If you’re planning a move with your pet, it’s important to do some homework and be prepared. Moving has the potential to create a lot of anxiety for pets…particularly for older pets, most cats, and skittish pets. Pre-move preparation is the key to helping ensure your move goes as smoothly as possible for your pet and you.

Here are the top 10 pre-moving day tips for pets:

1. Pet Laws and Regulations: Become familiar with the state/province leash laws, pet ordinances, and pet licensing requirements. For state/province laws, contact the State Department of Agriculture or State Veterinarian’s office. For local ordinances, contact the City Clerks’ office, local humane organization, or animal control facility in the area in which you’ll be relocating. If you are planning to rent a house or apartment, be sure to carefully review the lease to ensure that pets are allowed before you move in.

2. A Trip to Your Pet’s Vet: It’s important to be sure that your pet is up to date on all vaccinations and has a thorough check-up before you move. Get a copy of all your pet’s medical records (as their new vet will need them), as well as a health certificate. If your pet is on any medication, make sure you get it refilled. If your pet is not a good traveler, discuss this with your vet. If after trying behavior modification training to no avail, your vet may recommend some medications or natural calming supplements to helps ease your pet’s travel anxiety.

3. Secure a New Vet: Be sure to have a new veterinarian lined up before you move. Ask your current vet for a referral or research online for new veterinarian.

4. New Identification Tag: Get a new pet ID tag that includes your pet’s name, your name, new address and telephone number.

5. Routine Routine Routine: Pets are creatures of habit and love routine. Do your best to not throw off their routine by gradually packing over a period of time. The less commotion and more normalcy, the better!

6. Secure Your Pet in Car: Have a plan for how you’re going to properly secure your pet in your vehicle. This is a crucial element of pet travel that is not taken seriously enough. The reality is that hundreds of pets are injured or even killed each year because they are allowed free reign in cars, trucks, RVs, and SUVs. Even more real is the toll in human life and property damage caused when an “enthusiastic” animal distracts a driver, leading to an accident. Vehicle pet barriers, pet seat belts, pet car seats, and pet travel crates are all excellent ways to keep your pet (and you) safe when traveling in your vehicle. It’s important to familiarize your pet with the vehicle restraint of choice weeks or months before traveling so that they are comfortable.

7. Secure Pet Friendly Accommodations in Advance: If your move is such that you’ll need to make overnight stops along the way, be sure to secure these accommodations before you hit the road. Pet policies do change some times without notice and accommodations may be limited so it’s recommended that you book pet friendly hotels in advance.

8. Plan Ahead for Air Travel: Check with your veterinarian and the airline if your pet will be flying. The airline will require a health certificate issued by your vet. You’ll also want to purchase an appropriate airline approved pet carrier. Be sure you take the time to familiarize your pet with it at least one month prior to travel.

9. Calm Energy: Even though moving is typically a crazy and hectic time for you, it’s important to keep yourself as calm and relaxed as possible. We all know that our pets sense our energy and when we’re amped up, they get stressed. So, whatever works for you to keep your sense of calm, do it!

10. Tell Your Pet: This may seem out there to some, BUT, have a talk with your pet letting them know about the move. Let them know what to expect on moving day, about the new house, the yard, etc… If nothing else, it will make you feel better, which in turn will help your pet.

Moving to a new home with your pet doesn’t have to be stressful if you are prepared and plan ahead!

Kim Salerno is the President & Founder of TripsWithPets.com. She founded the pet travel site in 2003 and is an expert in the field of pet travel. Her popular web site features pet friendly hotels & accommodations across the US and Canada, along with other helpful pet travel resources. Her mission is to ensure that pets are welcome, happy, and safe in their travels.

Many times, we expect our pets to conform to our schedules and keep them waiting until we are ready to let them out, or let them back inside the house. In the past, this dilemma was solved by cutting a flap into the main door, to let the pet or pets in and out when they wanted. However, this solution was far from ideal, as it let in other animals, and in bad weather, let in wind and rain from outside, not to mention things from the street.

Electronic pet doors are today’s solution to these problems. There are two major types of electronic doors. The first type uses motion-detector sensors, while the second type uses sensors that detect electromagnetic fields. While the first type is operated based on the use of an innovative motion-detector sensor that recognizes the movements of the pet and differentiates them from those of humans, the second type is based on the recognition of an electromagnetic signal that is sent from the collar unit worn by the pet.

The electronic pet doors are plugged into a power supply, via a nearby outlet, and your pets are fitted with electronic ‘keys’, commonly attached to their collars. In the event your pets want to go outside, or come back in from outside, with absolutely no fuss, the door automatically opens to allow them access and closes securely behind them.

