From a bossy cat to hungry hedgehogs – your pet queries answered

HE is on a mission to assist our pets  . . . and is right here to reply YOUR questions.

Sean, who’s the top vet at tailor-made pet meals agency tails.com, has helped with homeowners’ queries for ten years. He says: “If your pet is acting funny or is under the weather, or you want to know about nutrition or exercise, just ask. I can help keep pets happy and healthy.”

Q) MY cat Bob has claimed the very best seat within the lounge and he goes berserk if anybody sits on it.

It’s a extremely comfortable armchair so the remainder of us find yourself squished on the couch. What ought to I do?

Just let Bob rule the roost or evict him from his comfortable seat as he has his personal beds — though he doesn’t need these?

Kathleen Brown, Dorchester, Dorset

A) I’ve mentioned it earlier than and I’ll say it once more. Dogs have homeowners, cats have servants.

If Bob has deemed that his throne is for him and him solely, then it’s not your house actually to say in any other case.

You simply have to simply accept your destiny and respect your feline overlord’s needs.

In all seriousness, there’s a trick which will work and idiot Bob into considering it was his determination to surrender the seat for people. Tin foil!

Cats are very explicit about what they sit on.

And a sheet of tin foil on the chair cushion when he’s not trying will actually cut back its enchantment.

Once he’s stopped sitting there you’ll be able to transfer the tinfoil and sit there as an alternative.

It could take a couple of weeks to regain management.

Q) MISTY, our 16-month-old toy poodle, has an issue once we take her out within the automobile or go to the native store.

When I wait exterior in our automobile together with her, she begins getting confused and crying and yelping for my spouse.

Is there any resolution to this downside?

Terry Taylor, Sheffield

A) Separation nervousness is a fancy challenge and there’s not a fast repair or one-size-fits-all resolution.

First issues first, your spouse and Misty want to start out engaged on their independence and never being joined on the hip the entire time.

That might imply utilizing child gates within the home so Misty will get used to not continually following her round.

She’ll be taught that it’s nice to be on her personal generally.

Then, arrange false departures from the automobile over time.

During these, occupy Misty with distraction video games and reward-based coaching to stay calm and never fear as your spouse will return and nothing dangerous occurs.

A number of this is dependent upon your reactions to her when leaving, ready and returning, so enlisting the assistance of a professional animal behaviourist will in all probability get faster and extra beneficial outcomes.

Q) I HAVE a household of hedgehogs that reside in my backyard.

With their numbers in such decline I actually need to do all the pieces I can to assist them.

I put out pet food and there’s at all times clear water.

I’ve a hedgehog home too, though they select to not use it.

Can I do the rest?

Tina Bryan, Newcastle

A) Sadly they’re in large decline however there’s some proof hedgehogs could also be doing barely higher in city areas than their rural cousins.

Dry or moist cat meals is greatest as supplemental meals, however by no means fish flavours.

And by no means bread or milk, which causes extreme tummy upsets.

Then, leaving wilder areas and weeds to develop in your backyard will encourage numerous native bugs that they feed on.

Creating some useless hedges or log piles supplies habitat to cover in.

Don’t use any sprays or chemical compounds and you probably have a pond ensure there are logs, rocks or a ramp to permit wildlife to climb out.

If you don’t have a pond, even making one out of a small container shall be a magnet for wildlife.

Finally, encourage your neighbours to chop holes in partitions and fences, in regards to the measurement of a CD case, 13cm diameter.

They want to go to 20-30 gardens every evening! There’s a great deal of nice information at hedgehogstreet.org.

Star of the week

HEROIC Moggie the cat raised the alarm when his proprietor bought caught in an outbuilding on her farm.

Madeleine Rogers, 86, and her husband, Geoff, 75, took Moggie in as an eight-month-old stray.

Now 4, he has repaid Madeleine’s kindness after the wind blew her barn door shut, trapping her inside.

Madeleine, from Kent, mentioned: “Moggie heard me banging and shouting and got here via a gap we’ve reduce for him within the shed wall.

“I instructed him, ‘Go and find Geoff’, and he did it.

“He kept meowing until he followed. I’d have been stuck for hours otherwise. He’s my hero.”

Dog drained? Choose the fitting pooch

LABRADOR retrievers and Dachshunds make the very best four-legged sleeping companions, a survey discovered.

But the worst pups to share your cover with are fidgety bull terriers, German pointers and Hungarian Vizslas.

Apparently, 50 per cent of us share our bedrooms with a canine, however the outcomes from sleep tech agency Simba Sleep, in collaboration with animal behaviourist Professor Peter Neville, reveal it’s good to select your canine bedfellow correctly.

Prof Neville mentioned: “Most dogs wish to ‘sleep in a heap’ for heat and safety.

But whereas Labradors, hairier breeds, crossbreeds and huge dogs shall be comfortable to sprawl on high of the covers, terriers, Dachshunds and thin-coated breeds could count on to burrow below the covers to safe heat alongside you.

So, in case you are a stressed sleeper, or a kicker, you is perhaps safer and be extra prone to sleep undisturbed should you allocate a particular zone in your canine on the opposite facet of a giant sufficient mattress for them to burrow into and sleep, quite than anticipating to cuddle up collectively.”

The different greatest breeds to share a mattress with are border terriers, Pomeranians and cocker spaniels.