Americans embrace sugar gliders as pets

 

The sugar glider may be a rare sight for Aussie eyes, but it makes a popular pet in the US where licenses aren’t quite as strict.

 

In Montana, for example, sugar gliders fall into the “non-controlled species” category along with wallabies and two-toed sloths, and therefore no permit is needed to own, sell or purchase them.

 

As numerous Americans have discovered, the tiny flying marsupial makes a great pet. They are easy to care for, despite requiring some extra attention.

 

Originally from Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia, they would usually eat sap from eucalyptus and gum trees, but as a house pet they can be fed protein such as crickets, fresh vegetables and fruit.

 

They cost about USD$200 on average, and most are bought from private breeders or retail outlets breeding sugar gliders such as Pet Nebula in Missoula, which sells at least 10 sugar gliders per year.

 

Co-owner of Pet Nebula, Cheyenne Laue, raises the baby sugar gliders herself, and it doesn’t appear to be an easy job. As the joeys grow, she feeds them a yoghurt mush every couple of hours using an eyedropper. She believes that this early bonding period is essential to breeding a tame and enjoyable pet.

 

“The ones that are hand-fed think they’re a person by the time you’re done,” she explains.

 

She does point out, however, that not all sugar gliders make great pets. Wild sugar gliders may be aggressive if taken from their habitat, and are capable of biting through fingers to the bone, so the meticulous process of hand-rearing them isn’t just for kicks. But like any pet, if they are raised well problems are few and far between.

 

Source: Leslie Brown, U-Wire Montana, March 2008

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The science behind our fears

 

Aside from reptile and arachnid enthusiasts, most of us get chills down our spine from the very sight of a snake or spider. University of Queensland (UQ), researchers may be on the verge of finding out why.

 

Dr Helena Purkis is among a number of researchers at UQ’s School of Psychology taking a look at why hundreds and thousands of Australians count these creatures as the face of our phobias.

 

“Previous research shows we react differently to snakes and spiders than to other stimuli, such as flowers or mushrooms, or even other dangerous animals….or cars and guns, which are also much more dangerous,” Dr Purkis said.

“[In the past, this] has been explained by saying that people are predisposed by evolution to fear certain things, such as snakes and spiders, that would have been dangerous to our ancestors.

“[However], people tend to be exposed to a lot of negative information regarding snakes and spiders, and we argue this makes them more likely to be associated with phobia.”

 

To get more insight, researchers contrasted the responses of stimuli of volunteers with no specific experience with snakes and spiders, to that of snake and spider experts.

“Previous research has argued that snakes and spiders attract preferential attention (they capture attention very quickly) and that during this early processing a negative (fear) response is generated… as an implicit and indexed subconscious [action],” Dr Purkis said.

“We showed that although everyone preferentially attends to snakes or spiders in the environment as they are potentially dangerous, only inexperienced participants display a negative response.”

In other words, even though everyone reacts quickly to the presence of snakes and spiders, it doesn’t necessarily have to excite a negative emotional response.

Dr Purkis believes the findings could greatly increase understanding about the prime cognitive and emotional processes involved in the acquisition and maintenance of fear.

“If we understand the relationship between preferential attention and emotion it will help us understand how a stimulus goes from being perceived as potentially dangerous, to eliciting an emotional response and to being associated with phobia,” she said.

“[This] could give us some information about the way people need to deal with snakes and spiders in order to minimise negative emotional responses.”

UQ researchers are now calling for volunteers who work with or own dogs, cats, horses, cattle, snakes and spiders, as well as general members of the public, to participate in a follow-up study, which will test their theory that love and fear involve the same basic attention mechanism.

“[Additionally, we're looking to get in touch with] people who are willing to have their pets (dogs, cats, horses, cattle, snakes, spiders) photographed for use as experimental stimuli,” said Dr Purkis.

Each experiment will involve looking at photographs of animals and will take one to two hours to complete. Those who participate can be reimbursed $10 per hour for their time and effort.

For more information about the research project or to register your interest in participating, visit http://experiment.psy.uq.edu.au/fear/.

 

Source: University of Queensland School of Psychology, March 08

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An online store to help disabled pets live healthy, comfortable lives

 

There are specialty stores to cater for all sorts of pet needs these days, but few are quite as indispensable as one recently opened by Scout’s House, one of California’s leading physical rehabilitation therapy centres for animals.

 

Their online store is dedicated to meeting the unique needs of disabled dogs and cats, specialising in products designed to help pets suffering from chronic, debilitating physical conditions, such as arthritis, degenerative myelopathy, hip dysplasia, and old age, as well as those recovering from injury or surgery.

 

Products include front and rear harnesses, splints, boots, paw wax, moisture barriers, diapers, car ramps, waterless shampoo, joint supplements and how-to videos.

 

Source: PR Newswire, March 08

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Pet Trade Shows coming up