Pet Food | Be Aware what you feed your pets

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Grains can be a long-term source of energy and energy storage for dogs, but they can also be used as a cheap filler in order to boost the food's protein percentage. Watch out! Any grain you feed your dog should be used in whole form so that it supplies more fiber, vitamins and minerals. The best grains for dogs (when used in the proper percentages) are rolled oats, barley, quinoa, millet, and brown rice.Often, low quality dog foods will list a meat ingredient first, which will be followed by several by-products and fillers. In this case, although meat is listed first, there are actually MORE fillers, which changes the ratio noted above.


A well-planned vegetarian diet can work for dogs, although dogs are carnivores by nature. Dogs need animal protein. Would a dog naturally be vegetarian? No. Most veterinarians and holistic practitioners agree that although a dog can survive on a vegetarian diet, they may not thrive on it.

Be aware that while preservatives may be necessary to keep the food edible, preservatives do not have to be artificial chemicals that might be cancer-causing agents. Avoid pet foods that use chemical preservatives BHA, BHT and Ethoxyquin. Vitamin E & vitamin C are great preservatives that are much better for your dog.
Choose Premium Brand dog foods instead of Economy Brand dog foods. The cheapest ingredients are rarely the healthiest ones.

Go holistic. Holistic foods are 100% natural and 100% nutritious. They contain human-grade ingredients. One holistic pet food manufacturer provides anFREE online video "The Truth About Pet Food" you can watch here. (Actually, the term "human-grade" is a marketing technique. As is "holistic". To be able to MARKET a food as "human-grade" the food has to be run through a series of trials and tests that AAFCO officiates. If the food does not pass ALL of these tests and trials it is actually illegal to put the term "human-grade" on the bag.)
Some may consider this rule of thumb: If you wouldn't eat it, your dog probably shouldn't eat it either. (Think animal fat and added salt or sugar.) But there are some things you would eat (such as chocolate, grapes, raisins, white flour and onions) that are NOT good for your dog. Don't make the mistake of thinking all human food is appropriate for your canine. Canine and human nutritional needs and likes differ, such that what is appropriate and appealing for your dog may not be something you care to eat. In addition, some ingredients considered undesirable by US consumers (eg, bi-products) are enjoyed by humans in other cultures.

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Lusitano Horse part 2/2 Standard and characteristics of Lusitano

Standard and characteristics of Lusitano
This week I’m bringing you an article where I summarize all the characteristics of the Lusitano horse.

This is a medium sized horse, with rounded shapes, that has a silhouette inscribable in a square. The breed average is 155cm in females and 160cm in males. This height is measured at the withers with the hipometer when the horse is 6 years old, age of the majority.
The most frequent coatings are grey and bay, and can exist in any other color except piebard.
The temperament of Lusitano is noble, generous and fervent, but always docile, suffering and victorious. It is a horse that gives everything he has for his rider, always wanting to show that he is the best at what he is doing.

It has a quality of movements envied by any other race. Having naturally agile and high movements, projecting each step forward smoothly and very comfortably for the rider.

Due to his wonderful temperament the Lusitano horse has natural aptitude for concentration and reunion exercises like those demonstrated in numerous high school shows. It also has an overwhelming courage and a unique enthusiasm in the ginete exercises, like, hunting, bullfighting or cattle management.
Related to the morphological characteristics, and beginning with the head, it is well proportioned, of medium length, thin and dry. The face is relatively long and in profile there is a slight convexity (called a carved chamfer). His eyes are big and alive, looking at us expressively and confidently. The ears are medium length, thin, and immensely expressive.

The Lusitano possesses a medium-length neck, closely bonded to the head, broad and powerful at its base, well inserted into the shoulders showing power.

The withers is prominent and extensive, in a smooth transition between the back and the neck, always slightly higher than the rump.

The shoulder of the Lusitano horse is long, oblique and well-muscled, like the breasts.

The back of the lusitano horse is well directed, tending towards the horizontal, serving as a smooth union line between the withers and the croup, which is short, broad, muscular, slightly convex, well connected to the rump. The whole set of the back, croup and rump form a continuous, round and perfectly harmonious line of beauty and unique elegance.

The rump is always strong and rounded, well proportioned, slightly oblique, of equal length to width, with a convex profile, harmonic, and slightly revealing hips, giving the croup and the Lusitano an enviable elegance and beauty, along with the evidence of a power and force controlled by the temperament of the Lusitano.
The tail follows the curvature of the rump, with silky, long, shiny, and abundant mane.
To conclude, the muscular, dry and wide limbs, possessing the necessary support for a well of power and strength, with about 500kg of abundant muscle.

