There are also a couple of other things you need to consider before purchasing one. They will not do well with young kids in the household who are rough in their handling. They are also nocturnal pets and will play at night. They also cannot be potty trained. They should not be kept with other pets such as snakes or large birds because they see these animals as threats.

Sugar Gliders need lots of height to their cages. They love to climb, jump, and basically glide through the air. So, you need a pretty tall cage to house these pets. You should also have lots of toys for them to play with. Additionally, you need a place where they can stay warm.

Their diet is a complex mixture of fruit, and insects. Their wild diet is varied and their domestic diet must be as nutritionally balanced. Check with your vet or an expert on the sugar gliders to determine a suitable diet plan.

They are very social creatures that like to bond with others. They will readily bond with humans if approached carefully. This type of interaction is normal for them. They also like having playmates and do fairly well with the same sex in the cage.

They can live up to fifteen years. So be prepared to have them around for awhile if you are deciding on them as a pet.

Their vet needs are minimal but you should check with your vet to see if he can handle their care.

Sugar Gliders can be good pets. The biggest thing they need is to interact with others. Other than their diet, they are easy pets to take care of.

The first question you need to ask is about the gender of the mice. Female mice are the ones to buy. They are generally calmer and do not fight when placed with another female. The males are a lot more aggressive, especially towards other males.

You do not want to buy your mice in male-female pairs. Mixing a male with a female is a quick way to run out of cage space. They can produce a lot of baby mice in a very short period of time. If you do find some baby mice appearing after a short time, separate the adult mice immediately. Then separate the babies after they are weaned until the sex can be determined.

You can keep your mice in an aquarium or a cage with metal bars that are closely spaced. Pick a solid floor over one that is meshed.

You want to avoid pine or cedar shavings for the bedding. This is because those shavings have very strong odors that can hurt your mice. You can use sawdust. Don’t forget to include a little bit of paper for a nest.

They eat mouse food, which can be mixed up with some seeds. You do want to avoid giving them anything other than their food, because things like chocolate can be very toxic to them.

They will also need some toys to play with. The most common and popular mouse toy is the wheel. If you do intend on getting your mice a wheel, make sure it is a solid wheel to prevent the mice from damaging their feet.

You will need to spend some time accustoming them to being handled. Start off slowly after they have adjusted to your home. Then use treats and gradually build up to the point where they will tolerate being handled.

Be aware that the lifespan of a mouse is generally rather short. At best, you should expect around two years. Mice may not be the best pet for children who feel loss very deeply or who have a hard time understanding death.

Mice can make very good starter pets. But just like any other animal, they need to be taken care of. It is important to understand their needs before buying one.

• Play fetch.  Throwing a ball or stick around is the simplest way to get your dog moving.  I have never met a dog who doesn’t like to play fetch.  Also, you need almost nothing to play fetch with your dog.  If you have a smaller dog, you can even play it inside.  If I am hanging around inside with Harry, I will grab a soft toy or bouncy ball (not a small one) and throw it around the living room.  When we used to have a Labrador Retriever, I would go outside because he could easily knock something over.
• Walk the dog.  Another very simple solution.  This one has more benefits than just exercising the dog, though.  For starters, it also exercises you.  Also, it is believed to fulfill a natural migratory instinct in dogs.  Finally, walking a dog with a leash establishes the human as the dominant being because you have control over the walk and the dog’s path.  Just be aware of the local laws dictating dog walks.
• Play a game with someone else.  You can play just about anything, from catch with another person to soccer.  Sometimes, the dog will try to get involved.  For example, when my dad and I play catch with a football, Harry follows the ball back and forth between us.  He is convinced he will be able to catch it, even though it is as big as him.
• Ride a bike or other small vehicle.  This may seem kind of odd, but it works.  Many species of dogs were intended to assisting the herding of farm animals, so they will naturally follow and try to guide moving things.  Our Labrador Retriever used to “herd” the lawn mower and bicycles.  This may not work for all dogs, but it will work for some.

Having a dog is a fun and happy experience, but make sure the dog is having fun too.  Keep your dog happy and active!

I’ll admit – deer seem plentiful in the Dairy State. For example, several deer visit my yard throughout the summer months, plus during the early spring, car/deer collisions happen quite regularly.

