Mother hen 'incubates' three tabby kittens

And extraordinary little video of a mother hen 'incubating' her three kittens! They crawl out from under her protective care in what appears to be a barn in Iraq. That is all we know. Except that it is not uncommon for mothers of one species of animal to raise the offspring of another animal. It is nice, isn't it? It is good to see. It restores our faith in the world or at least a little bit! Mothers do it naturally and humans do it too, all the time. These are interspecies relationships. I hope they make us more aware of the sentience of animals. An awareness of animal sentience improves animal welfare. Click on this link (opens new window) to see a cat protecting chickens! The exact opposite.

Mother hen protects and incubates three tabby kittens.

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Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Another reason why cats need their claws so don't remove them

"Another reason, among hundreds, of why cats need claws. If your vet declaws and will not stop, take your $ to an ethical vet who does not torture cats". - The owner of cat called Cassandra who was declawed. This woman now fights against declawing. Great work.

Another reason, among hundreds, of why cats need claws. If your vet declaws and will not stop, take your $ to an ethical vet who does not torture cats. pic.twitter.com/Ujsh5GR4sy

— Cassandra🐾Wants🐾Claws (@DamnDeclawVets) May 26, 2021

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Black cat's eyes spell FOOD

Clever and observant this makes an interesting cat image. It works really well. It's made better by the abstract shape of the black cat. The eyes are perfect for this photo-editing. Someone will 'steal' the photo for a website about cat food :) 

Cat food is a big subject but surprisingly most cat owners are disinterested in learning about it. I think this is because they rely on the manufacturers to get it right. They generally trust them and always buy the same foods. It does pay, though, to do some research. The best cat foods are as expensive as human foods! That's what I think. I also think that the pet food manufacturers are playing on our emotional connection to our cat. We'll do anything for our cat companion even spend more than we should on food.

The worst kind of cat food is cheap dry cat food. Don't use it exclusively. High quality dry cat food is okay I believe as long as you also provide high quality wet and make sure that they eat it. This may mean covering the dry as it can addictive due to the 'meat digest' that they spray on the tasteless product to make it palatable. This is addictive stuff they spray on. It certainly is for my cat. They are a bit tricky the pet food manufacturers. They want us to buy their dry foods and they achieve that goal through our cats by getting them hooked on the stuff.

Photo: Reddit.com.

Cute kitten carries his loving behavior into adulthood

Really cute video in which a ginger tabby kitten carries his loving behavior through to adulthood even if there is a size problem. There is no stopping him. Cats are persistent.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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Cats have a lifetime predilection to do certain things because of inherited behavioral traits. This is an example I believe. Some cats like to be physically close to their human while other are not as interested. That's a genetically inherited character trait mainly. This is a really cute example. He liked what he did a few years ago and he isn't going to stop. The persistence of domestic cats almost always results in the cat getting their way in these sorts of situations.

Kitten carries his cute and loving behavior into adulthood.

Wallabies are cat snacks in New South Wales, Australia

Young wallabies have been described as "cat snacks" by scientists in New South Wales. This is because it's what they are to feral cats in that region of Australia. Too many of them are being eaten by feral cats and scientists have come up with what they refer to as "headstarting". It's a strategy which means moving the young wallabies to a fenced off area devoid of cats, where they can develop to become large enough to be able to fend off the advances of feral cats. Scientists from the University of New South Wales conducted a trial and declared it an unqualified success.

 Wallabies are cat snacks in New South Wales, Australia. Photo: iStock.

"These wallabies are really affected by predators only when they are very small - they're easy snack-sized for a feral cat," said Alexandra Ross from the university.

Bridled nailtail wallabies are vulnerable with only an estimated 500 individuals in the wild in three areas of the east coast of Australia. They apparently relocated the wallabies to the Avocet Nature Refuge, which is south of Emerald in central Queensland.

This happened between 2015-2018 and 89% of them survived to become large enough to be put back into the wild resulting in a more than doubling of the overall population size over that period.

The said that there was minimal disruption to their lives as the enclosure contained their natural habitat. The only difference was that they were protected from predation by feral cats. It is a nine-hector enclosure.

It was important to the researchers to make sure that the wallabies understand that they can still be preyed upon by natural predators other than feral cats such as eagles and pythons. They feel that the small enclosure helps them to learn the dangers of predation.

The process of 'headstarting' is only useful for animals that provide conservationists with a window in their early life when they are vulnerable to predation and which allows the researchers to remove them from the environment in which they are vulnerable.

The process is cheaper as well. Ross estimates that it is up to 90% cheaper than traditional fencing methods because of the smaller size of the enclosure required. Bridled nailtail wallabies were thought to be extinct until 1973 when they were rediscovered by a fencing contractor who stumbled across a colony in Queensland.

My thanks to Brisbane Times of the story. The research is published in Current Biology.