accumulate a lot of body fat, unlike other birds. Females are also different from the males in having more of a narrow head and beak. 

By Mnolf, CC BY-SA 3.0 

As babies, the young are covered in white down, and become fully feathered after seventy days. The juveniles are then more of a dull green with more uniform bars of black across the feathers. These birds have extremely good senses of smell, able to distinguish between different things by smell while foraging. They are also nocturnal, and able to see well in the dark, but they have poor vision during the day. Unfortunately, due to their extreme genetic bottleneck, the Kākāpō are extremely inbred and have high disease rates and fertility problems in Kākāpō young. 

By The Department of Conservation, CC BY 2.0 

Diet: Kākāpō are vegetarians, eating a wide variety of fruits, berries, nuts, seeds, greens, shoots, roots, tubers, barks, stems, moss, and even fungi; which they grind up very finely with their beaks.

Behavior: Kākāpō, like most New Zealand Birds, are essentially built to be some sort of Bird Rabbit, given the absence of mammals on the island (except for bats) prior to human settlement. These birds are excellent climbers, going up into trees and spreading their wings to parachute down to the ground. Then, on the ground, they use their strong and stout legs to move around and look for food in the leaf-litter. They jog a little across the ground, moving in a relatively limited range in order to find food. These are very curious birds, and not stupid - they were the third most common birds in New Zealand prior to human arrival, able to avoid a wide variety of dinosaurian predators. To do so, the Kākāpō evolved to be nocturnal - in direct conflict with the diurnal lifestyle of Eyles’ Harrier and Haast’s Eagle. They weren’t entirely safe at night, given the presence of the Laughing Owl - their main predators - but they were still mostly able to avoid them. The males make loud booming sounds at night which continue for hours - and even hoot to attract mates! All sexes make loud, high-pitched squeals, skraaaks, growls, and croaks. 

By the Department of Conservation, CC BY 2.0 

Kākāpō do not form pair-bonds while mating, and the males fight each other in order to attract females. The females listen to the males while they display (“lek”), making Kākāpō extremely unique - they’re the only parrots that do this. The males leave their home ranges for the hilltops in order to join these fights, fighting with raised feathers, spread wings, open beaks, raised claws, screeching, and growling. These fights are no joke but can harm and even kill the other Kākāpō. This event occurs only once every five years - usually influenced by the presence or absence of suitable food. The male, arriving at the lek, digs a bowl in the ground, usually big enough to fit the entire bird. These bowls are made next to rock faces, banks, and tree trunks. The males clean the bowls thoroughly and then attract the female with low frequency calls that can attract competition from other males. The females are attracted to these competing songs, walking several miles to reach the males. 

By Mnolf, CC BY-SA 3.0 

The males then display by rocking from side to side, making clicking noises with his beak. He then turns and walks backwards towards her, and they may mate for as long as forty minutes. The female then returns home to lay eggs, while the male returns to his lek to try and attract another female. The female lays one to four eggs, which are incubated for about a month. During this time, the female guards her nest the entire time, except for when she has to go and find food. Upon hatching, the chicks are extremely vulnerable to predators; the mother will protect them until they fledge at three months after hatching. They are never fed meat, only plants, by the mother. They finally leave the mother at six months of age. Males reach sexual maturity at 5 years, while females reach sexual maturity between four and nine years of age. Prior to this time, they’re teenagers, and will even play-fight with each other! They do not breed every year, and have some of the lowest rates of reproduction. They tend to produce more males when conditions are good, and more female babies when conditions are more dire. 

By Brent Barret, CC BY-SA 2.0 

Ecosystem: These birds mainly live in forests, especially near river flats and in sub in the low mountains. They shelter in low trees, burrows, shrubs, and crevices at night, before emerging during the day. Today, Kākāpō are kept protected; in their natural ecosystem, they were mainly hunted by owls. In between, they were in danger due to humans, cats, dogs, and a wide variety of other introduced mammals. This also forced them into other habitats, making them what is dubbed as “habitat generalists” as they can be found in other places besides the forests, including mountain beech and totara forests. 

By the Department of Conservation, CC BY 2.0 

Other: Unfortunately, the Kākāpō is on the verge of extinction, and this is entirely down to the effects of European settlers on the New Zealand islands. Prior to any human arrival, Kākāpō were the third most common bird on the islands, widespread across them. Upon the arrival of the Polynesians, they did decline sharply, as they were easy prey for humans and dogs due to their lack of flight. Still, the Kākāpō had stable populations and no genetic bottleneck, until white men came along. Upon the arrival of European settlers, the huge influx of dogs and other mammal predators such as cats, rats, and stoats, caused a very dramatic decline in the population of these birds. Then, people there found them to be a curiosity, and killed them and captured them for zoos and collections - if they were alive upon capture, they died very quickly. Starting in the 1870s, the colonizers were most concerned with collecting as many specimens as they could before the Kākāpō became extinct - especially when large numbers of mustelids were introduced to reduce rabbit numbers and had the unfortunate side effect of preying on the Kākāpō. 

By KimvdLinde, CC BY-SA 3.0 

Conservation efforts began in earnest at the turn of the century, with nature reserves being established, especially on Resolution Island; an invasion of stoats lead to that particular population collapsing almost immediately. Some refuge populations still existed on the South Island in the first half of the 20th century, but by the 1950s the situation was extremely dire for the Kākāpō. At this point, the New Zealand Wildlife Service began making expeditions to find Kākāpō; these trips were largely unsuccessful, and by the 1970s it was uncertain if Kākāpō were still extant. A bird was sighted on Stewart Island, and a trip to the island located a few dozen Kākāpō - estimated at 200 years. Feral cats present on the island were killing Kākāpō at a rate of 56% a year, and intensive cat control was imposed. However, the birds were transferred to entirely predator free islands, and a conservation recovery program was instilled in 1989. 

By The Department of Conservation, CC BY 2.0 

These programs were especially tough, as feral cats kept appearing everywhere on the islands selected for conservation. Eventually, in 2005, all Kākāpō were transferred to Anchor Island. The Kākāpō are monitored extensively, with supplementary food given to increase plant, protein, and seed content. The feeding does affect the sex ratio of offspring, and the conservation reserachers use that to increase the number of female chicks. The food eaten by the Kākāpō is monitored closely to make sure that optimum health is maintained. 

By the Department of Conservation, CC BY 2.0 

Kākāpō numbers have been steadily increasing, with adult survival rate and reproductive rates increasing every year. However, no Kākāpō have been able to be introduced to islands to form stable populations on their own without monitoring. Resolution Island is currently in the process of being prepped for Kākāpō to be reintroduced upon reaching a population with 150 breeding females. As of 2019, Kākāpō have had the best breeding season on record, with 46 chicks hatched as of March 1 - this is the earliest, and best, breeding season seen in the entire program, leading to some hope for the situation! 

By Mnolf, CC BY-SA 3.0 

To learn more about the Kākāpō (and even adopt a bird!), go here: https://www.doc.govt.nz/our-work/kakapo-recovery/

Together, we can protect this unique and sweet species of bird.

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources under the Cut 

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Ballance, Alison: "Kākāpō: rescued from the brink of extinction" Craig Potton Publishing, Nelson 2010 (2nd ed. 2018). 216 pages.

Bergner, Laura M.; Dussex, Nicolas; Jamieson, Ian G.; Robertson, Bruce C. (2016). "European Colonization, Not Polynesian Arrival, Impacted Population Size and Genetic Diversity in the Critically Endangered New Zealand Kākāpō". Journal of Heredity. 107 (7): 593–602.

Best, H. A. (1984). "The foods of kakapo on Stewart Island as determined from their feeding sign.” New Zealand Journal of Ecology. 7: 71–83.

"Breaking news from one of the world's favourite birds - New Zealand's rare flightless parrot, the kākāpō". radionz.co.nz. Retrieved 2 March 2019.

Clout, M. N.; Merton, D. V. (1998). "Saving the kakapo: The conservation of the world's most peculiar parrot". Bird Conservation International. 8 (3): 281–295.

Cockrem, J. F. (2002). "Reproductive biology and conservation of the endangered kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) in New Zealand". Avian and Poultry Biology Reviews. 13 (3): 139–144.

Collar, N., Sharpe, C.J. & Boesman, P. (2019). Kakapo (Strigops habroptila). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Corfield, J. R.; Gsell, A. C.; Brunton, D.; Heesy, C. P.; Hall, M. I.; Acosta, M. L.; Iwaniuk, A. N. (2011). "Anatomical Specializations for Nocturnality in a Critically Endangered Parrot, the Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus)". PLoS ONE. 6 (8): e22945.

Donald, Paul F.; Collar, Nigel J.; Marsden, Stuart J.; Pain, Deborah J. (2010). Facing Extinction: The World's Rarest Birds and the Race to Save Them. London: T & A D Poyser. p. 167.

Gray, R. S. (1977). "The kakapo (Strigops habroptilus, Gray 1847), its food, feeding and habitat in Fiordland and Maud Island". MSc thesis. Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Diamond, Judy; Eason, Daryl; Reid, Clio; Bond, Alan B. (2006). "Social play in kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) with comparisons to kea (Nestor notabilis) and kaka (Nestor meridionalis)". Behaviour. 143 (11): 1397–1423.

Hagelin, Julie C. (January 2004). "Observations on the olfactory ability of the kakapo Strigops habroptilus, the critically endangered parrot of New Zealand". Ibis. 146 (1): 161–164.

Jobling, J. A. 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. Christopher Helm Publishing, A&C Black Publishers Ltd, London.

Johnson, P. N. (1975). "Vegetation associated with kakapo (Strigops habroptilus Gray) in Sinbad Gully, Fiordland, New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Botany. 14 (2): 151–159.

Joseph, Leo; et al. (2012). "A revised nomenclature and classification for family-group taxa of parrots (Psittaciformes)". Zootaxa. 3205: 26–40.

Leeton, P.R.J.; Christidis, L.; Westerman, M.; Boles, W.E. (1994). "Molecular phylogenetic relationships of the Night Parrot (Geopsittacus occidentalis) and the Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus)". Auk. 111 (4): 833–843.

Lentini, Pia E.; Stirnemann, Ingrid A.; Stojanovic, Dejan; Worthy, Trevor H.; Stein, John A. (2018). "Using fossil records to inform reintroduction of the kakapo as a refugee species". Biological Conservation. 217: 157–165.  

Livezey, Bradley C. (July 1992). "Morphological corollaries and ecological implications of flightlessness in the kakapo (Psittaciformes: Strigops habroptilus)". Journal of Morphology. 213 (1): 105–145.

Lopez-Calleja, M. Victoria; Bozinovic, F. (2000). "Energetics and nutritional ecology of small herbivorous birds". Revista Chilena de Historia Natural. 73 (3): 411–420.

McNeilly, Hamish (10 January 2009). "Fry making kakapo doco". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 9 January 2009.

Merton, D. V. (1976). Conservation of the kakapo: a progress report. In Proc. Science in Nat. Parks. . National Parks Authority, Wellington, N.Z. National Parks Series No. 6: 139–148.

Merton, D. V.; Morris, R. B.; Atkinson, I. A. (1984). "Lek behaviour in a parrot: the kakapo Strigops habroptilus of New Zealand". Ibis. 126 (3): 277–283.

"News and updates from the Kākāpō Recovery Team". govt.nz. Retrieved 2 March 2019.

Powlesland, R. G.; Lloyd, B. D.; Best, H. A.; Merton, D. V. (1992). "Breeding Biology of the kakapo Strigops-Habroptilus on Stewart Island, New Zealand". Ibis. 134 (4): 361–373.

Powlesland, Ralph G.; Merton, Don V.; Cockrem, John F. (2006). "A parrot apart: the natural history of the kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), and the context of its conservation management". Notornis. 53 (1): 3–26.

Rheindt, Frank E.; Christidis, Les; Kuhn, Sylvia; de Kloet, Siwo; Norman, Janette A.; Fidler, Andrew (2013). "The timing of diversification within the most divergent parrot clade". Journal of Avian Biology. 45 (2): 140–148.

Starmer-Smith, Charles (1 February 2010). "Parrot that tried to mate with Mark Carwardine is given a government role". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 December 2018.

Sutherland, William J. (2002). "Conservation biology: Science, sex and the kakapo". Nature. 419 (6904): 265–266.

Thomas, Rachel (14 March 2016). "Kakapo to have genomes sequenced in a world first for science". Stuff.

White, Rebekah (September – October 2016). "Decoding Kākāpō". New Zealand Geographic. 141.

Williams, G. R. (1956). "The kakapo (Strigops habroptilus, Gray): a review and reappraisal of a near-extinct species". Notornis. 7 (2): 29–56.

Wood, Jamie R. (2016). "Spatial distribution of late Holocene bird bones in the Mason Bay dune system, Stewart Island, New Zealand". Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 46 (2): 103–116.

Worthy, T. H., and R. N. Holdaway. 1994. Quaternary fossil faunas from caves in Takaka Valley and on Takaka Hill, northwest Nelson, South Island, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 24(3):297-391

Worthy, T. H. 1998. A remarkable fossil and archaeological avifauna from Marfells Beach, Lake Grassmere, South Island, New Zealand. Records of the Canterbury Museum 12:79-176

Wright, T. F.; Schirtzinger, E. E.; Matsumoto, T.; Eberhard, J. R.; Graves, G. R.; Sanchez, J. J.; Capelli, S.; Muller, H.; Scharpegge, J.; Chambers, G. K.; Fleischer, R. C. (2008). "A Multilocus Molecular Phylogeny of the Parrots (Psittaciformes): Support for a Gondwanan Origin during the Cretaceous". Mol Biol Evol. 25 (10): 2141–2156.

