October 18, 2024

The post World Animal Enrichment Day: Everything You Need to Know (Vet-Reviewed) by Chantelle Fowler appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com. Click to Skip Ahead What Is World Animal Enrichment Day? Recognizing World Animal Enrichment Day Types of Feline Enrichment Let’s face facts: We would get dreadfully bored—and quite frankly, depressed—if we were forced to live the same day over and over again. The same can apply to our cats. Even though they can be creatures of habit, they need a little spice in their day-to-day life to keep things fun and exciting. World Animal Enrichment Day is meant to remind pet owners of their responsibility to improve the health and happiness of their pets with enrichment. Every year on November 12, this special day shines a light on the importance of providing our pets with mental and physical stimulation to enhance their quality of life. Read on to learn more about World Animal Enrichment Day and what you can do to improve your kitty’s life. What Is World Animal Enrichment Day? World Animal Enrichment Day was started by an animal behavior expert named Sarah-Jane White. White established the holiday in 2016 to raise awareness about animal enrichment and to enhance our pets’ well-being through meaningful experiences with intrinsic values attached to them. Enrichment isn’t just for our domesticated cats and dogs. All animals under human care can benefit from having enrichment in their environments. For example, animals kept in zoological collections are often provided with enrichment that mimics the experience of their natural habitat. Western Lowland Gorillas are brilliant beings, so their handlers may provide them with things like puzzle feeders to help them flex their problem-solving skills. Animals that cohabitate in the wild, like ostriches or zebras, are allowed to engage in their natural social behaviors by cohabitating in their enclosures too. Image Credit: jessjeppe, Shutterstock How Can I Recognize World Animal Enrichment Day? The best way to recognize World Animal Enrichment Day is to spend some time looking at how you’re meeting your cat’s enrichment needs. Although cats have been domesticated for thousands of years, they still retain many of the natural instincts of their ancestors. Proper feline enrichment ensures cats can act upon these natural behaviors, such as climbing, stretching, scratching, and hunting. So, while your pampered house cats will never have to hunt for their next meal, the instinct to do so is still ingrained in their DNA. Enrichment is especially important for indoor cats, who have less opportunity to engage in these instinctual behaviors. Types of Feline Enrichment Social Enrichment Although cats are commonly thought of as aloof, they’re very social animals. Most genuinely enjoy spending time with their humans and other furry family members. Social enrichment can look like setting aside time to play with them every day and figuring out different methods for including variability and excitement in their daily routines. Image Credit: ANURAK PONGPATIMET, Shutterstock Environmental Enrichment Adjusting your cat’s environment can go a long way toward meeting their physical and mental needs. Making small changes to enhance their living quarters can allow them to act on their natural desires. This can look like growing cat-friendly plants (e.g., cat grass), providing places for them to scratch, providing vertical space, and even giving them the box from your latest Amazon order. Image Credit: Claudia Luna Mtz, Shutterstock Cognitive Enrichment Cats are brilliant animals, so meeting their mental needs is just as important as meeting their physical needs. Cognitive enrichment centers on giving your kitty a good mental workout. You can achieve this by training them, providing food puzzles, and making or buying interactive toys. Even just hiding their treats around the room instead of giving them to your kitty outright can be a great way to meet their mental stimulation needs. Image Credit: Axel Bueckert, Shutterstock Sensorial Enrichment Sensory exploration is deeply enriching and rewarding for kitties, so providing opportunities that enable them to exercise all five of their senses is essential. Things like window perches to watch outside, lick mats for their lickable treats, catnip for sniffing, and chirping toys are great options for increasing your kitty’s sensory enrichment. Looking for toys that cater to the many needs of your cat? The Hepper Hi-lo Cat Scratcher is one of our favorite cat products. Its clever thee-angle design offers multiple ways for your cat to climb, stretch, and exercise. Made of a sturdy plywood base and a replacement cardboard insert, this scratcher is an option that can be enjoyed by cats for years to come. If your cat requires a little encouragement for self-play, the Hepper Plush Mouse Kicker is a fantastic choice. Equipped with bite and kick-resistant fabric, an enticing internal bell, and organic catnip, cats can satisfy their natural prey instincts while getting the physical activity they need to thrive.  Hepper Plush Mouse Kicker Toy Hepper Hi-Lo Scratcher Multi-level play Multi-level play: Multi-level play: Interactive Interactive : Interactive : Self-play Self-play: Self-play: Promotes exercise Promotes exercise: Promotes exercise: Replaceable parts Replaceable parts: Replaceable parts: Satisfies prey-instincts Satisfies prey-instincts: Satisfies prey-instincts: Check Price Check Price At Catster, we've admired Hepper for many years, and decided to take a controlling ownership interest so that we could benefit from the outstanding designs of this cool cat company! Final Thoughts There’s no better time to take a look at your cat’s daily enrichment opportunities than on World Animal Enrichment Day on November 12. Although you should periodically examine the ways you’re enriching your pet’s life and always strive to add more activities that cater to your kitty’s natural behaviors, having a specific day every year to remind us to do so is helpful. So, mark your calendar with the repeating event on November 12, so you know you’ll be reminded at least annually to look at your cat’s environment to see how you can improve it. Also see: National Cat Day: Everything You Need to Know Sources https://www.rufflesnuffle.co.uk/world-animal-enrichment-day-november-12/#google_vignette Featured Image Credit: Svetlana Rey, Shutterstock The post World Animal Enrichment Day: Everything You Need to Know (Vet-Reviewed) by Chantelle Fowler appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

