Is your dog or cat fat?

Is your dog or cat fat?
There are many great low calorie foods that will help your pet lose weight.  Science Diet is the only food that can actually call themselves a "light" food and put that label on their bag.  Other foods have to use lite, less, active, reduced calorie.  Some companies might use the "light" label on their websites, but that is because the AAFCO rules that apply to food do not extend to websites.  Be very careful about the information you take from the Web.  Companies can misrepresent their products on their own website, and they also have employees that post misleading information on internet forums. 

I know some people are hung up on corn right now, but keep in mind - corn has an excellent amino acid profile.  And if you use a high quality corn meal, only 3% of dog have allergies to corn.  More dogs are allergic to meat than corn.  Also, some people think dogs in the wild don't eat veggies.  Don't fall for the hype.  We don't have wild dogs.  Humans used to eat a much different diet than we do today - we also didn't live as long.  The same is true for dogs.  We have improved the overall quality and length of our pets live by feeding high quality prepared diets. 

Also, Science Diet employs more vets and animal nutritionists than any other company.  There is not some corporate suit building the ingredient list for you food, but people who have made a life learning about what is best for your pet.  Hills uses ingredients that have proven to be beneficial in wellness foods and for the prevention of  certain diseases, and obesity is one of them. Hills also has over 50 years of veterinary research behind what it makes and sells.

With Science Diet, you will probably feed less than you would with your current food.  This will reduce the cost of feeding.  If 10# will last you one month now, 5# of a better food might last you the same month.  If your pet is overweight it is important to measure out their food.  Feed twice a day.  You can also buy an automatic portion control feeder to automatically dispense the food. 

Be careful with snacks and table scraps.  You can quickly add too many calories to the diet and blow the whole plan.  We do have low calorie treats so you can still show them some love while maintaining the weight loss goal.  Also, just give them half.  Cut the treats in half, or give them half as many.  That will help reduce calories too.

We do offer a 100% money back guarantee on our food.  If for any reason you are unhappy we will refund your money. We also offer a food loyality program for all our foods.  Buy 10 bags from us and we'll give you a free bag.  We hope you make us ;your shipping choice.

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K9 Natural

We do stock K9 Natural in our warehouse.  K9 Natural is $32.99 for the 30 day supply and $199 for the 320 day size (The Big 35 Pounder).  Daily servings are based on an 11# dog.

K9 Natural is a 100% pure, natural, raw freeze dried dog food.  It is made in New Zealand with New Zealand produce.  It is available in either a lamb supreme or beef gourmet formula.  More info can be found at k9naturalfood.com

If you would like to try it out, please call or email so I can have it in the store when you come in.

Now ordering Purina

Starting January, we'll be able to order Purina products for you.  If you need Pro Plan, Beneful, One, Alpo, Cat Chow, Dog Chow or Friskies let me know. We'll be able to order it for you. I will beat the last price you paid by 5% if you bring a current receipt (within the last 3 months). I will match any advertised price if you bring in the ad.

Biggest sale of the year

Saturday is the big day. Thousands of items on sale all day long. Half off all fish from 6 to 9. The now famous giveaways at 9:00. See you there!

Moonlight Madness - Our Biggest Sale Of The Year!

Moonlight Madness

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Moonlight Madness

 

Sierra Vista this Saturday (4th), Tucson next (11th)!

We’re having our annual BIGGEST sale of the year!  Coming up December 4th, we’ve lined up some great deals for you all.  Plus, the famous give aways at 9PM.  We’re giving away tons of merchandise starting at 9PM.  You do have to be present to win, but we have special prizes for everyone that come out.  Here’s a list of SOME of the specials.  We’ll have thousands of items throughout the store on sale all day, so stop by.  Also, we be posting some incredible $1 hourly specials on Twitter and Facebook so keep those windows open.