Lusitanos, Bullfights and Selection

Lusitanos, Bullfights and Selection

This week I’m going to continue my dissertation about our dear Lusitano. This time, I’m talking about a subject that’s kind of a taboo in our society these days... "Bullfights", hated by some, loved by many, are subject to criticism and praise, debates and discussions, rivalries and passions. But what leads me to write about bullfighting is not the controversy it causes, but the passion I have for our beautiful Lusitano horse.

All the characteristics, morphological and of personality, described in the previous article result from a secular selection. Horses of the Kings, Lusitanos could only be noble horses. Selected for war and fighting, they could only be brave and suffering horses. Portuguese horses, they could only be victorious.

The current Lusitanian for having an "easy command" allows the bullfighter to perform his functions as a rider based on the three main rules of a fight, Parar, Templar e Mandar, concepts that would only be associated with bullfighting on foot if there were not such an antique selection of our horse.

The Lusitano is able to insert himself with ease in the performance of several elements of “high school”, exercises of high difficulty, with a very light contact on the hand. We’re talking about exercises such as, isolated or tempie flying changes, pirouettes at one time, passage, piaffer, half-passes, and all that inserted in a circumference of short diameter. All this comes from a very important feature that I have not yet mentioned, the EQUILIBRIUM.

Bullfighting has, as the most truthful moment, the “frontal luck” and the lusitano horse can do it in an exemplary way, with the inclusion of the bases of the bullfighting: Parar, which means, fundamentally, to stop, wait and give primacy to the opponent's attack; Templar, which consists in imparting a sense of slowness, achieved through the cadenced and impelled gallop of a superb amplitude allowing variations of rhythm; and Mandar, which is to impose trajectories until the moment of the meeting. A meeting that the Lusitano horse allows to be realized slowly, with expression on the body and the face, which demonstrates his virile, fighting and victorious personality. 

Photo taken by Frederico Henriques - in the photo Paco Velasquez and Duelo da Broa.

READ MORE ABOUT HORSES - https://animalix9.blogspot.pt/2018/04/lusitano-horse.html

 

 

These characteristics corroborate the thesis that the selection must always follow the objectives of functionality and maneuverability, and here, the talent of the Portuguese breeders has proven to be remarkable. They have often selected for functionality in their dream of obtaining the ideal horse for the requirements of the users.

The bullfighting was thus the laboratory of creation by excellence of the Lusitano, in which there was always a perfect symbiosis between the riders and the breeders. This narrow and important selection allowed us to obtain a horse of a unique beauty, unequaled generosity, magical souplesse, and with an enviable quality which has led our horse to international arenas, competing among the world’s best and achieving historical results as the 12th place in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, a result achieved by the Lusitano Rubi AR, from one of the oldest studs in our country that has always selected based on the functionality and the aptitude for the “high school” exercises executed by the magnificent riders of the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art.

And that’s it, this week we finish the sequence of three articles related to the Lusitano. We’ll sure be back to him since the Lusitanos are the horses we work with more often!

Written by Pedro Miranda

Translated by Raquel Quaresma

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Egyptian Mau

Egyptian Maus are a small- to medium-sized short-haired cat breed. Along with the Bahraini Dilmun cat, they are one of the few naturally spotted breeds of domesticated cat. The spots of the Mau occur on only the tips of the hairs of its coat.




Cat fanciers bred and exhibited Maus in Europe until World War II, when attention toward the cat waned and it nearly went extinct. The breed was saved in the 1950s when Russian princess Natalie Trubetskaya (sometimes Troubetskoy), living in exile in Italy, was given a Mau that was reportedly imported from the Middle East. Trubetskaya took a shine to the spotted feline breed, and when she emigrated to New York City in 1956, she brought along three Mau cats. She used these kitties to establish the Fatima Egyptian Mau cattery, which produced many of the ancestors of today’s Egyptian Maus in America.
Once the Mau arrived in America, fanciers continued the rare breed’s bloodline by outcrossing it with other cats, and imported more Maus from Egypt and India. In 1977, the Mau was granted championship status by the Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA), the world's largest registry of pedigreed cats. As of 2014, it was the 20th most popular cat in America, according to CFA registration data
Maus often possess very musical voices. They are known to chirp, chortle, and emit other distinctly unusual vocalizations when stimulated. Another behavior, quite common in happy Maus, has been described as "wiggle-tail." The cat, whether female or male, wiggles and twitches its tail, and appears to be marking territory, also known as spraying, but during this behavior the Mau is not releasing urine. Facial expressions may change according to mood, and eye colour may change from green to turquoise.