Hollywood is a competitively unoriginal business. Studios constantly recycle the same stories, repackage them as new products, and ponder how to sell them better than their rivals. That pattern inevitably leads to battles at the box office. However, it’s also given way to a strange coincidence. Sometimes, two studios may release twin movies within the […] The post 10 Times Twin Movies Competed with Each Other appeared first on Listverse.

In its 4.5 billion years of existence, planet Earth has given rise to astonishing species and materials that astound us with their complexity, usefulness, and adaptability. Life on Earth has taken root in the most unforgiving places: creatures thrive in boiling hydrothermal vents, plants grow at extreme altitudes, and fish swim in the most remote, […] The post Planet Earth’s 10 Most Hardcore Natural Creations appeared first on Listverse.

Artificial intelligence technology is making its way into more areas of daily life. But there are still many unknowns about AI, including major legal questions about the ways the technology should be governed, and which AI-generated speech is, or is not, protected under the First Amendment.  Generative AI, in its most basic form, is “trained on vast amounts of data,” according to Ryan Bangert, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Alliance Defending Freedom. “It ingests petabytes of information in order to learn how human language works, in order to understand how it is that human syntax grammar is structured, and then it predicts what comes next.” Generative AI is “not a mind, it’s not a consciousness, it’s not a human being,” Bangert says. “It’s a piece of software, a very complex piece of software, that’s fulfilling an algorithmic function.” Therefore, he adds, generative AI is “not a First Amendment rights-bearing entity.” In their new paper, “The Ghost in the Machine: How Generative AI Will Test the Bounds of the First Amendment,” Bangert and Jeremy Tedesco, senior vice president of corporate engagement at Alliance Defending Freedom, parse the relationship between AI and the First Amendment.  Bangert and Tedesco join “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the fight to protect free speech amid rapidly changing AI technology use.  Listen to the podcast below: The post How Artificial Intelligence Is Testing the ‘Bounds of the First Amendment’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A tomb with 12 burials has been discovered in the Treasury building of Petra. Very few intact burials have been found at Petra — the limitations of space in the city spurred constant reuse of burials — and these burials still contain articulated skeletons in situ plus their grave goods, including a pottery vessel with a broken bowl that coincidentally looks a lot like the Holy Grail Indiana Jones finds at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade which was filmed at Petra’s Treasury. University of St. Andrews archaeologists were granted rare permission to explore the Treasury building by the Jordanian government. They did a geophysical survey to assess the area inside and around the Treasury for condition. Electromagnetic conductivity and ground penetrating radar scans revealed the presence of underground chambers. The team then excavated the areas pinpointed in the scans. The dating of pottery, sediments and organic materials inside and around the tombs dated the construction of the tomb walls to between the mid-1st century B.C. and the early 2nd century A.D. These are the first absolute date ranges for the construction of the Treasury. The striking monumental buildings of the Rose City were cut out of the red sandstone canyon walls between the late 1st century B.C. and the 2nd century A.D. when it was the capital of the Nabatean Kingdom. The building known today as the Treasury even though it definitely wasn’t one was built in the 1st century A.D., perhaps as a mausoleum for King Aretas IV. The city was abandoned after an earthquake in the 7th century and was rediscovered in 1812 by Swiss explorer Johann Burckhardt. Petra became a popular tourist destination after its rediscovery, with the Treasury as the most iconic representative of its rock-cut architecture. It vaulted to even greater international fame in the modern era when its dramatic facade was used as the setting for the denouement of Indiana Jones’s Grail quest. Professor Bates said: “It was an incredible privilege to be able to survey at such an iconic site and to have the geophysics verified with an excavation so soon is a rare opportunity. The extent of the discovery was so unexpected but will likely shed light on not only the Treasury building but also on the whole of the Nabatean society.’ Archaeologist Pearce Paul Creasman, Executive Director of ACOR, said: “There is so much that we have yet to learn about The Treasury. When was this remarkable structure built, and why? Little did we know that this dig might completely change what we know about The Treasury and help solve the mysteries of the Nabataean people. With the support of the Jordanian government, this excavation is bringing us closer than ever to answers.” The survey and excavation were filmed for the two-part season premier of Excavation Unknown that debuted October 9th on the Discovery Channel.

Kamala Harris interview with Bret Baier Kamala Harris on Thursday night was booed at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City because she decided not to show up. Harris is…

A New tell all book by Chuck Berry’s plumber reveals that Chuck was stricken with PTSD. Bill Osmer writes that after the infamous Yoko incident on The Mike Douglas Show, Chuck was never the same. John…