 

 

20L terrarium $29 Instant ocean $12.99 Cricket Club cards $7 Hamster Ball $5 4# Fiesta Parrot KT42644 $13.99 1200CI Pine $2.49 KT 50016 Tortoise Food $4 NZ54661 14 PK Wee Wee Pads $4.49 FF01614

27 x 36 Pet Bed $14.99 21528381 20 Gal Kit $99.99 00817760 Zilla Desert Kit $49.99 40# Wildbird Seed $9.99 Guinea Pig Kits $49.99 Rabbit Kits $49.99 Heated Pet Beds 25% Off 22IN Round Pet Bed $17.99

 

All Kaytee food BOGO $1

All Frozen food BOGO $1

All Collars and Leashes 50% Off

All Dog Sweaters 50% Off!

All Dog and Cat Food 10% Off!

All Plants and Decorations BOGO $1

All Fish 50% off 6PM - 9PM (33% off all day long)

All Books 25% Off!

 

Bird Feeders 33% Off!

Bird Toys and Treats 33% Off!

Bird Cages 20% Off!

Cat Toys and Treats 33% Off!

Cat Litter 10% Off!

Cat Furniture 10% Off!

Dog Beds 25% Off!

Dog Toys and Treats 33% Off!

Stainless Steel Dishes 33% Off!

Dog Brushes and Shampoos 33% Off!

Fish Food 33% Off!

Fish Pumps, Filters, and Heaters 15% Off!

Selected Fluval filters - Special prices

Selected Aqueon filters - Special prices

Selected Aqueon Sets (tank, stand, light, lid) 30% Off!

Selected Aqueon Tank only or Stand only 20% Off!

Fish Cartridges 33% Off!

Terrariums 10% Off!

Heat lights 25% Off!

Small Animal Cages 25% Off!

Small Animal Bedding 25% Off!

All Hamster Tubes 33% Off!

 

Science Diet is giving away a $299 Kinect Bundle

You still have time to get in on the drawing for the free Kinect Bundle.  Make a Science Diet purchase between now and December 19th to get a free entry to the drawing.  Reference the earlier post to get the specific rules.

 

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Eukanuba

We are seeing Eukanuba come back into stock. Still some shortages, but
fill rates are starting to get better! Iams (selected varieties) are
now on sale for $29.99 for big bags!

Free Xbox Kinect Bundle!

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Free Xbox Kinect Bundle!

We've giving away a free Xbox Kinect bundle courtesy of Science Diet!

With any Science Diet purchase, you can get a ticket into our Xbox Kinect drawing. We're holding the drawing on 12-20-10. Get your tickets at the counter whenever you make a Science Diet purchase.
The bundle includes the Kinect, 4GB Xbox, and Kinect Adventures.


Multiple items purchased on the same day will count as one purchase.  Multiple items purchased by the same family or group will count as one purchase. 

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Free Ask A Trainer Day

Saturday, November 20th we will host a free Ask A Trainer day in Sierra Vista.  Our pet trainer will be available from 3 to 6 PM in Sierra Vista at Pets West.  Free advice, no pet required!

Jan Czaja, BA, CPDT-KA, ABCDT
www.smartpawslonline.com

Visit our website at http://yourneighborhoodpetstore.com
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A "grand" opening?

Just read the paper about PetsMart "grand" opening.  They're giving away a year's worth of free food to one lucky customer and a 15 minute training session.  Wow!  At our annual sale we give away a years worth of free food to three lucky customers.  We also give away a free dog bed, free bird cage, and a free aquarium.  Every year.  We also have smaller giveaways for EVERY person that comes to our sale.  The annual Moonlight Madness sale will be December 4th in Sierra Vista and December 11th in Tucson.

Spay And Neuter

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Weekly Tip

Spay and Neuter

    One of the most import things you can do for your pet is to spay or neuter. Unless you plan to breed or show your cat or dog, taking steps to make sure that he can’t reproduce is not only responsible, it’s good for his health!  This is not only important for dogs and cats, but may be considered for your other pets too.  The follwing is taking from one of my favorite pet sites http://www.petuniversity.com

What Is Spaying and Neutering?