Yet, I can’t shake the Bambi complex. I could never kill a deer…or a duck…or a pheasant…or any type of game animal. I am too sensitive. Question – what do you feel when I mention the word, Bambi? Sadness? If yes, then you probably are familiar with some version of this popular story, most likely the Disney movie of the same name. Most movie goers felt sad or angry when the hunter shot Bambi’s mother; thank goodness the act itself occurred elsewhere, and those in the audience only heard the sound of the shot!

My positive feelings about deer were only strengthened a few years ago when I was working at a job I hated. The only good thing about my position was that the building I worked in was situated in the country, nestled on approximately 15 acres of woods. My only escape proved to be walks during breaks and lunch on the lush grounds. I guess the local animals grew used to my scent, as one morning I was greeted by a gorgeous spotted fawn. With only 10 feet between us, we both froze in our tracks, gazing at each other with complete wonder. This event will stay with me forever, as this glorious animal seemed as interested in me, as I was in him.

Of course, I understand that deer herds can become pesky…they destroy crops, and as I mentioned earlier, they cause many motor vehicle accidents; however, I still have trouble accepting this sport. What’s really difficult is seeing deer carcasses hanging from trees or lying lifeless in the back of pick-up trucks. And I swear every other house on my block has a deer head hanging on the wall in the living room!

My dad feels the same way. Peer pressure drove him to go hunting each year when I was a kid, yet he only shot one deer – that was enough. From then on, he went on yearly hunting trips to be with his friends, but he would never again raise his weapon for the kill. No matter how much his friends teased him, he replied, “I’d rather watch the deer than kill them.”

If you hunt for deer, then you do not suffer from the Bambi complex. You view them as animals to be used by humans for sport and for food. You have your opinion, and I have mine. Because of this, I’ll never eat deer meat unless tricked, and I won’t hang a deer head on my wall. I guess Bambi truly affected me!

Imagine this…a young twenty-something student moves into a second story apartment in Bowling Green, Ohio. This student, a creative writing major, often gazes out her office window, hoping for inspiration for a story or poem. One fall afternoon, when most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, she spots a white fluff ball. It is then she discovers them – a family of white squirrels. What a glorious surprise! Having never seen a white squirrel before, the woman calls a friend – who then patiently explains that this color variation is actually quite common in the area.

Would you believe that the playful antics of these white squirrels have the honor of being one of my best memories of graduate school?

For three years, I watched these ethereal creatures play among the tree tops. Since my window matched the height of their nests, I could spy on their private lives. And what glorious lives these animals led. They scurried after each other, sometimes playfully, and other times angrily. They braved the cold northwest Ohio winter wind with stoicism, their pure white coats helping them to blend into the snow. And most of all, they seemed to stand watch over their domain…almost like squirrel angels.

Strange, but I can’t remember the color of their eyes. You would think that if they were albino squirrels, their eyes must have been bright pink, but I don’t know. I guess I chose instead to revel in the strange color of their fur, which was the most delicate white.

Whenever visitors came to my tiny apartment, the squirrels took center stage. Even my cat spent countless hours watching their every movement. Soon, most phone calls home contained stories of my squirrel encounters.

I might have thought my experience was relatively unique at the time, but a quick search of the Internet reveals that others have had the privilege of watching these curious creatures. Reports of sightings in North Carolina, Florida, Illinois, and Missouri riddle the Internet. One student group in Texas even suggests that some white squirrels bring good luck on test taking day!

One reason white squirrels remain somewhat rare is their lack of camouflage. Typical brown or grey squirrels tend to blend into their surroundings. This advantage remains critical for the survival of a species. White squirrels do not have this advantage. They stand out easily  both to predators and to humans, except on snowy winter days as I previously mentioned.

To this day I miss seeing those squirrels. Maybe, as one website suggests, they descended from a white pet squirrel that had escaped, but I like to think they came about naturally. Why? Because some writers have lovers for muses, and others write because they have suffered a great loss, while still others find inspiration in drugs or alcohol, yet I was inspired by a simple creature – the white squirrel. Who couldn’t admire this animal, one who managed to elevate itself from the basic brown variety squirrel to a squirrel worthy of being called angel?

I felt nervous. Would the fox try to fight my cats? Would it hunt and eat the wild turkeys that roost at night in my trees? What I needed to do was learn more about these beautiful animals.