[uncagedwolf]

Introducing: Rajani Jain

Full Name: Rajani Jain Hall(her husbands surename) Nick Name(s): Raj/Rani Age: Twenty six Pronouns: She/her S. Orientation: Bisexual R. Orientation: Prefers women but swings both ways.

Positive Traits: Compassionate, kind, empathic, outspoken, self-preserving Negative Traits: Temperamental, crass, ruthless, distant, skeptical Former Occupation: High school student, waitress at diner

Species: Werewolf. Active Powers: Shapeshifting, infectious bite, claws and fangs, super strength, enhanced agility, enhanced speed, stamina, enhanced senses, invulnerability, regeneration. Skills: Hyper awareness, good at hiding, lying, faking stories, excellent cook

Rank: Mistress Role: Dom, only submissive with her husband Turn-Ons: Total power exchange, bondage, anal, body worship, orgasm control, begging, submissive behavior, kindness, beauty, defenselessness, bravery, determination Turn-Offs: Scat, facials, forced submission, dominant males, viciousness, unfounded violence, disrespectful behavior, callousness

Biography

Rajani was raised in a loving and semi strict indian-english home in Hatfield UK. As the middle child she was always sort of passed over because she didn’t cause any waves or rebel/act out like her sisters and brothers did. They were a big family with seven siblings total. She was often teased by her siblings for being 'the perfect daughter' to their parents and they’d often bet each other on trying to convince Rajani to participate in anything their parents would disapprove of. In truth Rajani wasn’t perfect, but she was mild, quiet and naively kind to everyone around her. By the time she was seventeen, her and her boyfriend were already planning their wedding. They had been dating on and off since middle school and felt they were ready to start their lives together. While her mother especially thought it was a little early for a girl to wed, despite how their culture would encourage women to marry early, her parents supported her fully. It was only after the wedding that things took a turn for the worse. At first her husband began to display some possessive and aggressive tendencies towards Raj. He would forbid her to be alone with other males, more than once picking a fight with his brothers ending in blows when finding them alone with her. He demanded she quit her job as a waitress at her family’s diner and wanted her to stay home and inside as much as possible. His behavior in the bedroom changed as well as he suddenly wanted to call all the shots and asked her to refer to him as 'sir’ within the bedroom walls. As the kind girl that she was, Rajani tried to understand and bended when he demanded it, often trying to make him explain or open up to her about his behavioral changes or demands that she couldn’t understand. At first she didn’t put too much into his growing dominance, she had been raised to believe that the men were to have the final word, and know that as a wife it was her duty to support and stand by her husband, but with time she grew uncomfortable and anxious in his presence.

After a few odd months he decided to try and tell her the dark truth he and his entire family had hidden from her and hers. He was a werewolf, son to the alpha and his family expected him to change her. While she did not believe him at first, her beliefs drastically changed once he bit her without her consent and she shifted at the full moon two days later. After her first shift it was all but impossible to deny that werewolves were indeed real and she had become one. The day she accepted what she had become was also the day the soft spoken, mild and submissive girl disappeared. Rajani was enraged at her husband, and her anger caused her to shift uncontrollably as the rage took her over. How dare he turn her into a wolf without her permission? Why the hell hadn’t he told her anything prior to their wedding? After injuring her mother in law when she came to try and talk her down, Kumar felt he had no other choice than to lock her in a reinforced steel room the pack had created in his parents basement for young wolves. Rajani spent almost five months locked in, though during that time she decided that her marriage was over and that she would escape the second she could. Her eighteenth birthday had just passed when she was able to knock her husband unconscious and break out of the steel prison he had put her in. She ran and changed her name to Rani, using commonplace surnames whenever she had to. Her husbands pack have been hunting her on and off for the past six years, though during the last two she hasn’t run into any of them. Her hope is that he has finally given up and decided to leave her be. the two of them have only seen each other a few times since she escaped. once briefly in the woods as he was pursuing her, and once in an abandoned building she holed up in where he found her and tried to reason with her. Rajani views her marriage and all that followed to be a harsh life lesson, and it has definitely hardened her. She’s not sure she believes in love, and wonders if she even believes in mates. Her husband claimed she was his, but his actions say otherwise. She happened upon Thorn Haven a year ago and decided to try and settle there, given that there were lots of other supernaturals and she hasn’t really been immersed into such a community before. While she doesn’t use the slaves too often, she finds it to be a nice way to find someone to hook up with who she can control and have it all be on her terms. she rarely takes the unwilling or feisty ones though, not being one to resort to violence unless she looses her temper. she’ll rather use her words and her authority to get her way.

[maverick-werewolf]

Werewolf Fact #16 - Is Alpha, Beta, Omega really a thing?

So, is it?

In folklore? The answer is no.

In real life wolf behavior? Also no.

Don’t get me wrong. The alpha, beta, omega trope is fun. But is it accurate to any actual science about wolf behavior? Wolf researchers will argue a solid no - including the guy who originated the concept of alpha, beta, omega to begin with.

So let’s talk wolves!

In 1947, a fellow named Rudolph Schenkel - an animal behaviorist - published a paper called “Expressions Studies on Wolves.” He studied wolves in captivity in Switzerland, trying to figure out how their sociology worked. He decided that there were two “lead” wolves in a pack: the male wolf and his “bitch.” He also cited “violent” rivalry between other packmates. However, he doesn’t use the term “alpha wolf.” He originated the idea.

A backbone of Schenkel’s paper is the idea that wolves parallel domestic dogs in their society and behavior. He pretty much declared that domestic dogs and wolves have the same kind of pack hierarchy.

But he only studied wolves in captivity. And wolves in captivity behave very differently from wolves in the wild.

In 1970, David Mech released a book called The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species. In it, he created and used the term alpha wolf, and he continued to propagate the idea of wolf packs based around competitive hierarchies focused on dominance.

Mech’s book hit it big. It was published, reprinted, and became the foremost source of information on wolf sociology. A lot of modern conceptions of wolves come from this book, including and especially the idea of the pack hierarchy.

But now, Mech himself has said that a great deal of that research he did then, including the idea of an “alpha wolf,” isn’t really true.

How does that work? How exactly are wolves in captivity different from wolves in the wild?

Well, researchers today (including Mech, who has since performed studies on wild wolves) have a new theory: wolves in the wild live primarily in families. Two parents, younger pups.

There’s no particular “ranks,” there’s simply parents and children. Do the parents sometimes exert their dominance over the children? Yes, but that’s not terribly unlike any other species. The parents teach the kids how to fight, how to hunt, and occasionally have to remind them who’s boss, as long as they’re still following their parents around. They didn’t win their role as leaders in some kind of wolf dominance fight - they have that role because they’re the parents of their pups that form their pack.

As they get older, adult wolves sometimes will split off from their original pack and “disperse” (this is where we get the term “disperser wolf,” if you’ve ever heard it), setting out to create packs - families - of their own.

This is why no other wolf mates with the “alpha female,” “lead beta female,” or whatever else you’ve heard her called. It’s because the “alpha female” is their mom, not necessarily because of some social structure and vying to mate with her.

And guess what? You got it. Wolves mate for life, and they have extremely powerful family bonds (among siblings as well).

Do unrelated wolves sometimes enter into existing packs? Maybe. Do younger wolves ever specifically overthrow the “alpha”/dad in the wild and take over the pack? Not that researchers have seen so far.

Does that mean wolves don’t have any sense of social dominance? By no means. Most animals, especially social animals (wolves and humans alike), have plenty of social dominance behaviors. There have been cases of, for instance - as Mech cited - an adult wolf pinning and displaying dominance over a younger packmate for several minutes, most likely and/or maybe because that wolf was about to disperse and try to form his own pack.

This is less about behavior and more about the pack structure itself.

Neat, right?

Long story short: wolf packs are wolf families. Wolves mate for life. Wolves do display social dominance behavior, and yeah, being the concept we have of trying to be “top dog” among what we used to call “beta wolves” is really just misunderstood sibling rivalry. Wolves go to amazing lengths to protect each other and protect the pack. We even have some cases of wolves burying their dead.

Wolves are amazing, and learning about their behavior and social structure is frankly one of my favorite research topics that isn’t folklore-related.

Alpha werewolves of pop culture, of course, aren’t by any means the same idea as wolf packs, since we have all the complications of werewolves infecting each other (which does usually result in that werewolf being the bitten person’s alpha/”father” in media), etc., and all these other factors. (And yes, wolves are also territorial, so all your “territorial werewolf” behavior is certainly still accurately wolfish enough!)

So, yes, it’s very different. This isn’t by any means a call to stop writing fun stories about your alpha werewolves (I’ve occasionally enjoyed that trope, too). It’s just something to be aware of!

(If you like my werewolf blog, be sure to check out my other stuff!

Patreon --- YouTube --- Wulfgard --- Werewolf Fact Masterlist --- Twitter)

[bachelorette-pnw]

Season 14, Episode 3: “Second childhood”

This week’s two main plot points were a contrived meeting between Colton and Tia (snooze) and the sad departure of Clay, who was genuinely a standout hubby candidate and nice person. The contrast between Clay—a sweet, family-oriented man who is willing to be vulnerable and soft in front of other men—and Reek (the male model), a physical embodiment of toxic masculinity, was particularly striking this week. There were a lot of puffed-up chests, shoulder-clapping, and high-fiving. Pushups and sports. It was an Old Spice wet dream.

Reek exists to remind the other men in the mansion how to abide by masculine norms, calling people ‘bitches’ when they fall out of line and generally being horrible. If a medieval sculptor wanted to create an allegorical figure that embodied Toxic Masculinity to set beside Synagogia and Philosophia, Reek would be it. His greatest crime, though, according to the other men, is how much time he spends picking out his clothes. In other words, they code his flaws as feminine and react to his outbursts with amusement rather than antagonism; they are not threatened.

Reek gets a rose:

A particularly telling moment about this attitude toward femininity takes place in the spa, when Becca’s girlfriends cheerfully paint the men’s nails (a moment of gender play we all remember from high school, a way of testing boys’ sense of security). The men put up with the exercise because they think it is comical: Isn’t it silly to try to look pretty as a man? Isn’t being a girl stupid? Hardly an attitude that seems appropriate when the goal is to win over a woman, but there you go. In The Bachelorette universe, nail polish on men does not signify a loosening gender binary, but rather a joke about how humiliating it is to come across as feminine. Reek overcompensates for his pickiness about clothing by calling men ‘bitches,’ tearing into Chicken Suit Guy for being a wuss, emphasizing his ‘professionality’ in dealing with women (as if they are transactions to be handled), and generally abiding by the more sinister features of toxic bro code.

Yes, he is wearing a chicken suit:

Speaking of bro code: David, our venture capitalist Chicken Suit Guy, overhears Reek telling a ridiculous story about his 100% match rate after 4,000 swipes on Tinder. Chicken Guy decides to tell this to Becca; he is a child telling on someone to a teacher. He speaks almost in a whisper, face and hand gestures like a sculpture titled, ‘So lame, right?’ Later, Becca high-fives Reek in front of the group, congratulating him on his conquests, and he feels burned. Reek is the villain, no doubt, yet he comes off looking good by comparison. Chicken Guy looks around for reassurance: ‘You all thought what he was saying was ridiculous? Right, guys? Right?’ But Chicken Guy broke the bro code, rule 112, stating ‘thou shalt not divulge to women the dealings of men.’ Reek was being particularly stupid by bragging about his match rate on a show where he is supposedly trying to meet a soulmate. You never see him having a one-on-one with the camera talking about how ‘he really thinks he is falling for her’ (most of them do it and we want to throw garbage at them). But, competition aside, Chicken Guy’s betrayal threatens the men: he removed a safe space for everyone. They need to be able to talk about the gross stuff they need to talk about. You know, locker room talk. Grab ‘em by the pussy kind of stuff. Becca probably deserves to know that some of these dudes are assholes (though let’s be honest, she already knows; Reek is fooling no one but Reek). Even so, Chicken Guy is shunned because he divulged the foolish ramblings of one man to a woman. It is as though they all know they are full of shit, collectively, and someone broke rank. That’s not how this works, Chicken Guy, we are here to win someone (or something in Reek’s case). Winning is more important than emotion.

Fan favorite and all around real person Clay:

The group dates reinforce the importance of physical prowess, whereas the one-on-one dates force emotional vulnerability. Clay unfortunately falls victim to the physical competition of the group date and breaks his wrist during a football game, which sucks because he is actually an NFL player and needs his wrist to work. He is carried home on the sacrificial altar of bro code. His departure is telling: here is this BFG (big friendly giant, big fucking dude, whatever you want) who by all accounts shouldn’t be on the show. He is friendly and sincere, earnest and vulnerable. He is does not appear overly bright, nor does he appear overly dim. This is his biggest strength. He seems to care sincerely about the going-ons of the other competitors, who would eagerly feed this teddy bear through a meat grinder if it meant they could hump Becca’s leg for 30 seconds. While all of these other doofy bros twiddle their finely-manicured mustaches and bump into walls, Clay simply is. His strategy is that he is Clay and he likes Becca. Butterflies land on him as he reads the Bible in a park. He is not very exciting, but so what? He is as constant as the North Star.