When pets are spayed or neutered, a veterinarian sterilizes them, which means that they are unable to reproduce. Spaying involves the removal of a female’s ovaries and uterus, making it impossible for her to become pregnant. Neutering involves the removal of a male’s testicles, making it impossible for him to impregnate a female. The words “fixed” and “altered” are sometimes used for these procedures, which are layman’s terms for sterilization. Sterilization is the most common operation that veterinarians perform. Both spaying and neutering are very simple procedures, and new anesthetics are available that make a pet’s recovery speedy and painless.

Why Spay and Neuter?

First and foremost, there are real health benefits to spaying and neutering. Neutering prevents testicular cancer and reduces the risk of prostate cancer, hernias, and bleeding anal tumors in male pets. For female pets, spaying prevents ovarian and uterine cancer and pyometra, and it reduces the risk of breast cancer.

There are also behavioral benefits to sterilization. Neutered dogs experience less problem behaviors like marking, excessive barking, and aggression and tend to do less wandering away from home. Spayed female dogs and cats no longer experience heat cycles, which can be messy and cause upheaval in the household. Both sexes of cats show reduced territorial spraying and roaming when sterilized.

One other great reason to consider spaying or neutering is the enormity of the pet overpopulation problem in the United States. Millions of unwanted pets are euthanized every year in this country. When a pet cat or dog is sterilized, the chance of an unwanted pregnancy is removed, and some of the behavioral issues that cause a pet to be given up for adoption may be prevented.

When Is the Best Time to Spay or Neuter?

To get any health benefits from the procedure, female dogs should be spayed before their first heat cycle (five to six months old). Puppies of either sex can actually be safely spayed or neutered when they are only a few weeks old, and many shelters practice this to curb the pet overpopulation problem. However, many vets prefer to wait a bit longer, until the puppy is slightly more mature.
Cats can be spayed or neutered as early as 6 to 12 weeks. Studies have shown that cats altered at an early age have the same growth and behavior as those altered from 6 to 12 months.

All responsible pet owners need to consider spaying or neutering their pets, not only to help control pet overpopulation but for the health of their animal companion.

The preceding was taken from one of my favorite pet sites http://www.petuniversity.com.

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Halloween tips.

With Halloween coming just around the corner, you should think about keeping your pets safe now.

Keep them away from candy.  Candy will make your pets sick.  Chocolate can be fatal to dogs.  Dark chocolate is especially bad.

Keep your pets indoors in a safe room.  All the activity with people milling about outside can spook your pets.  The masks and costumes can be especially confusing for you pets and they may run off.  Consider using a pet gate so they can't run to the door and scare all the ghosts and goblins.  For that matter, your pets might be scared of the bell ringers.  Best to keep them out of sight.

Keep your pets calm.  They might view the guests as an invasion of their territory.  Use calm words when talking to your pet to make sure they know it's ok.  There are also some herbal anti-anxiety and anti-stress drops your pet might benefit from.

Sierra Vista Hamster Races

It's race time again this weekend!  Stop by for the biggest hamster races in the country!  We host a free community event where kids can race their hamsters, or use one of ours.  All kids are qualified to win the Grand Prize - valued at over $200!  There are no entry fees and registration will open at 9AM.  Races will begin at 9:30.  You can preregister at Pets West anytime before race day! 

Marina Air Pumps

We have a new line of value priced air pumps from Hagen.  They are the Marina brand and are an excellent starter, spare, or replacement pump for your tank!

Goldfish Bowls - Why They Are Wrong For Goldfish

Freshwater Aquariums

Goldfish Bowls

By Shirlie Sharpe, About.com Guide

Goldfish bowls are a staple at department stores as well as most pet shops. Ask anyone who had a goldfish as a kid and odds are they kept it in a goldfish bowl. Google Goldfish bowl photos or Goldfish bowl shopping, and you’ll find thousands of them in a variety of shapes. So Goldfish bowls must be the ideal home for a goldfish, right? Wrong.

Too Small
Goldfish bowls are far too small for even a single Goldfish. Although the Goldfish you buy at the store looks small, it's only a matter of time before it outgrows the Goldfish bowl. If properly cared for even a small Goldfish will grow to a half foot in length, and many will grow larger than that.