Since the door is keyed only to your pet, no other animal will be able to sneak into your house while not wearing an electronic key to that particular electronic pet door. This is also an ideal solution if you want to grant access to say, your dog, but not your cat. Or if you have a baby in the house that could try to crawl out through the flap in the door, the electronic pet door will not open.

As well, it is perfect for those that do not fancy getting up at 3 am to open the door to let out their pet. Before getting an electronic pet door fixed, you need to take into account the size of your pet, or pets. The door needs to be large enough for your largest pet to be able to move comfortably through it.

Typically, it needs to be about 2 inches wider than your largest pet, on either side. Also, if your pet is still in the process of growing and is likely to get bigger in the future, you need to consider that as well. Your pets will, needless to say, probably need some training to be able to comfortably use the electronic pet door on their own, especially if they are used to crying or barking for you to let them out. Another consideration to think about is the consistency of your power supply, since electronic doors rely on power to work.

Electronic doors are obviously more expensive than regular pet doors, ranging from $60 for a pet door for a small pet to $250 and above. You would also be paying for installation. However, when you balance the dependability and ease of use of an electronic pet door against its cost, it is, doubtless, an option worth considering.

All over the world, there are people who would like to have pets of their own. It may not necessarily be a very common choice, unlike choosing a dog or a cat. Some would actually want to have the more exotic kind. For many households, hamsters are a cute and sweet pet to have. They are rather lovable and would love to live amidst calm and peace. If you happen to be an aspiring pet owner who has a hamster in mind for a pet, you have to very particular in terms of providing it complete and utter comfort. You must secure a nice spot in the house wherein you can actually give them the impression of living in a rather cozy and warm hole. Hamsters are also typically known to be highly adorable and congenial creatures. If you wish to have your very own hamster, perhaps you would like to brainstorm on some possible hamster names.

A lot of hamster owners would like to come up with a unique or highly fashionable name that has a nice ring to it. These names should be easily familiarized by your pet hamster, although there are a few others which have rather weird names that they’ve grown accustomed to. When it comes to naming your pet, you have to be very picky in order to get them to respond to you. Whatever name you come up with, make sure that your hamster recognizes it as a way of you addressing it.

There are a lot of names which you can choose from, and some of the most popular are the following:

Baxter – Not only does it sound cool, but it also happens to mean “baker”

Simeon – refers to “obedient”, a positive trait which you would like to instill in your pet hamster

Gustave – If you wish to give your pet hamster a sense of royalty, this would be the ideal name, since it essentially means “royal staff”

Kukug – certainly a cute name to go along with your pet hamster, and simply means “animal”

Quentin - if you happen to be a film buff and love Quentin Tarantino films, this name would be a hit, aside from the fact that it’s basically the French word for “fifth”

These are just some of the best hamster names you can use. There are many others to choose from, and what your hamster’s name will be is entirely up to you.

Bernard Yao invites you to http://www.petsinfoplace.com dedicated to sharing useful information on raising happy and healthy home pets for the online community.

Does your horse object to being clipped? Then this story will probably be familiar to you. This is how we coped with a horse that had almost got to the stage of being unable to be clipped at all!

When I first got my horse, Jazz, I thought she would cope with anything – she travelled well, was good for the farrier, had great stable manners and wasn’t spooky. Whilst she might have been a challenge to ride, I was congratulating myself on how good her manners were until the winter came and it was time for clipping.

It became obvious very quickly that clippers could not be brought anywhere near her. Ditching the normal clippers we tried a cordless pair which were particularly quiet, and just about managed to give her a rather unique clip, but she was not happy about it at all and it became dangerous to try to do anymore. Luckily her coat grows slowly, so it was another 12 months before we had to try again, and this time she was not having it at all. Even the sight of the clippers got her quite distressed, let alone getting so far as turning them on, so we resorted to sedation. Sleepy, she tolerated it for a bit, but we still didn’t manage to get much more than the neck clipped.

She even showed signs of getting worse – becoming unsettled just because she could hear another horse being clipped in a nearby stable.

So something had to be tried. Each winter she seemed to be getting a thicker coat, and desperately needed clipping as she sweated so much – it wasn’t an option to leave her unless we were going to stop riding. Then, one day, I was reading one of the great books by Mark Rashid, and something he suggested hit a chord with me. He described using a similar method to what we came to call the ‘Drill Treatment’.

It took both my husband, Steve, and myself. For the first session Steve stood well back from the front of the stable and turned on the drill, holding it down by his side. Jazz jumped, and looked uncomfortable, not liking the noise one bit. We kept the drill running for about 10 minutes, with me in the stable stroking her and giving her treats. Then we stopped for the day. After a couple of times she just accepted that humans do strange things, and gradually she calmed down and went back to munching her hay whilst the drill was running.