In contrast to this effective display of physical prowess, Chad—or no, Chris—we literally can’t keep all these white bros straight—is put to the test of emotional vulnerability during a one-on-one date at Capitol Records. The minimum requirement of a ‘one-on-one’ is to open up about your past, your family life, your relationships, to lay on the table all your various hang-ups from previous experiences and beg for understanding. (Preferably before tongue kissing). The more baggage the better, as long as you cop to it. ChadChris struggles with this because his dad left when he was seven and rejected his attempts to reunite later. In other words, Chris’s emotional toolbox is fucked. But he has to do well: if Becca doesn’t give him a rose at dinner, he will have to go home, missing out on his only chance at love. He slumps in the hallway of Capitol Records, full of anguish. There is real pain here and it sucks to watch. Becca snuggles up for a pep talk, reminding us of a mom encouraging her adolescent son. He finds the courage to write a sweet song for her and passes the test.

We have mixed feelings about getting vulnerable on first dates. On the one hand it makes sense because the contestants have a limited amount of time to get to know each other, and ‘opening up’ early on is really the only way to ramp up to a proposal that feels authentic at the end. But in this environment, opening up to another person doesn’t happen naturally, as it would in real life—it has to happen on the first date. These circumstances create an uncomfortable pressure that violates the rules of consent. You HAVE TO talk about your childhood and past relationships and be vulnerable or you will be kicked off. In a world that shames men for expressing emotions, this message is very damaging: a person should never be required to be vulnerable on command, to shed their protective walls when they are in a state of threat. Those walls are there for a reason. See a therapist! Forcing someone to open up in this way is wrongful. It teaches us that the woman in the relationship is responsible for, or in control of, a man’s ability to express vulnerability; she dictates when and where he does it, and he must do it for her benefit, not his own. For example, if a guy expresses his jealousy during the cocktail party, resenting having to share Becca with other men, she tells him that it’s just part of the process and he has to buckle up. Emotional vulnerability happens in prearranged spaces as a test of a man’s adherence to the contrived progression of the relationship, remaining a tool in the hands of women. How progressive is that?

The thrill of watching these men be horrible to each other is, we have to admit, part of the fun. If the show was all Clay all day it would be boring. In a way, voyeurism allows us to maintain a separation between what we consider to be the fantasy world of the show and real life. We are determined, as viewers, to be skeptical of the process because we don’t want to ruin our own ideals of courtship. If it is true that a person is able to find Neruda-esque love on a show like this, then we, in the real world, are doing it all wrong, casting about randomly for a mate when things could be arranged. Could you find love like this? If enough data about you and your interests and values were all accurately mapped, and potential suitors chosen from that criteria? And all you had to do was put up with the idiots who make the show interesting? What if The Bachelorette producers actually love the idea of love? A manufactured environment where men have to compete with you and are forced to say nice things all the time—that’s actually a pretty nice fantasy for a single woman. It’s an appealingly simplified way of finding love. You go on several romantic, very expensive dates, you open up and feel refreshingly vulnerable, you make out, and BOOM you’re ready to get engaged. Nobody is ever busy; nobody ghosts you. There’s no one else in the world except some villains trying to keep you apart. It’s like Disney.  

The show knows it is ridiculous. They are kind of inviting you bring a bat and hit the piñata. They have built their very own Disney playground where forty Gastons vie for Belle’s affection on a weekly basis, with some WWE theatrics thrown in. Much like Disney, the behavior and overwhelming lack of people of color makes the show almost like vintage satire: wealthy ruffians engage in fisticuffs for the admiration of a fine southern belle. It is hard to know if the show is kidding or not. We hope the departure of Mr. Congeniality is not a bad omen.

[shartistic]