Furthermore, Goldfish bowls are too small to accommodate a filtration system, or equipment to circulate and aerate the water. As a result, the water will quickly become depleted of oxygen, and build up toxins that are dangerous to the fish.

Too Much Waste
Goldfish produce more waste than similarly sized fish, which presents a huge challenge in a Goldfish bowl. With no filter or beneficial bacterial colonies¹, the only way to remove waste and its by-products is to constantly change the water.

Although water changes² are good, performing them daily is stressful for the fish. Most owners tire of the constant work and go longer and longer between water changes. If the fish appears healthy, the owner may let water changes slide for weeks or months.

Under such circumstances it is likely the fish will soon die from ammonia³ or nitrite poisoning⁴. Even if the fish doesn’t die, it will become more susceptible to disease. No Goldfish kept in a Goldfish bowl lives a long healthy life. Some tough Goldfish may survive in such circumstances for a few years, but that is not a normal lifespan⁵ for a Goldfish.

What Goldfish Need
Goldfish should be kept in a tank that is equipped with a filter⁶. The tank should be large enough to accommodate an adult Goldfish which can be anywhere from a half a foot to well over a foot in length. Steer clear of mini aquariums⁷, even if they show a photo of Goldfish⁸ on the front. It’s marketing, and not a true endorsement of the tank.

The smallest size tank to consider for a Goldfish is twenty gallons. If you want to keep several, you’ll need a larger tank. Filtration is a must, and should be rated at a minimum of four times the tank size in gallons, per hour. For example, a twenty gallon tank should have a filter with a minimum capacity of 80 gph. In this case more is better, so don’t hesitate to get a more powerful filter.

A heater is not needed, but it’s wise to equip the tank with a thermometer so you can monitor the temperature. As water temperature rises, the amount of dissolved oxygen drops, which can harm your Goldfish. Live plants⁹ help remove wastes, so if possible, decorate your tank with live rather than artificial plants.

With a proper size tank, good filtration and care, your Goldfish can live for decades. Do them a favor and just so no to the Goldfish bowl.

This About.com page has been optimized for print. To view this page in its original form, please visit: http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/goldfishandkoi/a/Goldfish-Bowls.htm

©2010 About.com, Inc., a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.

---

Links in this article:

1. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm
2. http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/watercare/a/waterchanges.htm
3. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ammoniapoison.htm
4. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/nitritepoison.htm
5. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/beginnerinfo/a/lifespan.htm
6. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/filtration/bb/bybfilter.htm
7. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/beginnerinfo/a/minitank.htm
8. http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/goldfishandkoi/ig/Goldfish-Gallery/
9. http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/aquascaping/a/liveplantseries.htm

Weekly Tip - Cat Trees

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Weekly Tip

 

If you have a cat, you know about cat claws.  And cats need to exercise those claws.  You want them to do it somewhere other than your couch.  Cat trees are a great place that both you and your cat will be happy to use.

 

Cat scratch for a variety of reasons.  They communicate, relieve stress, and sharpen their claws by scratching.  They will stretch out their full bodies and re-align their spines while clawing.  They will usually claw up one or two places in the house.  It is our goal to focus on their claws on just one object - the cat tree.

 

“Cats tend to pick a small number of conspicuous objects in their environments to scratch such as trees, fence posts, the corner of the couch, etc., and return to them repeatedly. This is why the tree next door looks so scratched up and why your cat may find it difficult to leave your couch alone. The scratched surface leaves a highly visible mark that can be easily seen by other cats. In addition, cats have scent glands in their paws so that when they make scratching movements they leave odor cues that the cats can smell. The fact that cats leave scent marks by making scratching movements may be the reason that cats will continue to try to scratch objects even after they have been declawed. Declawed cats may still be leaving scent marks on objects they scratch.