The first lesson I learned – foxes can be noisy. I had never heard one before, and the noise it made literally made my heart skip a beat. They don’t howl, yip, or whine. They sound more like a scary addition to a movie sound track…like an alien’s screech. Almost every night since that first night I spotted it, the fox has continued to make its presence known, mostly between the hours of 2:00 – 4:00 AM.

It’s normal to hear him only in the wee hours. As the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) explains, foxes are most active at night. “They do most of their hunting from 2 hours before sunset to about 4 hours after sunrise and travel up to 9 miles a night. When they aren’t hunting, foxes like to rest in forests, ravines or woodlots, curling their long bushy tails around themselves to keep warm.”

Next, I learned that most foxes travel together; however, the fox in my yard is alone, and very small. I wonder if it may be a young one who has somehow become separated from the rest of his group. Maybe that would explain why he or she has befriended my cat, Bear.

I’ve also witnessed the fox’s hunting technique. Several mornings I’ve seen the fox and my cat stalking prey together. They act as a team while working to capture a mouse or vole. Strange, but true! According to the WDNR, foxes also eat rabbits, pheasants, insects, and berries. Maybe that’s why this visiting fox likes my yard so much; I have dozens of black and red raspberry bushes.

The final thing I have learned about foxes is that they have a tremendous sense of hearing. They can “…hear a mouse squeal from 150 feet away—that’s 50 yard sticks end to end!” (DNR).

I have enjoyed watching Bear and this little fox interacting. Of course the Disney movie, The Fox and the Hound, comes to mind when I witness their antics. Remember? It’s the story of the young fox who befriends a puppy only to be hunted by the dog when the both grow up. Of course Bear won’t ever hunt this fox; I am hopeful they will always be able to co-exist peacefully in the same little woods they both now call home.

It’s true that cats are not part of the natural ecosystem, that they may want to hunt even if they’re fed, and that they prey on native species of birds and small animals.

I asked Cindy Hewitt, who has worked to TNR over 7,000 cats, how she would answer critics. To begin with, she agrees that “Humans created the issue of free-roaming cat populations, and we should humanely resolve it.”

She points out that, as I’ve written before, the greatest threat to these wild animals is us humans, through “destruction of habitat, use of pesticides that
negatively affect  reproduction, window strikes and telecommunications towers”. I’d also add cars and, in some places, wind generators. And we can’t even claim to be just following our instincts.

Cats are not free from the threat of predators themselves — coyotes, for example, and even free-roaming dogs. In Florida, where Cindy is based, alligators and large snakes are also a danger. Any large carnivore can be.

It’s also true that feeding feral cats won’t completely stop them from hunting, but Cindy says, “A managed colony of sterilized cats  will have less impact on wildlife than an unmanaged colony, which is the  frequent result of efforts to oppose TNR.”

Managing a colony includes controlled feeding — giving food only to sterilized colony members, only at certain times of day, to avoid attracting new members or other animals.

Cindy has seen feral colonies stabilize and decline when TNR was introduced. The most dramatic changes occur in groups with large numbers of adoptable members (usually kittens). For example, one colony went from having 60 members to just eight — after 25 kittens were removed to homes. However, she says, even without removing any cats for adoption, a colony will decline gradually if it’s carefully managed.

TNR’s not perfect, but it’s an effort by humans to take responsibility for problems our species has created.

“They may be small, but these little guys are BIG on personality. Do you have what it takes to be a hamster pet parent?” ASPCA

I love animals – all animals. I guess that’s why when my son came home from a friend’s house a few years ago with 12 hamsters, I didn’t march him right back out the door.

His plan seemed ingenious. Sell baby hamsters to the local pet shop for $7.00 per hamster. And this was after receiving two cages, food, toys, bedding, and various other supplies – FOR FREE –from his best friend. All went well for a few weeks. We looked after the baby hamsters, made sure they had plenty to eat, kept their cages squeaky clean…all while readying them for sale. That first visit to the pet store made my son beam with joy; he sold 5 hamsters that day. $35.00 to an 8th grader is a lot of money!

Seven hamsters remained. All we had to do – wait for them to reproduce. Then, as you probably can imagine, hamster mania began to set in. First, we learned that hamsters will actually eat each other! What a shock to count six when there were seven the night before.