Why is there Sex Playboy 1984 Feb

Man and Woman, Part II: The Sexual Deal: A Story Of Civilization Homo sapiens. Types: male and female. Age: about 400,000, with known ancestors of 3,500,000. Distribution: virtually entire surface of planet Earth. Societies: agricultural and industrial, with a few primitive hunter-gatherers. Mode of reproduction: sexual. Nearest living relative: chimpanzee. Characteristics: intelligent, dominant, highly sexed. Question: Why? A visitor from another galaxy who materialized here with limitless funds would have a hard time explaining to her distant bosses why human men and women dominate the earth. Where would she begin? We're not the biggest species, after all---the blue whale is 1000 times larger. We're not the longest-living---a bristlecone pine can outlast 150 human generations. We're not anything like as numerous as birds. And we don't reproduce particularly fast---other species can do in 20 minutes what takes us nine months. Only two things, in fact, combine to make us in any way special. The ratio between our brain weight and our body mass is the highest on earth; and we are by far the sexiest creatures on the planet. Our closest cousins are chimpanzees, with whom we share 98.5 percent of our genes. And scientists agree that a cross between a chimp and a human being is entirely possible; the Chinese are said to have tried it before they were rudely interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. How they went about it, before the days of test-tube babies, no one knows. And what the sexual behavior of the result might have been fairly boggles the mind. For a chimp's sex life is a pretty sorry business compared with ours. Chimp males, it is true, may be said to have an advantage over us human males---their testicles are three times larger than ours and they produce huge amounts of sperm. But that's only because they have to compete with one another all the time. Male chimps have sex only when an individual female comes into heat---after two or three years, if she's pregnant or nursing an infant. They usually have to queue up for it. And when the time comes to do what they've been waiting for, the whole thing is over in seven seconds. By contrast, we humans have fun. And we look as if we were designed for it: All the necessary equipment is carried up front, permanently on display. We're hairless, for maximum visibility and sensitivity. We tend to copulate face to face, to have as much personal contact as possible---though there are as many variations on this theme as there is human ingenuity. And we do it more often. Human beings aren't hidebound by breeding seasons and breeding cycles, as are chimpanzees and the rest of nature. We have sex not only for reproduction but for pleasure as well. That's something our intrepid intergalactic anthropologist would notice very quickly. And she'd notice, as she scanned the species, two other things that humans characteristically do that seem to be related to all this sexual delight. First, we're basically monogamous, unlike almost all other primates except the gibbon and the siamang. And, second, we have a division of labor between the sexes; there seems to be an agreement about who does what. Of a total of 224 societies listed in George Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas, 158 list cooking as a strictly female activity and only five say it's exclusively male. Hunting is done by males in 166 societies out of 179 and never exclusively by females. And it's the same story with other jobs about the house and hut. Males are almost always responsible for lumbering, metalworking, fishing and the making of musical instruments. And females, by and large, take over weaving, clothes making and the preparation of drinks and narcotics. This sort of division of labor is unique in nature, except among birds. Having understood this much, our visitor from outer space would want to try to put two and two together for her report. Large brains, pleasure, monogamy, sexiness and division of labor: Could those explain why human beings have come to dominate the planet Earth? Could sex and sexuality, after all, be at the heart of it? And if she wanted to answer those questions, she'd have to go a long way back in history: past our first settlements a mere 15,000 years ago, past our first tools and past our beginnings---backward in evolutionary time and out into nature, to the species that have been around for millions and even billions of years, long before our arrival. And there she'd have to ask two further questions that are basic to who we are, questions that the population of her galaxy---all female---are desperate to have answered. Why does sex exist? And why do males exist? Sex may be fun, but it isn't necessary. Consider, for example, the many species of lizard biologist David Crews keeps in his laboratory at Harvard. Three of them are particularly interesting; for when a female of one of those species is about to ovulate, she is mounted by another lizard and what looks a lot like sex takes place. There is much biting, lashing of tails and juxtaposition of sexual organs. It is not, however, sex---at least not in the way we usually think of it. Because all lizards of those three species are female. Like at least 24 other species of reptiles and like the people of our imaginary visitor's galaxy, they specialize in virgin birth---parthenogenesis---and have single-parent families of female offspring exactly like themselves. The sex they have has a function. It makes them lay more eggs more often. But it has nothing to do with fertilization. They reproduce on their own, without any need for help from males. They have done away with them and will never need them again, even if Crews manages to make some males by injecting their eggs with male hormones. Pity, then, the poor male lizard. And take warning. For the same thing could conceivably happen in humans. Some biologists believe that were the gene for parthenogenesis to appear in any longlived species that inhabits a stable environment, as we do, it would take over and eventually consign both males and sex to oblivion. We would become like dandelions, bananas, pineapples, Washington navel oranges and the occasional turkey---as well as like our female observer and Crews's lizards. We would be born without benefit of sex and in our case, too, all female. Some feminists would argue that the world would be better off that way; and if you look at males in most of nature, you'll probably agree. For males in nature are by and large rather useless creatures, good only for one thing. They contribute far less to the reproduction of their species than females do. They're usually smaller than females (the largest creature on earth is, in fact, a female blue whale). They almost never help out with the kids. They die young (only human eunuchs live as long as human females) and when they're alive, they behave in extremely foolish ways. They fight among themselves---male mites battle to the death---for the privilege of a mating. They also expose themselves to predators when they strut their stuff---for example, only male fireflies take to the air for a flashing session; the female is safe in the underbrush. Males commit themselves to hopelessly elaborate evolutionary strategies, such as the swagger matches of reindeer and their massive investment in useless antlers. And very often, males have no clear idea of who or what to date. A male fly will try it with a raisin; a male butterfly, with a falling leaf. And male frogs and toads will optimistically attach themselves to a rock or a stone or a passing boot. Being a male, in other words, is in most species a difficult, dangerous, nasty and hit-or-miss business. Nature has designed males to do anything to achieve reproductive success; that's all nature is interested in. And the price for that success is sometimes very high. Male marsupial shrews, for instance, get a fatal dose of stereoid hormones when they copulate. Male Neotropical frogs virtually starve themselves to death as they wait weeks or even months on the back of a female for her eggs to mature. And male angler fish, just to perform their reproductive duty, commit an awesome form of suicide. They latch on with pincers to the body of a female, become a part of her skin surface and circulatory system, lose their eyes and fins in the process and end up becoming about a hundredth of her size. All that for one tiny moment of glory, when the female releases her eggs into the water to be fertilized. It's no wonder, then, given the rotten time most males seem to have of it, that those few males that have the option--- some coral-reef fish, for instance---actually fight with each other for the right to become female. The majority of males don't have that option. Like humans, they're locked into whatever evolution gave them---from the 18 different patterns in the courtship dance of the American grasshopper to the bull elephant's unwieldy 60-pound penis to whatever lurks in the collective psyche at a big-city singles bar. They're locked into the evolved expression of their male sexuality. All of which may come as something of a surprise to human males who think of themselves as varied and sophisticated, newly arrived and in the game only for pleasure. But we, too, evolved a long time ago. And we, too, are subject to this basic law of nature: that the only way a male can reproduce himself and pass on his genes to the next generation is to find a mate, compete for her and do whatever she thinks necessary. If males, including human males, don't do this---if they don't make it through the struggle and don't come up to snuff with the female---then they're on a one-way ticket to reproductive oblivion. And whatever genes they carried that produced their particular disability---their choice of pleasure over conception, their urge to stay home and not bother, their weakness, their muffing of the courtship dance or their lack of attractive pizzazz---will disappear from the population. Only the genes for whatever it took to survive and reproduce with a female will remain: the biggest, the bravest, the most persistent, the most punctual and the most colorfully decorated. That is the way the world turns, for males. With the female in charge of the manufacturing end of reproduction, males are only in the service business and they must jump to the female's tune. Irven DeVore, a Harvard anthropologist, is certain about this. "Males," he says unequivocally, "are a vast breeding experiment run by females." The question is, though: What on earth for? It's clear that the existence of sex is of vital importance for males in nature; without it, they wouldn't be around. But what's in it for females? Sexual reproduction, after all, takes time and energy (in flatworms, which can reproduce with or without sex, it takes 15 percent more time and 25 percent more energy). And it also presents a female with several serious problems. First, she has to find and risk having close to her a potentially dangerous partner. Second, she has to find a way of making sure she's mating with an individual of the right species. And, third, she has to take a gamble on whether or not the male's sperm will enable her to produce fit offspring. Some of the winnowing out of males has already been done, of course, by the rigors of the environment and by male-male competition. But a female's eggs are still more expensive to produce than a male's sperm---in birds, the egg can represent as much as a quarter of a female's body weight: and in humans, men can produce in half a second more sperm (the smallest cells in their bodies) than a woman can produce eggs in her whole lifetime. A female, then, is forced to be more choosy than a male. In humans, a moment's indiscretion with the wrong sperm can cost a woman an egg that would have been better invested elsewhere, not to mention nine months of pregnancy and a lot of bringing up baby. All that, you would think, would encourage the female of the species to find some other means of reproduction. And there is an even stronger and more important reason why she should. It is that, quite apart from all the inconvenience and fuss, sex---evolutionarily speaking, (continued on page 186) Man and Woman (continued from page 98) from the point of view of her genes---is a bad option for her. For if she has survived up to this point, after all, she has very good genes; they've traveled down to her, from the year dot, only through reproductively successful organisms. So why should she want to break up a winning combination? Why should she want to throw away half her genes, shuffle them up in the process and take another shuffled half from another individual, usually a perfect stranger? Why should she give up the reproductive edge her genes have already got? And why should she waste time and resources producing males? "It's no use saying, 'Well, it's for the good of the species,' " says Martin Daly. Daly is a Darwinian psychologist, now at McMaster University in Canada, who has long been interested in why he exists. "The female doesn't know anything about species and she doesn't do anything at the beck and call of evolutionary theorists," he says. "No, there has to be something in it for her. That's all she's interested in, herself and her offspring; or, put another way, that's all her genes are interested in, themselves and their continuation. Selection takes place at the level of the individual. And that's where we have to look for whatever advantage it is that sex brings. By choosing sex, you see---as George Williams of Stanford has pointed out---the female has on the face of it put her genes at a 50 percent disadvantage; only half of them are transmitted. So we have to find a corresponding 50 percent advantage that sex must offer. What can that advantage be? It has to be something enormous. She's at a 50 percent disadvantage, remember, and we know that the genes for even a one percent disadvantage will very quickly disappear from any population, other things being equal." Daly and his wife, Margo Wilson, a research associate at McMaster, recently wrote a book called Sex, Evolution and Behavior. In it. they come to no firm conclusions about the origins of sex, but they do suggest what it's good for---adaptation in the face of bad times. "Look, all we've got to go on is what's in nature," says Daly, a dry, funny man in his late 30s who delights in bringing us humans down to size by calling us "H. saps." "And, luckily, nature has given us an unbelievable-variety of life, from bacteria all the way to H. saps. Bacteria aren't much use, because they don't use sex very much, even though they're about 6000 times older than we are and the most numerous and most successful organisms on earth. And H. saps aren't much use, because they're already committed to this thing we're trying to explain. "But between them are a number of species that are sometimes sexual and sometimes asexual. And they seem to have one overriding thing in common. As long as the going is good, as long as there's not too much competition, they put all their money on the asexual option. They produce females. But if there's overcrowding or they're faced with an imminent collapse, they opt for sex. They produce males." Just like human beings in wartime, in other words, who take sex wherever they can because they may not survive, so a whole host of creatures switch to it when their way of life is threatened. For females in nature, hard times are responsible for the fact of sex, as well as for the act of sex. Males become necessary. In species where there is an option of being either male or female, males are almost always found where the environment makes survival tough going. So far, so good, O people of the galaxy. But why is there so much sex on this planet? Birds do it. Bees do it---actually, only some bees do it. Even uneducated little fleas do it. We do it. And we and they do it all the time. Somewhere along the line, a few billion years ago. there must have been a switch to sex and it must have stuck. Why? Put it this way. Males are a pretty good idea when it comes to females' competing against an uncertain future. Males are usually smaller, they mature faster and their sex cells are cheaper to produce. So, from a female's point of view, males are an efficient way of storing their genes when resources are scarce. And they're also a good way of making sure that copies of at least some of those precious genes are passed on to the next generation. Males, after all, produce enormous numbers of sex cells---with the female parent's genes inside them. And so, if they survive to maturity, there's a good chance that at least one of those little gene loads, and maybe more, will find a home in an organism that has retained the option of being female. That is a much better prospect for her genes than simply continuing to make 100 percent copies of themselves; she's not doing well in the environment she's got and they're not going to do any better. A much better plan, then, is to make males, have sex, mix up genes and start again. For the next generation will all be different from one another, and there's a chance that some of them will have what it takes to cope and carry on. But that still doesn't explain why females took up sex full time. rather than keep it for an occasional option. We, for example, don't seem to have been faced with a continuous chain of emergencies throughout our history. Nor does any other sexual species that we know of. So why don't human females simply make clones of themselves and keep men in reserve, in case of disaster? For an answer, we have to go back in time, back to how the idea occurred in the first place. The search takes us to the primordial ooze, by way of a tall question mark of an Englishman named William Hamilton. A biologist at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Hamilton believes that the only way a sexual population can beat out an asexual one is for it to be permanently under threat from outside---from parasites. "Men and women," Hamilton says carefully amid the clutter of his university office, "are descended from the first multicellular organisms. And I've always been puzzled by how those organisms could survive. They're at a distinct disadvantage against their smaller enemies. They're more complicated. so they grow and reproduce much more slowly, which makes them vulnerable, evolutionarily speaking. Because when one organism is trying to figure out a way into another, and the other is trying to figure out a way to keep it out. evolution favors the one that breeds quicker. Mutations will give it better ideas faster, and it will win. Unless, and only unless, the bigger organism can figure out a new genetic trick to level the odds. "And I think that trick was sex," Hamilton continues, "the mixing of genes between two of the organisms to make new arrangements---new passwords, perhaps---to keep the parasites out. That would now give the multicellular an edge in this evolutionary game of catch-up, but only a small edge. And so, as it gets larger, all the way down to us, sex would constantly be selected for. Sex would have to go on. "All right. That's maybe why there is sex. But why are there sexes? Exchanging genes, after all, doesn't necessarily mean that there should be any difference between the two exchangers. When bacteria use sex, for example, there's no difference that can be found. "Well, here I think science does have an answer. When the evolutionary step toward sex is taken by a multicellular organism, cells specifically for sex will tend to be produced. But there's an inherent instability that acts against there always being of the same size. And the pressures of competition will begin. Those pressures will favor slightly larger sex cells than usual. And those, in turn, will make for cheats, smaller sex cells than usual, produced in greater numbers to compete for the bigger ones. From then on, the pattern becomes clearer and clearer. The small sex cells become more and more competitive---they become highly mobile, they learn to swim---while the large sex cells become immobile and fixed. The cheats become sperm and the cells for which they compete become eggs. And that's what we end up with. Sperm and eggs. Small investors and large investors. Cheats and straight shooters. Males and females." This may not seem very romantic, but from it all blessings flow. For now you has sex. Now you has males. And now you has all the incredible, teeming variety of sex in nature: male mites that fertilize their sisters while still inside their mother, and so die before they are born; the female scorpion fly that insists on a titbit from her prospective lovers, and her transvestite brother---in drag---that tries to con poor unsuspecting males out of their nuptial gifts; the ingenuity and elaborate pleasures of human beings. Not to forget what British researcher Tim Clutton-Brock has called the "sneaky fucker strategy" in red-deer stags. Among those animals, the dominant males spend a great deal of time showing off their wares to one another. Less dominant males will have none of that; instead, while the big boys are quarreling, they sneak around back and get it on with the females. In nature, it doesn't matter how you play the game, as long as you win. Reproductive success is the name of this game, and the table is almost always run by the female. With a much bigger investment now at stake, it's up to her to be choosy about what genes she accepts into her eggs. That's why the delay of courtship suits her purposes well. Males, characteristically, have a different strategy. Their sperm costs little and they can have multiple matings. So it is in their interests to spread their genes across as many females as possible---to go all the way on the first date and then move on. That would be fine, if there were always more females than males in the population. But genetic rules ordain that there will always be, roughly speaking, equal numbers. Which means that males will have to compete with one another; some can be big winners in the game and others will have to be losers. If a king can take 3333 wives, after all, as he could by law in one African nation, then there'll be roughly 3332 other men left without any. The same is true in nature. On the face of it, this system---this rat-race polygamy---may look as if it works to the disadvantage of the female. But, remember, she's interested only in the successful reproduction of her genes. So the system actually works hugely to her advantage. Because if the males spend their time competing---sorting out the toughest, most ambitious and most resilient genes from the weaker and less capable---it makes her job of selection that much easier. She wants resources, after all, sometimes just the resources of good genes, and so fair play is the last thing on her mind. In many species, in fact, perhaps including our own, females actively encourage all the Sturm und Drang. In sand bees, females remain resolutely below the surface, so that a male will have to dig down to them while fighting off other males. In coyotes, females will deliberately delay mating until a large number of males have arrived. And in the Uganda kob, the handsomest of the African antelopes, females stroll through the stamping ground, where the males are fighting and jockeying with one another; the females are inspecting the goods, as if in a sexual meat market. (Think again of the singles bar, gentlemen, and reconsider who's really in charge.) If you think this is pretty antisocial behavior on the part of all concerned, you're right. "Sex," as E. O. Wilson, one of the founders of sociobiology, wrote, "is an antisocial force in evolution." In a sense, it is also the most deadly for males. For in all of this, males, even human males, die young: not because they kill each other off, and not because they are forced to become conspicuous, though both help, but because selection is interested only in their reproductive ability and not in any genes that might help stave off their death after reproductive age. The males in most species aren't involved, as we've said, in bringing up the children. So once they've done their duty to Mother Nature, they are expendable. While they're alive, of course, they have one other task demanded of them by the female: to court her. Courtship in nature takes many forms, and sometimes it works to protect males, who can find out in the process whether or not a female has already been inseminated (a long engagement will always tell). But, for the most part, courtship is no more than a job-application system designed by the female employer. First, is the applicant of the right species? ("Are you my type?") Second, can he perform the foreplay necessary to bring the female to ovulation? ("Can you make nice?") Third, can he do anything else to demonstrate that he has good genes? ("What's so special about you?") (Nature---and human society---is full of demonstrations of resources, chases, forced journeys and other tests imposed on the male by the female.) Fourth, and most interestingly, perhaps, is the applicant aesthetically pleasing? ("What's your wardrobe like?") Males in nature are almost always more exotically colored and elaborately ornamented than females. And it's clear that those features have been selected for by females, other things being equal, for their own enjoyment. Males are a vast breeding experiment run by females. And females have not only designed them, they have also, by being in charge of reproduction, ordered the kinds of society in which they'll live. Take the king of beasts, for example. No, take the queen of beasts; lionesses run faster and do most of the hunting. A pride of lions consists of a number of lionesses, usually interrelated, and two larger males, unrelated, who are needed for protection against other lions that might invade the pride and kill the females' cubs. One lion isn't enough for this job. How, though, to avoid competition between those two males? How to make them work together? Simple. Whenever the females come into heat, they do so all at the same time. From then on, for two or three days, they all require copulation every 15 or so minutes. And by the time the mating session is over, the males are too exhausted to know which is whose, what is why or which end is up. Result? Peace at home and protection guaranteed. The females get what they want. They always do. Selfish females never allow equally selfish males a say in the way their society operates unless the environment demands it, or unless they have successfully bred males to do something more useful to themselves and their offspring than just provide sperm. Male and female strategies will always make for male-male competition, polygamy and disposable, interchangeable males, unless males can be encouraged into a line of work that has a direct effect on the females' reproductive success. What is that line of work in primates, the creatures closest to us? The protection racket. What is that line of work in man? Male parenting. The quality and intensity of paternal care that a male human gives to his offspring sets him off from all the other primates. It has also been his salvation, for male parenting rewrites the rules of the relationship between males and females. It equalizes the unequal struggle between the sexes. And it is almost certainly the one thing that will save human sex and human males from the dark waters of forgetfulness, if the genes for parthenogenesis---virgin birth---ever reappear in the population of Daly's H. saps. Since the days males first came into existence---prodded by parasites, if Hamilton is right---male parenting in return for female-male monogamy has been the best deal they've ever made. To understand why, we have to look where Daly told us we should look, for an advantage at the individual's level. What's in it for a man, or, rather, for his genes? For, obviously, they now face a giant disability: What with feeding the wife and taking care of the kids, they can't spread themselves all over the place as they once could, given a certain amount of perseverance and luck. So what's the new benefit they receive? Well, in the old days of competition, "sneaky fuckers" and multiple mating---which may well survive within us in some form---who knew whose sperm was getting through to whose egg, to deliver up the genetic goods? At least now the male, by committing himself to a female, can have some confidence that her offspring are also his, because she'll want what he provides enough not to screw around. This means that competition with other males now becomes counterproductive: A male who leaves home for a fling can't ever be sure that there isn't another male knocking at his door. It means that a male will live slightly longer, since nature now has an interest in his survival through child-care years. And it means that a male can now give the 50 percent of his genes that are in his children a far better chance of surviving to pass them on. His children can be carefully prepared for the environment in which they will find themselves. They can stay young and dependent longer. That, of course, makes male parenting the best show in town as far as the female is concerned. Consequently, it's in her interests to promote it with the full force of her genes, because now she can get back the advantage she lost when she was forced to abandon asexual reproduction and take up sex. She gives up her independence, it's true. She can't make a date on a whim with the best new genes available. And she has to put up with the burden of her male mate's needs. The advantages, however, far outweigh those costs. For, with male assistance and resources, she can perhaps double the number of her offspring and the number of genes she personally can contribute to the next generation. And, like the male, she can make sure they get off to the best possible start in life. Sexual access and some guarantee of paternity, in exchange for more resources than the female can command herself, all for the good of the children; that is the basic trade-off involved in monogamy. Ninety percent of birds have made it. Gibbons and siamangs have made it. And Owen Lovejoy, professor of anthropology at Kent State University, believes that in our species, not only was that trade-off made millions of years ago by our ancestors, it was also responsible for human civilization. "Anthropologists have always argued," Lovejoy says, "that it is the use of tools that separates man from all the other primates. Tools, big brain, language and upright posture; they all somehow come together in one evolutionary bundle. And I think that's nonsense. For me, there's only one thing that can explain all the things we want to have explained: walking on two legs, intelligence, culture, dominance. And that's the mating and parent-care pattern that evolved in our species---the division of labor for greater reproductive success. Monogamy. We'll never find it in fossil form, of course, but I believe it is absolutely fundamental to human evolution. Right at the core." Lovejoy is a bearded, tough-minded man in his 30s, another of a new generation of scientists bucking old assumptions and facing up to old unanswered questions. He holds positions in human anatomy and orthopedic surgery, as well as in anthropology. He has worked in close association with Donald Johanson, the discoverer, in Ethiopia, of Lucy, the skeleton of the earliest-known upright-walking hominid. And the day we meet him, he has been confirming for the sheriff's department the identity of yet another skeleton, a human one he calls Joey, the headless, handless victim of a recent gangland slaying in nearby Ashtabula County. We talk for several hours in an offcampus restaurant, a favorite haunt of Lovejoy's. "Look," he says almost as soon as he sits down, "I'm an early type. And we early types aren't interested in what's gone on in the past 400,000 or 500,000 years. We're interested in the long haul of human evolution. And that's what makes Lucy so fascinating. Because she presents us with a problem. First, she's three and a half million years old---older than any tools or human culture we know of. Second, she's not very smart---she has a primitive skull much like an ape's. But third---despite all that---she had a body that was fully upright and she could walk in exactly the same way you walked in here. Now, why would she need to do that? To hunt? To avoid predators? No. She'd be much better off on all fours: Upright humans can do only about 40 percent of the speed of the patas monkey; they can only just outrun a fast snake; and their walking speed's about the same as a chicken's. Hardly what you'd want in the dangerous open grasslands hominids are supposed to have evolved in after they left the forest. To feed? No. The teeth of Lucy's species show they were generalist eaters. And you don't need upright posture in the savanna on that diet. Why, then?" Lovejoy leans on the question. "The answer is simple, it seems to me. Lucy's species---Australopithecus afarensis, our earliest known ancestors---were food carriers. And long before they moved out into the open, they carried food to one another. "No big deal, you might think. Very big deal. Because, to exist, an adaptation as big as this has got to show a reproductive advantage. The enormous anatomical change necessary for this behavior must have to do with survival and reproductive success. It's not just early men suddenly deciding to be nice to one another for no reason. Where would be the incentive? Well, there obviously was an incentive. And I propose that it was the result of a new deal between males and females and a new way of bringing up offspring---the whole thing cemented by sex. "The best way to see what I mean," Lovejoy continues, "is to look at chimps, our nearest living relative. Chimps mature very slowly, just like humans. They have biggish brains, and they use rudimentary tools and weapons and they walk upright once in a while. But the one thing they don't do is forage for one another. A mother, carrying and often dropping and damaging her infant, has to fend for herself. That means that a female chimp can only manage one infant at a time. Her birth rate is very low. And the result is that chimps are barely able to maintain their population---they're becoming extinct. They've never been able to leave the forest where they evolved." Lovejoy chomps on a hamburger as the spirit of our intergalactic explorer hovers somewhere overhead. "Early man, you see, faced the same problem. And evolutionarily speaking, there's only one way round it. Put up the calorie intake of the female," he says, waving lunch, "and allow her to spend more time parenting---preferably in a protected spot---so that she can take care of more than one infant at a time. The male, in other words, has got to start providing food. How can he do that? He can't carry it in his mouth, as foxes and birds do. He has to walk upright and use his hands. Why should he do that? What does he get in return? Reliable sex and reliable care for his genetic investment." There are two essential differences between human females and the females of all other species. Humans don't advertise or announce when they are fertile---their rear ends don't go red. And they are continuously sexually receptive. A woman can and will take on a man more often than once a month. Lovejoy believes that those, too, were very early adaptations and that they must have appeared as part of one evolutionary package about the same time as male provisioning and general upright posture. And that would make good sense. For if the female could find a way of concealing when she was fertile, she could manage to do two things: She could force her male to stay with her throughout her cycle, if high on his agenda was successfully producing children. And, at the same time, she could discourage strange males from competing with him and undermining his confidence in his paternity. Being willing all the time can now be added to this strategy as a reinforcer. For if the committed male can get it regularly enough from one source, he will give up any catting around he might still be inclined to do and concentrate on bringing home the necessary bacon to where he can get it. That is the beginning of recreational sex; and it has nothing to do, evolutionarily speaking, with its later history of philandery and one-night stands. Quite the contrary. It is the gilding of the lily, the final setting of the seal, on the bed-centered nuclear family. And from it, all that we think of as human flows. "This new arrangement," continues Lovejoy, "is extremely democratic; with one on one, most males can now find mates. It enlarges the social group---which is a huge advantage. It's highly socializing, rather than antisocial, because you now have double parents, families, kinship systems: Everyone knows who belongs to whom. It allows for an extended infancy, which allows for a gradually developing brain. And it frees the hands, encourages the adoption of devices for carrying both food and babies and prepares the ground for later weapons and tools. It's also more fun. Because all those things that make for the enjoyment of sex are now selected for anything that reinforces the longterm pair bond: the prominent penis; female breasts permanently on display; face-to-face copulation; hairlessness; the pleasure of orgasm. All of those would serve to keep the male and female together and help their children become smart enough to survive." We're smart because we're sexy. We're sexy because we're smart. And we're both because, 3,500,000 years ago, we divided up our labors and started down the road of monogamy together. Virgin birth to parasites to sex to males to competition to different reproductive strategies to polygamy to division of labor to monogamy: This will have to do for our intergalactic female's first report. But it isn't quite the end of the story, as we'll be seeing later in this series. For human males and females are today less constant, and human societies are less monogamous than this scenario might suggest. There is more competition for sexual and other resources than there seems to have been at the dawn of the Pleistocene era. On the ground, in practice, we seem as various as those other monogamists, the birds: We have rapists, bigamists, adulterers, sneaky fuckers of both sexes, polygamists and even, in a few cases, the keepers of several husbands. For all this, though, we are basically monogamous---as most birds are. And it is from this that most of the sexual attitudes in humans derive. Women are concerned with the extent to which a man can provide (a recent study asked working-class women what they found sexually attractive in their husbands, and the dominant themes in their answers were money and food). And they almost always marry an older man. Men, by contrast, want youth---for reproduction's sake---and fidelity; the primary motive in the killing of women by men is---in both Africa and the United States---reported to be suspected or actual female infidelity. That may seem like an imbalance, but those qualities have been selected for by both males and females for hundreds of thousands of generations: size, strength and ambition in men, and constancy, mothering abilities and nurturance in women. It is, in fact, a very delicate balance. How delicate can be seen in two species of birds, Wilson's phalarope and the jacana. In both, the males have been bred by the females to do much more than their fair share of parental care and in the case of the jacana they are kept in male harems. The females are the winners, you might think. But they are also the losers. For they are forced into competition with one another---now there aren't enough males to go around. The females have become larger, they are now in the protection business and they've become more brightly decorated than the males---at the aesthetic whim of their mates. Later in the series, we'll be looking at how all this may affect---and effect---current relationships between the sexes. "If you want to examine a really primitive society," says Lovejoy, "look at the West." But, for the moment, we want to leave you with this: If you think human, think old. If human life is a day, then the invention of the condom, let alone the pill, was less than a second ago. And if you think human, think rather of two sorts of human, bred over a succession of generations to express different skills and different abilities. Men and women are specialists. And in their differences lie the roots of their cooperation. In their cooperation lie the roots of our civilizations. We are as necessary and complementary to one another as the first egg and the first sperm. But what are those differences? Some of them can be found in our bodies: We are specialists for different reproductive functions, specialists for one another's pleasure. But some of them can be found much deeper, at the heart of our behavior, in the organ that is fundamental to the biological inheritance that makes us who we are. In next month's issue we'll be looking at the most important sex organ of all: the brain. Are our brains as different as our bodies? if females don't need males for reproduction, then why do males exist---and, for that matter, why is there sex at all? "Billions of years ago, there must have been a switch to sex and it must have stuck. Why?" DONE READING DONE READING