We don’t know exactly what cats are communicating with their scratching. Both males and females do it, it is done inside and outside the home and even by cats living with no other cats around. It could be a territorial warning or just a marker that announces "Peaches lives here and is alive and well!" Cats don’t scratch up your furniture to spite you or just to be destructive, but for specific reasons, one of which is communicating. Cats also scratch to stretch, during play, and possibly as a greeting or to relieve frustration when prevented from doing other things they want to do.”  (http://www.animalbehavior.org/ABSAppliedBehavior/article-applied-behavior/why-cats-scratch-things)

 

How can I keep her from clawing my furniture? From Iams.com

Interrupt the behavior with a rattle can. Fill an empty soda can with pennies and tape the top shut. Shake the can or toss it near her. The noise will distract her and teach her that some behaviors result in loud noises. Also, give your cat a "legal" claw target, such as a scratching post to lessen her urge to claw the furniture.

 

You can use the rattle can method or you can also pick up a repellent spray.  Covering the forbidden object in tinfoil or double sided tape are also two other great methods for keeping kitty away from the furniture.  If you find your cat not using the cat tree right away, relax.  Sometimes kitty will be a little scared of the new object.  Try to leave it in one place to see if kitty will adjust.  Try using a catnip spray to arouse interest in the tree or just leave it there.  Just find a way that works for you and stick with it.  Consistency is key here.  If you allow your cat to scratch sometimes, but not all the time - both of you will be frustrated with the results.  

 

 

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Weekly Tip - Albino Bristlenose Plecos

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The albino bristlenose pleco is quickly becoming my algae eater of choice.  These guys do a great job of cleaning up your tank, without outgrowing it.  They are efficient, affordable, and easy to care for.

 

The bristlenose stays small.  Usually under 6 inches. The common algae eater - Liposarcus anisitsi - get big, real big.  The common pleco can easily get over 20 inches.  

 

Don’t let their small stature fool you.  They can really clean up in an aquarium.  You usally won’t need more than 3 or 4 depending on the size of tank.  I’ll usually recommend 1 for every 15 gallons of water.  Just make sure you’re feeding an algae wafer.

 

With a recent price drop, these fish have become much more affordable.  I used to recommend these when they were $20, now they are a steal at under $4!

 

The brislenose are pretty hardy.  Supplement their diet with some algae wafers so they don’t go hungry.  Use a quality water conditioner when you add water from the tap or bottle to help de-chlorinate and add electrolytes.  

 

 

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Storm Stress?

One major problem many dog owners have is storm stress.  When it starts thundering, the dog starts whining - or worse.  My brother has a dog that starts getting real nervous well before the storm actually hits.  You have to be home with him or he will scratch the door until his nails bleed. 

We have two products that can help with this.  One is a homeopathic remedy call Storm Stress and one is a pheromone product called Comfort Zone.

Storm Stress is a safe effective remedy that promotes calm in pets exhibiting fear from thunderstorms, fireworks, and other loud noises.   You can re-dose every 15 minutes up to 4 doses.  This is a very fast acting product with a short window of effectiveness.  I gave this product to my brother's dog and it worked very well very quickly.  We did take advantage of the 15 re-dose as we could see some anxiety set in after 15 minutes.

The Comfort Zone product works like magic.  It comes in a spray that you would use in a crate for traveling or at home and also a plug in that would fill a room with pheromones.  It covers a wide variety of anxious behaviors that we would like our dogs to stop.  This would cover chewing, scratching, peeing, and barking when left alone.  It helps calm dogs by mimicking a natural pheromone that mothers secrete to reassure puppies that they are in safe surroundings.  By re-creating this pheromone we help dogs feel comfortable and reassured in their environment.  We've had lots of very positive response to this product.  

New Items

We've got a few new cool items in the store this week!

The New Fluval Chi is a great little 5 gallon kit.  It comes complete with a pump, light, filter and tank for $69.  Plus - you get a $10 gift card from us that you can use to fill up your new tank!

We have these new anti-gulp bowls in 3 sizes from Dog-It.  These will help your dog's digestion. 

These new light domes have a highly polished reflector.  This will double the UV output of any bulb.

The new Mind Games from Dogit will help your dog focus attention and energy to help reduce hyperactivity.