The next tragedies involved my two cats. We had secured the hamster cages against feline attack, or so we thought. One morning, we found both cages had been tipped over, and the little fuzz balls were on the loose. Thank goodness we found all six – the first time. Despite making the cages as safe as possible, the cats upset them again, and the six were back on the lam. (Joe and Bear had no interest in eating them; they just wanted to play). I’m sad to report, only five survived that jail break.

The next problem involved a faulty water bottle. It had previously worked fine, but one afternoon it broke and flooded the cage – now the poor things shivered with wetness. They dried out nicely, but over the next few days, and a couple of water bottles later, the unwanted showers never seemed to end.

At this point I knew the failure of the business loomed on the horizon. Although I meant well, raising hamsters to sell involves much more than I ever imagined. I finally understood why my son’s friend’s parents gave away all the hamsters and their belongings! They must have been victims of hamster mania as well.

What could I do? I cleaned the cages one more time, and I sent the five survivors packing…hopefully to greener and safer pastures! Never again will I jeopardize the life of any mammal, not matter how small; it’s just too heartbreaking.

If you are considering becoming the proud owner of a hamster, check out this ASPCA link. It tells about all aspects of hamster care, from cost to housing to diet. I sure wish I had known about this resource before I agreed to assist my son with his money making venture.

While I enjoy living close to a variety of wildlife, I sometimes worry about raccoons. Many times at night my car headlights catch and reflect their secretive eyes, and countless mornings the trash container outside has been broken into by nimble black paws — bits and pieces of my life spread neatly across the lawn.

It’s not that I don’t think raccoons are cute. They are adorable. In fact, they are so entertaining they have been the subject of many books. One of the most famous books about raccoons, Rascal, was written in 1963 by Sterling North. The novel won several prizes, and was made into a Disney movie in 1969. Most recently, it was the subject of an anime series in Japan!

This book relates to me – in an odd way – as I live 30 minutes from where the author raised the baby raccoon, Rascal. Since the book became so famous, many fellow Wisconsinites have tried to mold raccoons into pets. This is how I came to know “Spunker.”

When I first met Spunker, he was nothing more than a squirmy ball of fur, his tiny black eyes set deep in his “mask.” He was soft, pliable…and only weeks old. My friend had found Spunker in Wisconsin’s “northwoods,” abandoned. Out of compassion, he brought the raccoon home, hoping to give him a chance at life. (Remember, the memory of North’s book played a big part in his decision).

At first, Spunker was a great pet. A novelty, he seemed to enjoy the attention of humans. He would play, eat, sleep, much like a kitten; however, as he grew, Spunker’s persona changed. His once tiny teeth became razor sharp, and his paws became tools of destruction. What my friend didn’t realize was that no matter how much you love a wild animal, you can’t take the wildness out of it. He deserved to be free.

The last memory I have of Spunker occurred right before his release back into the wild. My friend had made the animal his own room in a basement. Spunker was locked in a room that had bedding, a tire swing, and a variety of other toys. When I went down the stairs in an attempt to say good-bye, I was greeted by crazed banging, then clawing at the door…by a full-grown raccoon. By that time, the memory of baby Spunker had become cloudy, and my love for him had been replaced by fear. As you can guess, I did not make the foolish mistake of entering that room!

Many times I have wondered how Spunker adjusted to being back in the woods. Was he able to survive? Did his animal instincts fully kick in? I hope they did. Lesson learned – wild animals are just that, wild.

A single walrus tusk can weight up to 3 pounds.

A walrus can have anywhere from 400 to 700 whiskers.

Their blubber skin really is just about five inches of thick fat skin to keep them warm.

The reason that all full grown walruses have tusks is so that they can pull and prop themselves up on ice.

Walruses are social animals, as they stay in groups together and have their own means of communication with one another.

They are often very protective of each other. If one walrus is heard or seen being attacked, the other walruses will come intervene.

They cannot move on land very well, but they are fantastic swimmers thanks to their flippers.

Walrus skin is usually brown, thick, and wrinkled.

Male walruses are called bulls.

Female walruses are called cows, and baby walruses are called calves.

They are carnivores, as they eat crabs, mussels, and clams.

The word walrus is Latin for a “walking sea-horse with teeth”.

Walruses are related to both seals and sea lions. All three belong to the Order Pinnepedia.

Male walruses can weigh about 2000 pounds. Females usually weigh about 1800 pounds.