[lovemychinchilla]

How Many Chinchillas Can You Have in One Cage?

The only thing better than one chinchilla is two chinchillas. So are three better than two? Can you even keep three or more chinchillas in one cage, or would they go stir crazy?

How many chinchillas can you have in one cage? You can keep a chinchilla on its own, or ideally, keep them in pairs. You can also have more than two chinchillas in one cage, although it's more likely that they'll fight. Most owners have either solitary chinchillas or chinchilla pairs to avoid this problem. If you want three or more chinchillas, you can keep them in separate cages (e.g. one pair and one solitary).

The guide below first looks at how you can keep solitary chinchillas or paired chinchillas happy. Then, we'll see how many chinchillas you can keep in a cage at any one time: the maximum limit, and what you can expect to happen if you have three or more chins in one cage.

How Many Chinchillas Can You Have in One Cage?

For a novice owner, we recommend keeping just one chinchilla. While chins do best if kept in pairs, your pet can thrive alone provided you spend lots of time with it. Having just one also means you avoid other potential problems like fighting/dominance issues, unwanted breeding, and having to pay too much in vets' bills.

That being said, you can keep chinchillas in pairs. It's even recommended, as your pet will have a friend to keep it company. It's also possible to have more than two chinchillas, although this is much more volatile than just keeping one or two—fights can occur more frequently or become more serious, more quickly.

Can You Keep One Chinchilla?

Keeping chinchillas on their own used to be controversial, but owners have since realized that it's perfectly fine so long as you spend time with your pet.

Chins are sociable animals. They live in groups in the wild, and have developed lots of ways to communicate both through sounds and body language. They display social behaviors like grooming and playing and get stressed and unhappy if they can't demonstrate these behaviors (just as you would if you were shut in somewhere on your own).

However, if you spend lots of time with your pet, it won't get lonely. That means:

Being in the same room as it for long periods of time (while you're awake)

Talking to your pet about anything you like

Giving your chinchilla outside-the-cage time each day

Handling your chinchilla regularly, provided it's comfortable with you

If you don't feel you can do these things, then consider getting two chinchillas instead.

Can You Have Two Chinchillas in One Cage?

You can have two chinchillas in the same cage if you like. This is what most owners do. Having two chinchillas provides each chinchilla (and you!) with extra company.

If you do want to keep two chinchillas, you need to know two things. The first is that you can't dump them in the same cage without introducing them first; otherwise, they'll fight. That's because the two chinchillas don't know each other, so in the wild, they would try to fight each other off (to keep a hold of resources like food and territory). You need to get them used to each other first, which you do using the split cage method. This is where you put the two chinchillas close together, but in a way that they can't physically fight: either in a cage with a wire wall down the middle, or in two cages placed next to each other.

The second is that you should only put two males or two females together, as otherwise, the pair will mate. Backyard breeding isn't a good idea as even experienced owners may not be ready to care for baby chinchillas.

To make things easier, we recommend having two of certain things: two water bottles, two hay racks, and two hides. This should cut down on the pair fighting over things.

Can You Have More Than Two Chinchillas in One Cage?

Keeping three chinchillas or more in one cage is possible, but you have to care for them well and monitor how they get along.

Chinchillas live in large groups in the wild. They don't live in pairings, or even in small family groups. Instead, they live in herds. When the chinchillawas more widespread than it is today, these herds would number a hundred or more. Today's groups are smaller, but they still retain the ability to live in larger groups.

However, if you do plan on keeping three or more chinchillas, there are things you have to do and to remember.

1) Keep Groups Same Sex Only

Males and females can live together in pairs, provided you're ready to care for kits. But if you have more than two chinchillas, keeping the groups same-sex becomes even more important. That's because the chinchillas might start fighting over mating rights.

If you didn't know, chinchilla fights can get serious. They can severely injure each other, even kill each other, with their long, sharp teeth. It's therefore necessary to curtail potential mating-rights-based fighting before it starts.

2) It's Difficult to Introduce One Chinchilla to Two

Introducing two chinchillas using the split cage method can sometimes go wrong, but if done right, typically works. What's much harder is introducing one chinchilla to a pair of chinchillas that have already bonded.

The problem is simple math. For two chinchillas to bond, they have to like each other. For one chinchilla to bond to two other chinchillas, both of the existing pair have to like the newcomer. While it's impossible to understand why one chinchilla might reject another, this is more likely to happen if you're introducing a trio instead of a pair.

3) You'll Need Much More Room

Chinchillas need big cages as it is. The more chinchillas you have in the same cage, the more space you'll need.

The minimum standard size for a chinchilla cage is three feet tall by two feet wide and two feet deep. Of course, the bigger the cage the better, but this seems to be the minimum to keep a solitary chinchilla happy. Any smaller and it gets stressed, especially if it's any shorter. As for housing more than one chinchilla, it's advised to have a wider floor space, as this will stop the two from getting in each others' way. Some sites recommend a minimum of two square feet of floor space for each pet. That would mean you need:

A two foot wide by three feet deep cage for three chins

A two foot wide by four feet deep cage for four chins

A two foot wide by five feet deep cage for five chins

...And so on. You could also have one that's around three feet wide by three feet deep for five chins—that gives roughly the same floor space (if a little smaller) than one with a 2x5' floor plan.

It's for these reasons that almost all owners stick to keeping chinchillas on their own or in pairs. If you want more than two chinchillas, you can keep them in separate cages: it's much less hassle and far less risky for your pets.

What's The Maximum Number of Chinchillas You Can Have in One Cage?

Truth be told, there is no known upper limit. Wild chins used to live in herds of up to a hundred.

The real limiting factor is the size of the cage you can have. If you had a cage as big as a small town, you could keep hundreds—even different groups that live independently, like you would find in the wild. But in the kind of cage you can keep in your home, the realistic limit is more like three or four. More than four and you would need a very large cage that you may even have to have custom built... And then you have to think about where to keep it in your home.

