Latest Inventions

posted by admin on Apr 30

No, it’s not another ‘green’ or ‘climate change’ awareness week - it all about bunnies!

Rabbits are the 3rd most popular furry pet in the UK after cats and dogs - but they really seem to get a raw deal when it comes to their accommodation and health care. 

So, along came the Rabbit Awareness Week (or RAW - as rabbits get a RAW deal) to promote their well-being.  Basically loads of vets across the UK this week are giving out free health-care and veterinary consults to all who apply.

Rabbit Care: 
Did you know for example that you can vaccinate your rabbit against various common infections that plague wild rabbits - like myxomatosis, a terrible infection that gradually and painfully will kill your pet!  Now if you live near wild rabbits it would really be a no-brainer to get the jab for your pet, wouldn’t it.  But if you don’t know these things, you can’t do them.

Also, not many people compare the size of their rabbit when adult to the space available in it’s hutch.  Now I know that there are only so many ‘mainstream’ hutches for sale - but that doesn’t mean you have to buy one!  If people demand bigger hutches - then pet stores will start stocking them.

Anyway, roughly estimate the ‘floor plan’ or your bunny (basically the size of it when you look down on it from above, then see how many of these ‘bunny floor plans’ fit into the hutch.  I bet it’s not more than 5 or 6 .  Now scale that up to other animals - like that would mean keeping a tiger at the zoo in a cage that was only about 20ft long and no more than 6 feet wide. 

I doubt if you would want to visit THAT zoo!

Hamsters get it great - I mean for their size even in a one storey cage they must get the equivalent of 16 times their own size - so a great big 3-storey hamster cage increases their available space to about 48 times their size.

Rabbits might be able to take 2 hops from one end of their hutch to the other, but hamsters get to scale flights of stairs and run around in wheels!

Rabbit Runs:
Yes, you can buy a rabbit run and let your bunny trot around on fresh grass - but again, they are very small compared to total bunny size.  and, you need to keep putting your bunny in them every day and moving them around the garden as well - and not in bad weather.

So, rabbits might get out in their run for more than an hour maybe just 100 days or less a year.

And although you can get then a harness and talk them out for ‘walks’ in your yard (and by this I mean that you just follow your rabbit around wherever it goes as oppose to drag it up the street like a stubborn Yorkie!), but you need to be with them all the time, so this isn’t normally a very long activity for them.

Letting them run free in you secure garden is also out of the question as they may well get killed by a neighbours cat - all too tempted by this fluffy things hopping around the shrubs!

So, needless to say, bunny rabbits can get very fat (through lack of exercise) and very bored (due to sitting in a tiny hutch for the majority of the year). 

And this is where RAW hopes to help out.  By offering a range of treatments, complete foods and toys - your rabbit need never live a boring life ever again!

posted by admin on Nov 5

I recently received the most amazing gift, and I didn’t realise it was all so easy!

Imagine your child’s 1st birthday, your wedding day or a special trip you took made into a unique photobook albums that you designed yourself. 

Now I’m not talking about a jazzed up photo album with hand written notes and photo’s stuck in - I mean an actual real book with your images actually printed into the pages like it was for sale in a store.

Now I knew these things might be possible, but when I received a book about an amazing month in Costa Rica, with all my own great photos and a few of me thrown in - I really was brought to tears!

It Is So Simple:
Not that the person giving me this wanted to give away his secrets, but it turns out that it is really easy to create your own photo book albums online.  Basically you choose your images, you decide what size and design you want for the album - you can even help choose how many pages and what cover you want and it is all stored online until you actually tell them you are delighted with the result.  

If you change your mind, you can then add more pages, remove certain images and basically tamper with it until you are 110% happy.

If you choose a premium online company to help - they will professionally design the book for you to your very own template and in a sturdy hardback cover.  This way, you simply upload your best images onto their site, and they use their experienced design staff to create your own bespoke photobook. 

Before it is printed and individually bound - they give your the opportunity to see the final draft - allowing you to make any final adjustments.

The Result:
Imagine, being able to keep a book of every year of your child’s life, or send out copies of your book to the bridesmaid for a permanent token of your friendship. 

Or send a gift to a friend who achieved something great, a beloved family pet, a beautiful vacation, a house renovation or anything that you want to remember and have taken plenty of images of!