This process continued. Three or four times a week we’d do the Drill Treatment, gradually moving closer to the stable door and keeping the drill running until she relaxed. At first the progress seemed slow, and we could only move the drill closer by inches but we continued to persevere. The first achievement was the day when we were finally able to take the drill into the stable with her. Bit by bit she got more used to the noise and we were able to move nearer to her. Then, with drill in one hand, Steve stroked her with his other hand until she became settled. And then came the day he was able to actually lay the drill against her side, and mimic the action of the clippers with it. It took about six weeks to get to this stage.

So then, the day of judgement – clipping day. We decided we’d sedate her again, just so she would be relaxed, and then went for it. She was the best she had ever been – neck, stomach and a tiny bit off her back legs. This was a fantastic achievement! We were so proud of her.

The following year we started the drill treatment again, but she was so relaxed with the drill, and so we didn’t have to spend so much time with it. We decided to sedate her again as we didn’t want her distressed but this time she was so relaxed she all but fell asleep during the clipping! We took the opportunity and went for a full clip.

I’m not sure if we’ll get to the stage where we don’t need to use sedation at all, but I truly believe that if we hadn’t persevered with the Drill Treatment, she wouldn’t have been clipped at all these past couple of yeara! If you want to try this method it does take a lot of patience – trying to rush to touch her with it too early would have been a mistake. And it’s useful to have a second person, one to reassure, and one ready to move away with the drill if it’s too close for (her) comfort.

But the proof for us was that it certainly did work, and now she can be ridden all winter without any worries about her being too hot and uncomfortable. She looks very pretty too! She no longer sports a ‘Jazz Special’ clip – otherwise known as the ‘however much you can get off’ clip!

Trish runs the website for Limebrook Farm which not only describes the friendly livery yard in Essex, UK, but also has a well on information about horses and riding of interest to anyone whether they ride. The history of riding, horse facts and shoeing along with tips on riding are all covered on the site.

Pets may not be a new phenomenon but pet food certainly is. In fact, two hundred years ago pet food did not even exist. Horses were just given grass, oats, grains, apples and anything else that was cheap to get hold of in large quantities. Dogs and cats mainly lived on scraps of meat and grains that their owners could spare for them. It was only in the mid 1800s when the American James Spratt was living in London and saw dogs eating discarded biscuits in a ship yard that the idea of creating food especially for pets was considered.

Spratt created bone shaped biscuits from a mixture of wheat, vegetables, beetroot and beef blood that he marketed as dog food. They were an instant success. By 1890 he had begun producing his dog food in large quantities in America, calling the company Spratts Patent Limited. Some years later a brand of dog food called Ken L Ration was created and sold in America, just after the First World War, that was in fact horse meat. The American government had seen it as not only a cheap but even a profitable way to dispose of dead horses.

Up until this point, the only pet food available had been marketed at dog owners. However, in the 1930s the company Gaines Food Co realised that almost as many people kept cats as dogs and so they introduced the first ever canned cat food. At the same time they also introduced dry meat meal dog food, which was longer lasting. At the end of the Second World War sales of pet food in America had reached 200 million dollars, so with such a popular product it is a wonder that no one thought of it before.

In the fifties Spratts became a part of General Mills and in the next decade it was bought by Spillers, a dog food company based in the UK. Even to this day, Spillers make bone shaped biscuits very similar to Spratts original ones. Companies such as Quaker Oats and General Foods saw pet food as a way of making a profit from leftover ingredients that they would otherwise have had to dispose of, so more pet food companies sprung up. Many of these companies paid vets to endorse them who advised against feeding their pets anything other than this pet food, to make as much profit as possible.

Today, vets and pet owners now realise the importance of a full and balanced diet that requires more than dry pet food alone that provide. Many of the soft, moist pet foods sold today are excellent and provide almost all of the nutrients that your pet needs, although occasionally supplements are also recommended to make absolutely sure that they are not missing out on any vital vitamins or minerals. Over 5 million kilograms of pet food are now produced every day, for common pets such as dogs and cats but also for small animals and for horses, which are now kept more as pets than for manual work.

Recent years have seen a new understanding into the benefits of natural and organic food for us humans, but now food experts and starting to realise that this has advantages over standard foods for our pets as well. Normal pet foods are highly processed and currently ingredients for pet food are still allowed to come from animals that are dead, dying, diseased or disabled and items not allowed for human consumption such as cow brains are still permitted in certain pet foods. It is therefore wise to always check the label to find out if your tin of natural cat food is made from fresh cuts of meat, or if it is made from ground bones and offal. There are however many brands that have latched onto this growing desire to feed our pets healthy, wholesome food and it is now possible to buy dog, cat and other animal food that is made from prime cuts of meat and vegetables.