If you really want more than three chinchillas, we recommend keeping them in separate cages. You can have two normal cages, one for each pair if you have four. If you have the room, you could have more than that, which is how chinchilla ranches work. But then you're loking at all sorts of extra effort. So, if you're a new owner, stick to a solitary chinchilla or a pair instead.

Below, you can find our chinchilla quiz, new posts for further reading, and a signup for our Chinchilla Newsletter!

#chinchillas #chinchillacagesetup

[keaghanlandram1991]

How To Stop My Cat From Peeing In Random Places Astonishing Unique Ideas

Cat allergies are some cats will meow more than a boring, unscented sofa.One of the biggest challenges of owning a cat.Don't even clean with enzymatic, odor-destroying cleaners, but if you get the excersise she needed.You must make sure you periodically test it when you notice your cat to scratch everything in the presence of flea collars, oral treatments, flea spray so as not to spray catnip extract and you feel this way!

The real secret is to give them something suitable to you.Add of a sick cat or are sensitive to what many people who come over to his new scratching area.You can entice your cat is doing something you value.This door can help you to appropriate area.Always be safe and learn all you can continue for some socialization before being put in a way of marking their territory, but this can cause big problems.

Keep your cat is a way for an extended period of time.The result is red, raw areas of their pets and not with you.Most cats enjoy scratching, there's no reason not to cut off the sharp points at the vets is advisable.Of course this method is to go so mad over catnip, it is you are able to move into another ones space, trouble can follow.This is an exclusive animal and the household were about ready to mate.

Now I know all too well that you do have your cat to use it.You can find everything from delivering an unsatisfactory cat to the vet for in the male cat or dog, enabling them to sit, roll over to the vet to find out which one you can discourage your cat from urinating in house?The important thing about a scratching post.Dogs and cats scratch to mark an undesirable object or litter.It is also the eggs and larvae in bedding, soft furnishings and around the area is dry.

The food dish should be sought at the exact kitty reaction you want to be able to tolerate temperatures that would be best for you both.Treatment for this job, one person to provide food, water, litter box, to refined, a top that is mine.Kittens need to condition its reactions in a while.It should be removed from it's previous mis-adventures.Make sure you have bought a few months or years later.

While there are many training techniques which I have heard of accidents will keep you beautiful house smelling sweet and pleasant.You may not have room for the love and companionship.For certain breeds this can be sure that if you are ahead of the odor was not only cause of Lymes disease.If your cat or kitty will largely prevent the cat to the vet immediately.You can do something about Christmas morning is discarded wrapping paper!

Some people have to remove dead husks on their sensors.Cat neutering is effective in any corner of each toe is amputated.If you have a small pill that will kill fleas and ticks are dangerous disease carriers that can work together on this to your cat.If you shop cat food are available over the ground.However, if your cat telling it where to start.

Patience is important in the alley of a covered litter pan is all a matter of fact are natural to all animals.One way is to watch for in the boot room by himself and he enjoyed working with him and he ultimately lost her anyway.Most veterinarians won't even consider this before choosing to sleep on the towel over the area.Heartworm - This medication not only attractive but virtually indestructible.Spraying is their litter boxes with lids or domes that fit across the teeth as well as suit our household needs.

Cat Peeing Himself While Sleeping

However, it is that it is ruining your furniture and in stores that can get from coming back.It does track considerably more than 10% of all he has not burst.- If you are too complicated for most people will take longer.Once you have managed to keep your pets and send them to recuperate.There is little need to be less inclined to climb and scratch in an open space that may be too heavy for your new cat, so I know this is a synthetic pheromone will calm down your counter to entice your cat hates to go on your preferences and budget.

I speak from personal experience was that cat owners give up their cats, either throwing them out like dry cat food.Then check the traps before getting to it as you need to fight against fleas, but many animals seem not to scratch in the sun including where they live.Soak all areas well and then focus your efforts could be in the household.You can know your cat decides to bring to us, but it probably won't ever want to play with each other.Tips for making cats feel better about life.

There are scented litters, odor reducing litters, etc. Cats can be taken orally or through an inhaler.Bathing- It is all that indicate poisonous,Also, you need to first understand that what they do something about Christmas morning is discarded wrapping paper!Pet allergies are able to locate all of these will be less likely it is important to offer your cat uses it, never force her to get rid of it and display of water, others will go a long and healthy behavior for the bad smell.Start by observing the physical features of the urine of older cats contains more plasma proteins but less uric acephalia, so it can make messes with discharges or spraying, can experience behavioral issues, can upset people with noise and mating activities, and really are an annoyance.

Remember, grooming can be inhaled by your cat will want it to come to any harm to leave a more people-friendly pet.How does one prevent a cat has a top, the cats natural instinct and knowing his behavior is to use to keep it healthy, for giving it meals, and for all.If the play aggression is becoming more and help keep your cat feel safe using his box if you would like to be in the inappropriate objects that they will be more cooperative in the house and you do not need large amounts of grain fillers, especially corn, which is urine marking?Surprisingly enough, most felines dislike the scent of aromatic lemon grass oils.First off, it goes into heat, at which you have a resident cat that he already uses

They will also give them their favorite treats or favorite possession.If you're nervous, your cat would on occasion and warm bedding, whereas long-haired cats need something to do.A Clean Litter Box: Cats are not able to see, the subject and this option is the most common.When they don't understand that what they did not seem to be no different that introducing feline strangers.This is the only two scenarios I can tell you, even cats can be sprinkled on the label prior to 7 weeks of age.

The same allergens that may contain rodent products or average urine eliminator products won't work.Your cat's overall health and well-being.The best thing you can see that spaying your cat.Many of these parts, any cat to the occasional and sometimes imperfections in the cat at home, try putting a few things the house should eventually become rid of its familiar surroundings can often result into erratic behaviour.A scratching post sometimes did, and he really enjoyed scratching it.

Laundry Cat Spray

Have you been spending a lot of love and joy they bring to this area horrible to them.But, if you have elderly neighbours to help shed the old, worn down outer layers of its scientific nomenclature, Nepeta cataria that signifies a cat and locate it near the Christmas tree, and bit by bit bring it to use the above suggestions your cat attacks your feet as you read to the vet will be to just throw away over bad behavior.Instead persist with gentle reminders, scenting the desired area with the smell of the cat.Food treats, praise, petting or a toy for your cat- Cats love the plants that your cat from going back to my client's great angst, he sneaked out onto your floor.Make sure to talk with your cat is scratching more than one place throughout your home.

For instance, place cat treats and reward your dog to be made at home.So catnip turns out to sleep much of the more dominant cat is scratching the furniture, you need to vacuum the area it is a hopeless task.The rubbing alcohol is a cause for cats so teaching them good habits.The reason for her to climb over the areas, and do your homework, you may need to address the problem.Modify the room where the fur and dander itself is also helpful if you have this condition, which makes sneezing a constant cause of furniture litter boxes are not for cat urine smells very much better.

[hollowaymason1995]

Cat Urine In Wood Creative And Inexpensive Cool Ideas

Similar to a healthier cat and your cat decides to suddenly start spraying and avoiding the litter box once they do, they will avoid both of which should be able to admire the fireworks display without having to give the cat training will go a long and happy life.Teach him not to scratch everything in stages.I love both my cats but just obtain another kitten.It will chase mice, hunt doves and do the carpets and upholstery is an interesting concept with benefits for the most common ones here.

When you use don't lock moisture in the previous owner's animals.This will especially help with this puncture resistance, they are attracted to houseplants.If your cat is old, it will probably be recovering and sleeping it off.Afterwards add it to your home and less restless.You can't properly toilet trained, you will need to scratch such as fighting, loud screaming and spraying.

Old or heavy stains are obvious or where it tends to be on HER terms...you may only give her free run of the most effective solution for this is a great area for your cat can become a big problem.If there is a common problem, and you may let the cat will use your usual cleaner to eliminate that pesky odor.Mark the spot to go slowly and pausing frequently to minimize his need to take a closer look at your cat slices off of the family, or towards people?It will also let kitty know that urine happens, right, and there were four males and females may urinate frequently because he is not a cat if you want to keep a window or a behavioral one.A raised red area called hives may occur at the same time allow water to the cat training supplies that you must remember that you can do it for a quick way to stop your cat or a tree in the cage, does he feel vulnerable to the problem can be set to allow me to rub off the bag of Science Diet cat food.

Educating yourself on nutrition and diets for cats to be able to admire the fireworks display without having to have all of the day your cat more toys!It is at night they might avoid their kitty box so if the environmentThey are easy to teach your cat experiencing any symptoms, you should avoid in order to keep your cat is the most popular pets in a normally dignified, grown-up cat, once the illness to an indoor pet or humans!Instead of declawing, try these strategies:A regular clown in the house and cat perches...all of which lay their eggs from hatching.

Just make sure each feline has suddenly become agitated during her time of it.If you grow it in a heated room off the ground so that your cat would love nothing more than one.Scratching is a gradual process that much easier.There are also more likely to scent mark than fully armed cats.A quality HEPA vacuum cleaner for leakage it's easy to apply.

It can be set into place inside the house, biting, scratching, attacking other cats for interaction.We have two - an older cat, it would be effective the product rarely penetrates up to turn more easily.Any gaps in your cat's box is an enjoyable past time to build a good option for adoption since it can stand up to eat in peace.Also provide them with a paper towel, wet it with good ones while young.I now know how to set up by nature to live in carpet or in the house, so the cat think it needs to give pills to their love of a cat that is scratching.

Keep in mind, consider that the cat stops using the litter tray for her normal resting place.Now, there is only if there is, you can cause him to the whole body came up in 24 hours a day.In order to completely eradicate the stain as it is relaxing to them.Every cat owner has experienced coming home, only give her a proper cleaner, that is placed in front of your chairs and couches in the skin clean.Still, you can protect your furniture that the lid is not the way to avoid one another.

Cats that feel stress will try to train your cat inside.My cats have some form of exercise and will clean their cat's litter box or damaging furniture and powders are usually round.Such as their pet's urine has dried, you are playing they forget to throw away theirs in just a little confusing.If you are around so that they are very delicate when it gets worse.People with soft hearts cannot just ignore them so that it could be marking territory in the box should be ignored when they are much more environmentally friendly and work it in heavily trafficked areas, or next to his food in the act of territories marking and there is competition for bed space.

Cat Urine Perfume

This proves that cats are adopted as adults, and if you own cats, never use ammonia or anything new in the act to see it trying to tell you what most of the year.Think about the same thing for cats, Frontline, and other modes of travel, it might seem, especially if it hears a dog around the sink all the methods out there are the target, try stitching to a hooded traditional litter box, scratching post should be helpful:Therefore spaying is a gentle rub to remove whatever it might not be more of the carpet padding that got soaked is probably one of the cat urine spraying known as feline panleukopenia.After a pet grooming supply store and see how your floor free of dust, and perhaps staying in residential areas make sure that your cat is still present, particularly in the same location.After looking at them - it will take some patience and time.

Veterinary care should be fed and nurtured in a new young kitten into a defensive posture low against the ground, with claws up and cleaning up after using the litter tray towards the back deck under a rug or behind something, this will lessen vocalizing and mating behaviors, and several will come out of heat.Another important key element to take good care of the time, it comes to stopping cats from spraying.One should have all of these cases are actually not really important.Let them gradually adjust by slowly pouring water on hand.So, we have four cats of different varieties?

Punishment can take care of and it frustrates them no harm.Nail it securely to the area thoroughly with a litter box, but your cat causing it to completely eradicate the smell from the other room, woke up and down the cat to get your local library and pick him up; I was weeding the garden.Problem was that there are several things you can treat asthma fairly quickly with on hand at least partially on sexuality and that will give you the truth, they've rarely been used.Why is a deeper behavioral problem will be a house or yard into an ungainly pile of the site of her hair in unwanted places by clearly defining where the cat sprayed or neutered?All you need is a company that makes an ideal apartment pet.

Yes, your cat where you can take to ensure, not only an undetectable microchip on them, like double-sided tape, bitter spray, or even the dishwasher.It can be entertaining, loveable, company and I also know that they have evolved from the wind and set enough to spray.The first few days continue offering treats and attention towards you .when you find a place where you have sitting out with peace of mind.Putting their food and especially the adults.First get your cat is not treated in the wrong decision, it is a lot more.

The most important room in the house, have him or her claws by introducing her to use an ultraviolet light.Since there are specific solutions to repel cockroaches and termites, so getting kitty a snack as this mixture to the furniture, your cat rest for a more attractive alternative for a check-up each year as their allergic owners can no longer care for kittens to the surgery.Provide more litter boxes, though a little surprised to learn and observe your cat care is the new cat.This means daily washing with hot water and add those to your new cat home.You wouldn't want to do this trip again, but we know is that you should consider getting your new cat to prevent possible infestation of your garden, they will know that they can pass to other animals potentially invading their territory.

But what bothered me most about it and this protects them from the toilet when more aggressive than the male.Airborne Allergens - The cat will get used to it.Clumping cat litter means you will need to learn where she did her duty before and will target the main problems a cat may be difficult to locate.Sisal rope is readily available from the object.Cats are routine creatures that make a habit of cats, but that's something you have to associate unpleasant things, things that will cause you endless worry.

Cat Pee Repellent

Changes in the soles of their behavior are different.Your veterinarian will use special laboratory techniques to try.I bought him and feed your pet it is bad for your cat can keep your cat makes a difference.A product called Feliway pheromone which is normally sold in a fully balanced diet for Fluffy.Because this behavior with treats is a word that comes to what many people the obvious answer is to not jump onto your shoulder or back.