You can choose from plain covers, a photo on the cover, or mine has personalized writing on the cover.  There are also many companies that have specific covers and bindings for certain occasions like your professional wedding album, amazingly designed new home album, birthdays, parties, friends etc, so the choice is yours.

I love my personal photobook, as I know exactly what I was thinking when I took every one of those images.  I remember where I was when I took the snap and I know the little stories that surround each one.

And because it’s a book of only the best shots, my friends don’t have to stare at pictures of people with their heads missing and out of focus animals like in a normal album - this is my special book, and I want one of every vacation I take from now on!

posted by admin on May 23

Would You Spend $155,000 to keep your dog forever?

Well, news has it that an American couple did just that!  5 years ago, they decided that they loved on of their pets so much, that they were willing to pay to have it’s DNA cryogenically frozen so that when the technology had improved enough - that they could get their little bundle of joy to walk again!

And the technology was improved last year - and so now they have a little puppy which is exactly the same genetically as their first one!  It was the first single-birth commercially cloned puppy in the world.

But why stop there?

There are plans afoot to clone animals that have been dead for some time - and in the case of the woolly mammoth - 40,000 years of it!

Cases in Japan recently have allowed scientists to clone mice that have been ‘dead for 16 years’ - so why not other extinct animals?

San Diego zoo have been busy with cloning - but with live animals.  They are not just cloning something normal like a sheep from a sheep - a la Dolly from the UK, they are cloning an endangered animal and crossing the species barrier by allowing the eggs to develop inside a bog standard domestic cow!

They basically made it possible for 2 south-east Asian oxes (Banteng) to be born through a cow mum.  Therefore paving the way for an elephant to give birth to a baby mammoth!

The Mammoth Task:
In December 2008, 70% of the mammoth genome was published from frozen specimens which had ‘fallen out’ of the permafrost in remote parts of Russia.  Obviously there is still 30% missing - but expert say that this won’t take long to overcome.

Basically, experts are claiming that the cloning of a mammoth will happen - it is just a matter of when!  The technology exists to re-create long dead animals - someone just needs to foot the bill.

They have several ways to clone the mammoth (or Tasmanian Tiger, or Dodo, etc..) and all depend on the getting the frozen cells to replicate and grow inside another animals womb.

They don’t actually need any sperm or mammoth eggs to perform this cloning (although that is a viable option) as they can electrically or chemically stimulate any cell into dividing sexually - so one dead mammoth can offer them goodness knows how many attempts at this!  All they need is the DNA - and this is found in every (non-sexual) cell of every living animal.  It’s just not always 100% there in long dead ones!

And Then?
Obviously, they need an animal from a similar taxonomic group and of a similar size, but everything else is a bit of guess work!

They also have no real idea of what they will need to don once the animal is born - as they have no ‘real’ mammoth breast milk to use - in-fact no idea at all about what it should contain - other than basing it on it’s only realistically useful relative - the elephant.

Another potential ethical issue at this point would be that there is only one - or a very small group, and possibly they are all the exact same animal genetically.  Needless to say, this won’t create a viable ‘herd’ or ‘flock’ of clones.  They would be just ’something to look at’.

We are also going to be bringing them back into a world that they no longer live in!  Yes, it is possible that humans were the main reason for their decline and extinction in the first place - but how do we know that they will survive in a new and changing world when we get them back?

Some people don’t even want beavers to be re-introduced into their neighbourhoods - so who is going to want a few giant hairy elephants roaming about their woods?

And are we not in a recession, with environmental issues all around us and medicine in desperate needs of funds?  Children starving, wildlife made extinct and forests being destroyed?

Would spending a fortune on raising the mammoth be a wise choice right now?

posted by admin on Jul 4

Protect Your Chickens With An Alpaca!

This is no joke - alpacas really do prevent livestock and poultry deaths just by being around.  Even Prince Charles has taken them on board at his organic farm according to the Sunday Times.

What Are They? 
Alpacas are a relative of the Llama (and more distantly - the camel) and are bred for their wool.  They grow up to 6ft tall at the head and will apparently walk towards foxes once sighted and chase them away - kicking and stamping on them if given the chance! 

They also have a strong herding instinct with whatever animal they share their fields with if they sense danger - be it sheep or chickens - and they will round them up until the danger passes.