Over the years there has also been a fantastic development in the range of equine supplies that are available, such as hoof care products that were not around a hundred years ago, and in small pet supplies too such as dedicated food for hamsters and guinea pigs. You can even buy special milk for kittens as there is debate over whether it is healthy for them to drink milk from cows. It is also now possible to buy pet food online which gives everyone access to a huge variety and choice of pet foods and lets you search for the best brands at the best prices.

Leah Williams writes for Petmeds, an online retailer who sell pet food online as well as many other pet supplies. Are you looking for equine supplies or even small pet supplies? Make sure you take a look at Petmeds they have a wide variety of pet supplies all competitively priced.

Whether you are looking for a place that has puppies for sale or kittens for sale, you want to choose the right place that offers high quality service and even better quality puppies and kittens. After all, taking home a new pet is a very serious endeavour and you want to be sure that the puppy or kitten you will be bringing home with you is of optimal standards.

One of the first things that you should look for is longevity and experience. Search for a pet store that has been in the business for a considerable amount of time. They should also have credible reviews online or on print. These two factors speak volumes about any business as they tell you that people trust their business and what they have to offer is of high standards. You don’t want to come home with a puppy or a kitten that is disease-stricken or flea-ridden.

Secondly, look for a pet store that offers purebred kittens and puppies from trustworthy breeders. This especially applies if you are looking to breed your pet in the future. It is also helpful to know that you are acquiring a purebred puppy or kitten so that you can be certain about your pet’s characteristics and temperament. This is important whether you have children or whether you will be the sole caretaker of your future pet.

Third, a reliable and trustworthy pet store should be accommodating and willing to answer any questions that you might have. They should be patient in addressing your queries and be 100% transparent about where their puppies and kittens come from and what their background is. A pet store with nothing to hide should have no hesitation in answering such questions. A fine pet store might also offer additional services such as boarding and grooming. The staff of the pet store should also be familiar with the different breeds, types and colours of puppies and kittens that they sell and know how to properly care for each.

Fourth, examine the merchandise. Ask to see where the puppies and kittens are kept and see that they look healthy, robust and friendly. Stay away from pet stores that refuse to have you preview the animals or that have animals that look sickly, afraid or lethargic. These are red flags as the puppies and kittens could be carrying diseases or are likely to be receiving improper care and nutrition.

The last thing to look for when choosing a pet store that features puppies and kittens for sale is accessibility. After all, you never know when you might need to run back to pick up supplies for your pet, to ask questions, or to drop your pet off for a grooming session. This will save you any inconvenience in the future. All in all, listen to your instincts. If you feel that something is off, remember that no one can pressure you to purchase anything that you don’t want to. Be sure that the pet store meets all the qualifications on your list and make your decision from there.

Worldwidepups provides Puppies For Sale in NY and NJ, Kittens For Sale. Our services include grooming, training and boarding. We have top quality breads of puppies and kittens.

If you have a few children at home, you’d most probably find yourself running short on time to attend to their needs, especially when you have a day job to attend to.  After a hard day’s work, you’d sometimes want to rest and get yourself re-energized until the weekend comes along and you can then spend a little quality time with your relatives. However, considering that you’ll most certainly be preoccupied with a lot of things on your mind, you might desire to take into account providing your youngsters with something that can keep them distracted as well.  You ought to take into account buying them pets.  There are surely a lot for you to choose from, so below are just a number of pet ideas for you to look further into to enable you to make a choice on the perfect animal to get for your youngster:

Dogs – This is quite a typical choice, and rather popular as well.  These canines can be pretty warm with their owners and are also quite full of fun.  There are various  breeds to pick from, each with their own sizes so you may definitely find one which would go well with your preferences as well as fit in with the space you have in the house.  Of course, you should definitely research on dogs, particularly when you get to realize that each breed has its own disposition.  Beagles, Retrievers and German Shepherds are always good picks for children.

Hamster - these cute and delightful rodents will be right for children, most particularly when you learn that they love being held in your hands.  You can simply care for them with easiness and do not require a whole lot of maintenance.  If your youngster loves to be hands-on with animals, a hamster can provide loads of delight.  They even purr when being petted by your youngster.  Hamsters don’t pose problems for owners, and they are pretty pleasant in nature too.

Leopard gecko – forget purchasing an iguana for your child.  Iguanas tend to become even more confrontational as the years pass by and can be pretty difficult to take care of, given the size differences that come with age.  Leopard geckos could be more appropriate as well, since they love to interact with their owners, enjoy being held and are pretty effortless to take care of.

The one thing you need to remember is that you wish to find pets which are ideal for your children’s personalities.  You can also teach them about responsibility through the purchase of a pet, and become better people as they grow older.

Bernard Yao invites you to http://www.petsinfoplace.com dedicated to sharing useful information on raising happy and healthy home pets for the online community.