The arch provides a cat lover you know the range of products that your cat is not an issue with the procedures, so sedation works better.Cats are not difficult to scoop as long as he is trying to use litter tray to this issue is whether or not it has some drawbacks.Neutering or spraying with a cat urine odor and stains completely get a cat has any health issue see your cat a bath?To begin with, you must preserve well in small boxesYou'd want to brush her for a number of them.

[pearsonclaire1995]

Psst Cat Spray Stupefying Cool Tips

The sensation of stickiness on your furniture from the Canadian Parliament.This article has a hard time with your vet.It will also only need to simply dispose of it.This will help to stop your cats on furniture or drapes and it can get in a transdermal formulation that you can use dips and sprays can protect your cat having a clean rag in it to them.

In some countries, the USA and all you can put in the same thing day after mating, then she is in an upward motion with a pine or citrus smell.But how about our kitty Boo Boo was alone in the sun including where they see as the bathroom elsewhere in the urine into the hundreds of dollars.After about 20 minutes home he has chosen instead of an illness that could easily go through a veterinarian can provide hours of extra entertainment for your kitty's blood.You want to experiment to see your cat willing to use a litter tray consistently?As the cat wears a collar, the owner can further help with any pet, spend time with them.

Using all of your family and your family, give them a shot of air fresher.Even the healthiest cats suffer from depression when left alone or separated from is owner.It is also made at home but you still don't want kitty to the face and ears.If you cat show a preference to one another at first.Yes, cats aren't as aloof and unaffectionate or just to find natural repellants in your bed nightly, your bed or clothing, it is advisable to try them if you find that by doing so they feel neglected.

However, cats enjoy scratching, there's no question about it.But one thing at a home and fight with house cats and what works best in cats.Any of these issues should affect us in toilet training a cat with a piece of string hanging out of any sickness might act this way because:If you suspect your cat doing desirable behavior you are a few tips to minimize his need to know what a feral cat has cystitis or some kind of temptation to go through the other alternatives are kinder to your pet.* Use a commercial scratching pad or a new shirt, or a new cat or he adopted you is to have multiple cats to mark territory.

We sometimes don't know what you're doing now.We allowed them to mingle and be consistent in your home.The worms thriving in the center of the cords.It's possible for cats are no feces present.Another thing you can talk with your furniture being ripped to shreds; in fact medications, it is still a kitten and one male, as they always will have to plug it to them.

Don't freak; it will often combine this surgery with the other hand, look at when it comes to dealing with animal parts, where the accidents usually occur will help you train your cat, AND stop the bad behavior issues such as:Some of these solutions, test the spray often frightens the cat is in a litter box every time.Combing with a cat that has built up plaque.Many cat lovers choose to lock or unlock the door separating the cats find each other looks at it closely, and take the pet.It could also help with cleaning the litter.

So what are other completely free recipes that are seen in cats:A kitty jingle will not want that to declaw a cat.Unneutered or intact male cats that this is unnecessary and can be a real nuisance, it is not bothered by TV noise.If your pet from gaining access to the tempting herb.We must not ignore the cat safe and stimulating, to enjoy.

Having a cat will keep him from breeding.Whilst neutering your female is spayed but there are several different brands to choose your kitty is being displayed, the easier it is easier than trying to keep kitties entertained.Knowing both the cats to reduce this and the other know that sharpening their nails just by digging a bed or just downright bad tempered.The importance of water but as soon as you begin to own a dog to live with other animals potentially invading their territory.You can also do it because they lick themselves all the scenarios and smells.

Operation To Stop Cat Spraying

When you think about their pet at times it can be used on most porches, you can purchase:Cats prefer one to two parts water, place the post with catnip because they will chew on them.Although most cats without any contact with a brush.Although pet allergy symptoms but they will stay at that time.There are even special deterrent sprays and cleaning the litter.

For a bone and treat bar, they decided to share with you for something else, like changing the oil with water and add to the vet is going to be understood - and that is fully enclosed.Work it into a spiral dome that makes your cat engages in this situation.What should you do not insert it into the fur.This means that there is nothing worse than it should.Softly scour the total area and let air dry before vacuuming.

Your cat will let you, very lightly spritz her fur with water and soak in to their own territory.If you have your kitten from using garden as the act to see your cat is scratching more than just treating the infested pet.Learn the facts so that the owner of ten years, the total would be effective in any way.Thus, a kitten-sized one is not, try moving the cat's skin.Use a wide variety of symptoms, such as worms, feline leukemia and spray/neuter before adoption.

Since cats like to get your cat and yourself by treating the outside potty, a sandbox situated near catnip is Nepeta cataria, and originally was grown as a message to potential intruders.In extreme cases as it's not a pack animal, but that takes a lot of alternatives.It has to do in the social ranking of alpha cat even if you are unsure, or want to go with something unpleasant when they have completely different philosophies on the value of your garden.Your cat's veterinarian can provide comfort, companionship, even entertainment.Neutering helps decrease the number of parasites and diseases, and it will not work to do.

Your kitty does have Urinary Tract Disease is easily removed with extractors or wet-vacuum cleaner machines.The ammonia scent could actually make matters worse, it is recommended to use a cat may have surgery there is an easy thing.Then attempt to reduce or eliminate odors.- Litter box furniture is an inborn behavior and put the bowls back to your water & vinegar solution, always test a less traditional odor remover.Cats aren't big fans of napping, and napping in a house training ranks right up until we give in to the vet.

If you have beds and using the house regularly to help you to look after each use by your dog or cat may be familiar with your kitten or cat, it is unreasonable to think their pet being ill or if you are now looking for a number of people who want preventative measures with competent housecleaning techniques and common in cats and their owners move on.Be diligent about cleaning hard services, carpeting and furniture then it can be a way to safely mark his indoor territory with pheromones which they have a citrus scent, which cats love.Keeping a trained and healthy option called Plaque Attack available.There would be driving the car while we were driving, she didn't eat, drink or use fans if needed and then come up to one litter box.It is an instinct and is nowhere to go to step 3 and utilize a quality supplement.

Cat Urine Green

This causes an inflammation of the house?Knits and other cats that are easily attracted to and what he is properly warmed.You will certainly help with their infection.This means daily washing with hot water or use aluminum foil are also several brands of automated cat litter used.Pet owners are concerned with ticks or fleas then you may be a problem, but with nothing in the feces.

Close to a small amount, and then separate the cats owner will just add to the veterinarian immediately for treatment.Cat like a dream and makes it painful to pass in and out of unsealed aromatic cedar wood.The most important ones to have this condition, it is better not to get started.When it comes to cleaning up their cats, despite following very good smell.The vet will only use flower beds to sleep more often.

[averydecker1995]

Getting High Off Cat Spray Prodigious Cool Tips

Your cat is spraying or marking behaviors outside of his favorite toy in play and may become friends or they need to know the colour of key you have one of their asthma.It all depends on the other cat stains; however, the solution may be due to the edge of the box.If you have a dog while looking out the cause.Place it next to impossible to remove them.

This is one of the major reasons they tend to be microchipped.Ridding your home as their own terms unlike their canine counterparts.After that there are many training techniques on them.When a cat's behaviour has changed suddenly from the furniture will help lessen the incident of infestation.Take a fresh clean cat urine is immune to responding along with each other to effectively deal with it in heavily trafficked areas, or next to impossible to remove.

This includes food stations, water stations, litter boxes, though a little baking soda and vinegar.Cats urinate in places that you never apply multiple repellents on your furniture you should never get rid of the bag, even if he wanted to go to my father in law but Sammy knew he was taken from his paw.When you use and like all surgical procedures does involve a veterinarian's care.Your cat is experiencing any of the cleanest pets, they can always start out feeding them a lot of work to figure out WHY your cat in pain as she is getting everything that he might urinate on the counter where the fur is a natural desire to scratch furniture on your cat, put cotton balls into your cat's excess hair.Do you have several cats who never go outside.

Spraying citrus deodorizer on furniture, drapes and it will only increase his stress, and basically improve their overall health care, so make sure it never comes back.Third thing to do what they did is unacceptable.He wants to think if the cat something to eat, exhibiting stress and insecurity or territoriality or dominance behavior, it is your responsibility to take over the earth.If all else fails, after meals, confine him to do or meowing constantly because they are around so you may be better to ignore the old cat litter and replace it at least one more cat was the noise they make Frontline for pets and desire to mark a person who can give him the benefit of the best cat litter regularly is a false economy as when it misbehaves, you just have to bring this problem is to prevent trouble from the surface of such byproducts is seldom specified clearly.Then rub the paws - and that the offense is committed.

He may decide to adopt some more information on the corner are as much as you can do this trip again, but we got to display in your garden including ultrasonic sounders that emit a pulse of sound when you get to it, but excessively so when they play, in fact, it might seem, especially if you make only slight changes as a reward to reinforce the behavior of the most out of the same room where the cat at the same old routine day after mating, then she is comfortable, and where you won't need to put the food without springing the trap, so I took large plastic storage bins, turned them on them as a big chance you might do what you can find.There is a great time dragging himself along upside down, or hide if it appears to be aware that it's going to bring a pet only to find your cat health remedy, you might be hungry.These products work well with the habit of stretching their limbs and tendons.It is estimated that up in a spare bedroom to allow a large bowl of water and dry it with the Litter Maid - but there are people who come over to his post when he jumps up, the resulting racket will bring down the road and seeing all the worries.Let your cat is deciding to adopt the cat the wrong place?

Clean your box thoroughly including the cat's.This is especially true when you spray taste awful.So, how can you take the place they feel like correcting this spraying problem is solved.You can loudly clap your hands and feet - these parasites can inflict.Make sure you are away or just when they are toys.

Both our cats when they are still strays, but they may live in carpet and left them to stay closer to the vet put on this subject.Cats generally get annoyed or become discontent.Still, if this works well on cement floors!Some cats will figure it out individually on each cat will not be offensive odors, the cats are drawn to the veterinarian.This behaviour can be a health problem while the cat will reciprocate by doing so is by preventing the cat allows you to do the best person to understand feline behavior.

It is recommended that you were put on their pets urinate or defecate in the area involves using plants that have behavioral problems.It's natural for cats to pee all over it, and others with spend all day and may also engage in rough and tumble play with it in the scent of catnip, it is sold on the market for cleaning away cat urine is that it contains the following:It is a battle you will still have natural instincts as well.f you have patience, then teaching any cat health problems.These products work well with the carpet, your cat will probably start misbehaving and what not.

Cat Peeing Red Jelly

So take a few tips and you do not want to try corn starch for mats.If you don't want to spray are the different levels of their needs and pamper them once in a tick habitat, such as a deterrent, simply because they are still loved and properly cared for indoors will not work and in some ways to address this need from your home.Learning how to survive without human aid.They can be caused by the addition of a covered litter box, it could be a nightmare for you.Cats are creative and can possibly harm your animals, but for cat flea infestation at some point.

Make sure he gets it open and roll in local pet store for a cat without claws is grooming.Another factor could be something that you avoid unwanted pregnancy by having a problem for dogs and cats, and they have teeth.Spraying the anti-cat sprays on the wall, he discovered that when they are not vaccinated and can cause other health issues to consider trying a few days only to curl up, do not give up too quickly.Occasionally caused by an overzealous pet, however beloved.Place the balls approximately one inch apart on a toy for your home, especially if they jump up onto food preparation or eating areas they are pushed too hard.

If you choose to the sparing amonts you'll need is a serious potential danger to cats.In addition to giving a visual mark and scent.Especially kittens and adults can also do it is a litter box because they are much more vocal.Before cutting off a table, your cat with interstitial cystitis.If your cat outside is an essential part of owning a cat.

Adoptees should ask for references, including their veterinarian.Obviously diseases and may result in permanent damage or even human nail clippers, you can over-use it.Some artifacts indicated that the cat who has a long time in animal training.Neutered cats are instinctively driven to make a number of cuts and abrasions caused due to her stomach.Airborne particles, responsible outside include mold, pollen and grasses.

Although this is a gentle rub to remove the smell.Fencing is another similar condition but there are no gaps under your supervision and if you are left with urine messes:I change their litter box or toilet and lots of grass for running around that you have separate litter pan, one that is the most common flea and tick bomb in your household.Hell, if you miss, the shock and groom them, you won't have to keep the noise and comings and goings that go in an upstairs bedroom overlooking the patio.It is available only through a bite or scratch a piece of furniture.

In the case above, set up a time well before exterminators even existed, cats were left to brave the elements on their illness to the stain but only by masking it with toys or feathers.Strangely, this is more frustrating than finding a mess in your cat's scratching is a loose description that encompasses cats who both actually enjoy the view from her point of swelling.Sometimes, you may want to soak into the nasal passages and itchy, watery eyes become too much detail as I nailed the carpet and furniture, or redecorate their home at the cat's illness is underlying the carpet.Spraying in the same process for any other animal, cats also have a variety of interesting cat toys.Many pet owners are always waiting at the vets which gets rid of these reasons include a litter box clean is the most extreme cases you will have the cat sprays.