Many farmers lose stock to foxes (a steady population of around 250,000 reside in the UK - but this increase to over 600,000 when cubs are born) so in this eco-driven environment they needed a natural alternative.  The alpaca fits that niche perfectly, and there are currently about 17,000 in the UK today (mainly on wool farms) - from almost none just over 10 years ago.

But because of the re invention of the lucrative alpaca wool industry in the UK, many are just not lowly enough to be ’chicken protectors’ as they are just too valuable as breeding stock.  A breeding female could fetch £3,500, with an excellent stud male stacking up a huge price of £30,000!!  For the ’non-worthy’ common little alpacas, the price is closer to £500 each - with males providing the best bouncers…..

So, be more like royalty yourself and choose the latest natural remedies for your farming worries rather than old-fashioned hounds and guns!
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posted by admin on May 5

Not as many people as I thought have any idea that you can insure your pet dog, cat or rabbit - as well as almost anything else we have as pets, including horses, lizards, parrots and gerbils!

I recently overheard a conversation where a girl relayed that after her dog got run over outside her house, the vet asked her if she had insurance and she had all but laughed in their face - it was only when the bills started coming in (totalling more than $700 and still rising) that she stopped laughing.

Is it Worth It?
Many others who have heard of it think it is a gimmick or a waste of money - ‘why pay someone else a set amount every month when I can just put some aside myself?’ Well, in the UK if your dog causes a road traffic accident, the owner is liable for up to $2m for each human injured as a result, not including costs for the damaged car or cars involved. Think you have enough savings for that???

All insurance policies create the same reaction - ‘do I really need it?’ - ‘nothing went wrong with our last pet/holiday/car…’. Can you afford that risk? Policies for cats and dogs range from around $9 up to $60 depending on a whole range of factors - but beware - they don’t all cover the same things!

Search For the Best Deal for You. 
So because all policies are different, don’t just grab the first one you see, or the cheapest for that matter - read up on the following details and see which areas are worth more to you, then focus on the best policy for your pets AND your pocket. What factors are relevant to you?

Existing Illness or Injury - If you pet has an existing injury or known illness that has recieved or is currently receiving treatment for, this may not be covered on all new policies.
New illness or injury - Check if the policy premiums go up after each new claim.
New Policy Time Window - Find out if your pet is covered immediately for cover, or if it has to wait for a period of time before cover begins (to make sure you don’t take out the policy when your pet is already ill).
Multiple Pets - Do you need to insure more than 1 pet in your household, as some policies will offer a decent % saving.
Excess Amount - Check that the amount of each claim you have to pay is not too high, otherwise you will never owe your vet enough money to bother making a claim - check your vets costs for the common illness and treatments, like loose stools - cut to the foot - ear infection, and compare the excess amount.
Payment Type - Some policies will pay everything through your vet with you just paying the excess amount to begin. Other policies make you pay for all of the treatment first - then send you a check after.
Other Benefits - Many policies will offer discounts for pets that are micro-chipped or spayed/neutered - also with indoor cats and other restricted animals. However, some policies will charge more for certain breeds of dog, for example, where those breeds are susceptible to hereditary conditions - so if your pet is (for example a bulldog is prone to skin complaints, a German shepherd to digestive upsets, a Labrador to elbow dysplasia, etc) check policies out for this specific detail. Some companies also offer discounts for people who work in certain professions which is worth looking in to.
Third Party - if your dog is likely to come into contact with people, vehicles or other animals, it may be worth getting (or at least investigating) third party cover incase of an incident. Sometimes this is included on you household policy so make sure you don’t pay twice.

Other things to look out for in a policy include the following:

• Alternative Medicines and Holistic Treatments Cover
• Accidental Death of Your Pet (specifically for pure-breed dogs and cats)
• Advertising and Rewards for Lost Pets
• Cattery or Kennel Fees (if you are hospitalised)
• Special Diets (in the case of long term medical conditions; diabetes, kidney failure, etc)
• Pet Holiday Protection (at home and abroad)

It really is worth having with vet bills on the increase. Even if you only make one or two claims ever - it would still have been worth it. Imagine you were that girl at the start who had to make a choice to treat her dog for as long as it took as whatever the cost, or to have her pet euthanized or a leg amputated to save money.

Is that decision really worth the price of a meal out?