Personality

When the Egyptian Mau is happy, you know it. He vocalizes (called chortling) in a quiet, pleasant voice, swishes his tail rapidly, and kneads with his front paws. What makes him happy is being with his family, to whom he is fiercely devoted, or showing off his hunting prowess by chasing and retrieving a tossed toy or stalking and pouncing on a wriggling lure at the end of a fishing pole toy.
This is a moderately to highly active cat. He likes to jump and climb and will appreciate a tall cat tree, a window perch or two, and a sturdy scratching post that allows him to stretch out to full height. The Mau also enjoys playing in water. Don’t be surprised to find him dipping a paw into your koi pond or aquarium, turning on the tap in the bathroom or kitchen, or splashing water out of your pool — or his water dish.

The Egyptian Mau prefers family members to anyone else. When he’s not playing fetch, he enjoys sitting in a lap and being worshipped, just as his ancestors may have been.
The Mau has the distinction of being the fastest domestic housecat, as she can run at speeds of up to 30 mph.

Health

Both pedigreed cats and mixed-breed cats have varying incidences of health problems that may be genetic in nature. Egyptian Maus are generally healthy, but be sure to ask a breeder about the incidence of health problems in her lines and what testing has been done for any that are genetic in nature.

Egyptian Maus are said to have a longer gestational period than most cats. While average felines give birth after 65 to 67 days of pregnancy, Maus reportedly remain with child (uh, kitten) for an average of 73 days.

Coat Color And Grooming

The Mau’s most striking characteristic is his spotted coat in silver, bronze or smoke (pale silver fur tipped in black), closely followed by his large gooseberry-green eyes. He is a medium-size cat with a muscular body and a slightly rounded wedge-shaped head topped with medium-size to large ears. With hind legs slightly longer than the front legs, he gives the appearance of standing on tiptoe on his small, dainty feet. A medium-long tail is thick at the base, tapering slightly at the end.
The medium-length coat has a silky, fine texture in the smoke coloration and a dense, resilient texture in the silver and bronze colors. The body is covered randomly with distinct spots that can be small or large, and round, oblong or other shapes. The forehead bears an M shape, the cheeks are adorned with “mascara” lines, and the tail is banded, ending with a dark tip. On the pale belly are dark spots that resemble “vest buttons.”
In addition to the silver, bronze and smoke colors, Maus can come in solid black, blue silver, blue spotted (a dilute version of bronze), blue smoke and solid blue, but these colors are not permitted in the show ring. These cats of a different color make fine pets, however, sharing all the other characteristics of the Mau.

Devon Rex
Sphynx
Kurilian Bobtail
Peterbald
Japanese Bobtail
Siberian

British Shorthair

The British Shorthair is the pedigreed version of the traditional British domestic cat, with a distinctively chunky body, dense coat and broad face. The most familiar color variant is the "British Blue", a solid blue-gray with copper eyes, medium tail, but the breed has also been developed in a wide range of other colours and patterns, including tabby and colorpoint.
It is one of the most ancient cat breeds known, probably originating from European domestic cats imported into Britain by the invading Romans in the first century AD. In modern times it remains the most popular pedigreed breed in its native country, as registered by the UK's Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF).
The breed's good-natured appearance and relatively calm temperament make it a frequent media star, notably as the inspiration for John Tenniel's famous illustration of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. The Cat Fanciers' Association profile reads: "When gracelessness is observed, the British Shorthair is duly embarrassed, quickly recovering with a 'Cheshire cat smile.

The British Shorthair is a study in roundness. He has a large round head, round eyes and rounded paws. Even his tail has a rounded tip. He was once known as the British Blue because he came only in that color, but these days his short, plush coat comes in many different colors and patterns. There is also a longhaired variety, called the British Longhair. Except for his coat, the British Longhair is the same as the British Shorthair.
A British Shorthair is a dignified, intelligent and affectionate companion. He’s not generally a lapcat, but he will want to be at your side on the sofa or at least nearby. Females tend to have a serious demeanor, while males are more happy-go-lucky. These laidback cats can get along well with dogs and are calm around children, but they don’t enjoy being hauled around. Teach children to treat them with respect.
The British Shorthair is big, but he shouldn’t be fat. Watch his food intake to make sure he doesn’t become obese. Encourage him to chase fishing-pole toys or peacock feathers for exercise.
Brush or comb the British Shorthair’s coat two or three times a week to keep loose hair at a minimum. You’ll need to brush him more often in the spring when he sheds his winter coat. Trim the nails as needed and keep his ears clean.
The British Shorthair is well suited to any home with people who will love him. Keep him indoors to protect him from cars, diseases spread by other cats and attacks from other animals.