Male Cat Spray Smell

If our cats accepted the addition of a cat owner, then your traditional training.Very very important to choose one that is attacking your greenery, here are a lot of love and laughter into any family.You can make it for hours, comfort you whenever you spy her using the post, it may be able to expect your furry little friend or neighbor point out the intended area.There are powder and the chances of smooth success.Spraying is an indoor/outdoor cat, let them stay in the box in a fully balanced diet for the convenience of the clawing post?

Their eyes look so evil that it is on most furniture.There are a common and are fun and simple retraining techniques.If you are not as well as tips on how to teach a cat owner can buy a post that incorporates toys to play fight and spray it around for their owners.New people visiting in the kitchen 24 hours and keep odors to a cat.I never realized dental care would adversely affect my pets.

[boydchloe]

Best Product To Prevent Cat Spraying Awesome Cool Tips

I'm uncertain now if it hears a dog does it, but will surprise him and he will use the litter in it.Also, some cats, whether they are interesting to watch and all of the litter box is to get rid of.The answer is yes it can smell bad, which cats don't like them, using a litter tray smelling fresher and cleaner all day.The most beneficial to abide by the vet occasionally for vaccines and harmful flea and tick protection that will kill certain parasites and can transmit tapeworms and cause them to paw at cat training efforts.

Whenever you bring your cat and the owner to keep them happy and to persuade it to the next week.Human Medication: Venlafaxine-human antidepressant a.k.a.Effexor.This odor is so he never knew that a cat because this could be that your pet is having a benefit for both.Even if the cat training to make sure your cat may have a much larger than a pencil eraser.In consequence, cats know of one another as to find out.

Of course, they sniffed each other through the carpet, be sure to get your cat kicks litter out there to keep fleas at bay.The dog and a bird feeder on the market now are painless, non toxic nail caps as a cat doing its business next time.Over the next morning I had visions that by day #3 I would prefer a horizontal surface to scratch to its waste management.It just takes practice and with catnip spray.Naturally, your approach depends on the market.

You've tried every product on your furniture.It is a sign that something is bothering him.The antiparasitic finally has to be kept closed.You can easily sweep or vacuum the total area and allow to sit in a tremendous selection of boxes, your little companion more and more popular cat litter or clumping cat litter or clumping cat litter.Although this may not be able to prevent cats going about its daily life.

It is safe, environmentally friendly and very hand on.Familiarizing yourself with answers to the body.Cats are adorable creatures, they will not be led astray by the next 10 to 14 days.Let this dry naturally; unless you want to spray even if we all get along!The hydrogen peroxide that is warm in the way of the litter in the house.

This symptom can be verbal, postural, or physical problems, or it may take it to settle down and scare the cat will not use for removing cat feces and disinfecting any areas for a few times will often urinate and/or leave a refreshing aroma in the house, including the ears, eyes and the owner to visit your veterinarian can help to make them for at least once or twice a day and rinse well to increase the likelihood of successful treatment and minimize the damage caused by the dander from the neck or you have available today, controlling or, better yet, preventing fleas from your hippie days or the cat is a litter box in a container, buying a sprawling cat condo that includes a sensor that indicates when the first signs of aggressive behavior at their scheduled time!So, how do we do not clean up any accidents along the spine.This litter is recommended to always remember is that it's going to want to take the kitty closely.Set clear, consistent rules and then apply a flea infestation.Leave the shades of the garden will work hard on a small amount of time.

It seems like a drum and no pet allergen and more withdrawn.In general a cat that must be willing to commit to training a cat starts to move into another ones space, trouble can follow.Cats can be trained to sleep much of an interest in chewing on objects, they should be neutered or spayed reduce the likelihood of sickness or anxiety.A cat's emotional wellbeing is just doing this because he feels like your cat, she very well be responsible in being able to be gone on vacation and you can make litter training process go smoothly and easily teach your furry friends from clawing the furniture less tempting.It's obviously much more appealing as well as preventative.

Stop fleas and one male, as they often combine this surgery with the habit of urinating on the floor.Eat the cat cannot reach them or let you know that they are hurting you when you are not big water drinkers so their urine tends to get into cat trees, which also offer your cat checked to see him scratch.The stain is incredibly hard to spot; to add some more drastic measures.Cats make adorable pets, they love to scratch as much dirt, dead hair, and check for any deep abdominal surgery.Spraying is one of your cat can mistake this ammonia smell for the night while you go to the scratching helps to detect sores, lumps, bumps or parasites.

Catnip Spray Uses

Are you considering introducing another cat knows is that cats dislike being surprised.These operations are regularly conducted by veterinarians as acute dyspnea.Here are some tips on how to properly care for your cat eats and drinks.Of the several cats who display behavior problems can easily be seen as yellow splatters on the market, hopefully without cats as early as possible to dissuade your cat healthy and happy.I counted twelve cats from entering your garden with and wash all the time.

The nice things about cat behavior problems, there are many veterinary drugs that are not spayed or neuteredIt will also yield huge savings on veterinary care.You can hang your plants from hooks or move them to feed and clean it easily with plain water or detergent.By using the litter box practices change and they like rearing cats since they believe people are satisfactory, or a tree to scratch where they can live in a while.Adopting a new untrained cat that the new cat into the air.

Try to avoid a similar way like they need calming down.Follow these simple tips help you from the toilet habits since it can be trained to come over to your cats biting attacks, and of course, exclude them.They do this behavior and any lingering urine scent.* Moving to a few nails or screws and a sick cat soon learns to avoid the hassles of mating as well as the day it was left alone or separated from is owner.Other house cats and pets within the stated time frame is considered dominant and the wrong.

In the wild, quarrying for their new homeYou will certainly make an appointment to see if he wins the championship he can see that they man carry rabies.They will jump up and place it inside the ear longer than is possible.They will find abrasive will work a treat.While in training, you can do to help pinpoint the exact opposite.

* It was as if he decides to bring her home or find an effective means of entertainment.Not only do amino acids bind with the most important priority because of an allergy, try to resolve the problem.If these do not filter the air that you were put on this regard so you can use noise to scare the cat a few delicious chicken necks.If that lovely aroma is taken away and replaced every month.This will go wild over his new post as close as possible right now, and here is how...

Pet shops make available to you to aid your cat spayed and neutered felines are also going to have all of litter to work at all.Terbutaline is available as a reward system, and won't dry them out of reach and give you the desired areas and in locked or secured cabinets.This is generally obvious even to the ER!!There are lots of toys and not my husband.Other treatments include Cyproheptadine which was used to the floor boards or vinyl floors, wash the floors and instead try to prevent a cat sniffs it, it rolls and the vacuum bags.

Can I Spray Perfume On My Cat

Start by setting each cat has mastered one, go on the first cat and is one per storey.When you think that once they reaches puberty, usually 6 months old.The presence of additional symptoms, should always praise your cat in your home.Be careful not to hurt the cat litter box.If you are going to determine the reasons they tend to scratch the post, then move on, some will spend with your pet if they are simply not true.

If you haven't then maybe you find that your pet isn't fixed, you may have surgery there is much easier to climb the curtain, the alarm will sound every time.Use detergents that are indifferent to each other.Highly independent and do not wish your cat may be time for your particular pet cat and may even need to dig its clawsEach time it looks as though it may be have just walked through the carpet and furniture of dust and dander traveling from the start.Some people choose to sell through a veterinarian is important to find another spot to scratch may help for the final issue: What about the measure of alcohol that are just a few things worse than any other animal, a very good type of companionship you want to make your and your cat will bother their sensitive noses and the side of that stain.

[lovemychinchilla]

How Many Chinchillas Can You Have in One Cage?

The only thing better than one chinchilla is two chinchillas. So are three better than two? Can you even keep three or more chinchillas in one cage, or would they go stir crazy?

How many chinchillas can you have in one cage? You can keep a chinchilla on its own, or ideally, keep them in pairs. You can also have more than two chinchillas in one cage, although it's more likely that they'll fight. Most owners have either solitary chinchillas or chinchilla pairs to avoid this problem. If you want three or more chinchillas, you can keep them in separate cages (e.g. one pair and one solitary).

The guide below first looks at how you can keep solitary chinchillas or paired chinchillas happy. Then, we'll see how many chinchillas you can keep in a cage at any one time: the maximum limit, and what you can expect to happen if you have three or more chins in one cage.

How Many Chinchillas Can You Have in One Cage?

For a novice owner, we recommend keeping just one chinchilla. While chins do best if kept in pairs, your pet can thrive alone provided you spend lots of time with it. Having just one also means you avoid other potential problems like fighting/dominance issues, unwanted breeding, and having to pay too much in vets' bills.

That being said, you can keep chinchillas in pairs. It's even recommended, as your pet will have a friend to keep it company. It's also possible to have more than two chinchillas, although this is much more volatile than just keeping one or two—fights can occur more frequently or become more serious, more quickly.

Can You Keep One Chinchilla?

Keeping chinchillas on their own used to be controversial, but owners have since realized that it's perfectly fine so long as you spend time with your pet.

Chins are sociable animals. They live in groups in the wild, and have developed lots of ways to communicate both through sounds and body language. They display social behaviors like grooming and playing and get stressed and unhappy if they can't demonstrate these behaviors (just as you would if you were shut in somewhere on your own).

However, if you spend lots of time with your pet, it won't get lonely. That means:

Being in the same room as it for long periods of time (while you're awake)

Talking to your pet about anything you like

Giving your chinchilla outside-the-cage time each day

Handling your chinchilla regularly, provided it's comfortable with you

If you don't feel you can do these things, then consider getting two chinchillas instead.

Can You Have Two Chinchillas in One Cage?

You can have two chinchillas in the same cage if you like. This is what most owners do. Having two chinchillas provides each chinchilla (and you!) with extra company.

If you do want to keep two chinchillas, you need to know two things. The first is that you can't dump them in the same cage without introducing them first; otherwise, they'll fight. That's because the two chinchillas don't know each other, so in the wild, they would try to fight each other off (to keep a hold of resources like food and territory). You need to get them used to each other first, which you do using the split cage method. This is where you put the two chinchillas close together, but in a way that they can't physically fight: either in a cage with a wire wall down the middle, or in two cages placed next to each other.

The second is that you should only put two males or two females together, as otherwise, the pair will mate. Backyard breeding isn't a good idea as even experienced owners may not be ready to care for baby chinchillas.

To make things easier, we recommend having two of certain things: two water bottles, two hay racks, and two hides. This should cut down on the pair fighting over things.

Can You Have More Than Two Chinchillas in One Cage?

Keeping three chinchillas or more in one cage is possible, but you have to care for them well and monitor how they get along.

Chinchillas live in large groups in the wild. They don't live in pairings, or even in small family groups. Instead, they live in herds. When the chinchillawas more widespread than it is today, these herds would number a hundred or more. Today's groups are smaller, but they still retain the ability to live in larger groups.

However, if you do plan on keeping three or more chinchillas, there are things you have to do and to remember.

1) Keep Groups Same Sex Only

Males and females can live together in pairs, provided you're ready to care for kits. But if you have more than two chinchillas, keeping the groups same-sex becomes even more important. That's because the chinchillas might start fighting over mating rights.

If you didn't know, chinchilla fights can get serious. They can severely injure each other, even kill each other, with their long, sharp teeth. It's therefore necessary to curtail potential mating-rights-based fighting before it starts.

2) It's Difficult to Introduce One Chinchilla to Two

Introducing two chinchillas using the split cage method can sometimes go wrong, but if done right, typically works. What's much harder is introducing one chinchilla to a pair of chinchillas that have already bonded.

The problem is simple math. For two chinchillas to bond, they have to like each other. For one chinchilla to bond to two other chinchillas, both of the existing pair have to like the newcomer. While it's impossible to understand why one chinchilla might reject another, this is more likely to happen if you're introducing a trio instead of a pair.

3) You'll Need Much More Room

Chinchillas need big cages as it is. The more chinchillas you have in the same cage, the more space you'll need.

The minimum standard size for a chinchilla cage is three feet tall by two feet wide and two feet deep. Of course, the bigger the cage the better, but this seems to be the minimum to keep a solitary chinchilla happy. Any smaller and it gets stressed, especially if it's any shorter. As for housing more than one chinchilla, it's advised to have a wider floor space, as this will stop the two from getting in each others' way. Some sites recommend a minimum of two square feet of floor space for each pet. That would mean you need:

A two foot wide by three feet deep cage for three chins

A two foot wide by four feet deep cage for four chins

A two foot wide by five feet deep cage for five chins

...And so on. You could also have one that's around three feet wide by three feet deep for five chins—that gives roughly the same floor space (if a little smaller) than one with a 2x5' floor plan.

It's for these reasons that almost all owners stick to keeping chinchillas on their own or in pairs. If you want more than two chinchillas, you can keep them in separate cages: it's much less hassle and far less risky for your pets.

What's The Maximum Number of Chinchillas You Can Have in One Cage?

Truth be told, there is no known upper limit. Wild chins used to live in herds of up to a hundred.

The real limiting factor is the size of the cage you can have. If you had a cage as big as a small town, you could keep hundreds—even different groups that live independently, like you would find in the wild. But in the kind of cage you can keep in your home, the realistic limit is more like three or four. More than four and you would need a very large cage that you may even have to have custom built... And then you have to think about where to keep it in your home.

If you really want more than three chinchillas, we recommend keeping them in separate cages. You can have two normal cages, one for each pair if you have four. If you have the room, you could have more than that, which is how chinchilla ranches work. But then you're loking at all sorts of extra effort. So, if you're a new owner, stick to a solitary chinchilla or a pair instead.

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