Mike’s Fish Tank – Animal Facts

Here are some neat non fish facts:

• Teddy bear hamsters with really long hair are usually males.
• The feet of Siberian hamsters have thick fur on the bottom. It is cold in Siberia.Syrian hamsters have pouches on the sides of their mouths to carry food collected in the desert to their den. Try giving them a thin carrot strip and watch them stuff it into their pouch, biting it off if it’s too long.With the exception of male mice, small animals do not smell, dirty cages do.
• Guniea pigs need Vitamin C in their diet because, just like you,they do not make it themselves. Some big breeders actually add a little bit of unsweetened orange juice to a guinea pigs bottle. Many guinea pigs will actually chew on an orange rind .The other small animals do.
• Chinchillas also benefit from extra vitamin C. Gerbils drink very little water and often get enough from a small carrot treat.
• Change their water bottles every day so the water does not get stale.
• Hamsters in the wild are solitary, A single hamster will be fine.
• Many small animals are allergic to cedar bedding, so it is safer to stick with pine or one of the manyrecycled newspaper type beddings. Even just a small amount of cedar can cause a small animal to die. Many will lose their fur and even get bloody noses. Beware of Department store pine. It sometimes has small amounts of cedar in it.
• Gerbils make excellent pets, they drink very little, so they urinate very little, so they smell very little.
• Rats make excellent pets. They are clean and very very smart. Very unlikely to bite.
• Chinchillas can live to be 25 years old.
• All baby ferrets are descented, spayed and neutered at a very young age.

Pets A Plenty is located in the Blockbuster Video Plaza, Rte 281 Cortland, 753-9213. Open 7 days a week. We now have a website. WWW.PETSAPLENTY.BIZ. check it out. I post care sheets, coupons, new animal arrivals, contests and more. Any questions, email me at friskyy@hotmail.com