Animals You Shouldn’t Keep as Pets

You have plenty of options as to what kind of animal to have  as a pet. Dogs, cats and other domesticated animals are popular options. However, certain people prefer exotic animals, these may seem like a novel choice, but particular animals are not suitable to have as domestic pets.. They may cause damage to your property or transmit viruses, bacteria, germs and diseases.

Bats

Bats are not ideal pets because they have sharp teeth, may transmit rabies and bring other diseases that may infect you, your pets or anyone in your home. These animals also leave a trail of guano and urine that are not only foul smelling, but may also spread disease. They may also damage walls, wirings, and the exterior and interior of your home when they build a den to raise their young.

Skunks

Skunks may seem like cute animals to keep as pets, but these creatures release a foul odour when they feel threatened. It may take days to remove the awful smell when it sticks to your skin and clothes. These animals may also bring disease, bugs and bacteria into your property.

Raccoons

These creatures have a mask-like facial feature, powerful paws and beady eyes. These animals may seem harmless at first when they rummage through your garbage, but they do not make good pets. Raccoons become aggressive when they feel that their young are in danger. They may bite and scratch you, resulting in injuries or transmission of rabies.

Their powerful paws can also damage property by tearing through walls, roofing, insulation and wires. All these will increase your energy and repair bill. Raccoons also bring all sorts of bugs and germs that may cause diseases.

Foxes

Foxes may seem like good pets because of their physical similarities to dogs. However, these animals are dangerous, especially if you have small children at home. It is possible to tame these creatures up to a certain extent; however, they are not trustworthy.

Wolves

Keeping a wolf as a pet may seem like a good idea, but these animals have wild instincts that are impossible to tame and domesticate fully. These creatures hunt when they are hungry, play when they want to and sleep whenever they feel like it. They will not make good pets because they act on instinct purely.

These are some of the animals that you must not keep as pets because of their wild nature. You may tame them up to a certain extent; however, their instincts will prevail in the end. When you find any of these animals in or around your property, hire an expert animal removal specialist to prevent an infestation and intrusion.

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Skunks: 10 interesting facts about these striped animals

Skunks are very well known for their pungent spray, but there's more to these striped animals people don't know about. Skunks may vary in colour, and may be spotted or striped. They belong to the family of Mephitidae, and the most common, the striped skunk, found in Canada is called Mephitis mephitis.

Skunks are just as interesting as others in animal kingdom. There are many things about them that makes even these pungent little critters special. Let us take a look at some of them.

1. Skunk's chemical spray is not their normal gas release. The spray is actually produced by two anal glands, is highly repellant, and comes in a limited amount. Skunks cannot spray all the time; they need time to replenish the substance produced by the glands.
2. Skunks warn their predators by squealing or hissing, pounding their claws to the ground and uncurling their bushy tails. They even perform warning dances. This is to intimidate predators and shoo them away, conserving their spray and minimizing the risks of being preyed upon while the glands are out of substance. They can shoot a target within ten feet.
3. Skunk spray contains thiols which are sulfur-based compounds. This makes the spray highly flammable. The spray can cause nausea and temporary blindness, depending on the intensity and to the level of exposure to the spray. It may also take several weeks or months for the odour to go away completely.
4. They are excellent diggers but poor climbers. Their short legs are ideally for digging. They burrow dens and may take refuge under houses' foundations, sheds, decks and porches. They are unable to climb onto a roof and get into an attic.
5. Skunks are nocturnal animals. Since they forage at night, they are more vulnerable to terrestrial attacks compared to daytime hunters. This is also the reason why skunks have evolved to produce an effective anti-predator spray.
6. Skunks are docile animals and are less likely to pick fights themselves. They are even willing to share their dens with other skunks, unless there is a mother skunk caring for her kits.
7. Male skunks usually mate with multiple females. Their mating season starts by the month of February.
8. Skunks have a very developed sense of hearing and smell, although they have poor eyesight.
9. A skunk litter may be composed of 2-10 kits. The mother protects the young and will aggressively defend when threat is sensed. The babies will continue to live with their mothers until the fall season.
10. Skunks can carry rabies. Since they are nocturnal, skunks seen in daytime are suspected to be carriers of rabies, especially if they act uncharacteristically. However, mother skunks also forage by day to find food for their young, so not all skunks that you see roaming around by daytime are guaranteed carriers of rabies.

Skunks are not all bad. They do what they can to survive, and people need to see that they have their own roles in the balance of our environment. They belong to the wild, and if some of them get astray and somehow wound up being in your property, find a wildlife control company that offers humane ways like Skedaddle. You will not only save your family's life, but the lives of these creatures as well.

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Where Do Squirrels Keep Their Food

Squirrels have been known to store food especially before the winter season. Their thriftiness allows them to last throughout the winter with enough supply of food.

Squirrel foraging includes, but is not limited to, nuts, seeds and cones. They can gather from many other food sources made available to them, even in human settlement.

Squirrels have different methods of storing food. The methods depend on the squirrel species. Red squirrels store food by larder-hoarding. Larder-hoarding means they keep their food in the middle of the territory, where there is usually a cavity on the ground. Gray squirrels bury their food in the ground.  Some stick nuts into branches and come back for them after a while.

While it was assumed that squirrels find their stored food by smell, they actually have different ways in finding them. The one that plays the biggest role is their spatial memory. Squirrels actually have a good memory when it comes to food storage; they remember where they hide the food, and what they have hidden. Research shows that squirrels come back to their common cache of storage and not in the food cache of other squirrels. Squirrels use their sense of smell partly in finding their buried food, but the one they rely the most on is their memory.

Human settlement has stretched far and wide and have taken over some parts of their once natural habitats. This is the reason why some squirrels may find your house an appropriate alternative for their lost territories, thus finding squirrels in your attics. They can get quite destructive, leaving open wires around the house because of their incessant chomping. They can also chew on structural wood in your attic, which can be very scary.

You can solve squirrel infestations in many ways and one of them is by getting yourself a hold of squirrel repellent. There are many available on the market, however, using squirrel repellents are but short-term solutions to your problem. It is best advised to seek professional help from experienced animal control companies like Skedaddle Oakville.

With more than two decades of humane animal control, Skedaddle Wildlife Technicians will humanely remove your little toothy connoisseur so you don’t have to worry about further property damage.

Skedaddle Oakville has an ongoing collaboration with Oakville’s Town Council to help implement humane methods in handling wildlife for the whole town. At the same time, they also support Oakville and Milton Humane Society to ensure protection of wildlife in the neighborhood.

The trained Wildlife Technicians of Skedaddle Oakville will help solve any nuisance wildlife encounter, from squirrels to skunks to raccoons that roam around your property. There are many proven animal control tricks that Skedaddle Wildlife Technicians employ when it comes to handling these different wildlife creatures. These methods are efficient and at the same time, humane so you know that you do not violate any laws that protect the legal status of your wildlife invader.

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