What is some interesting knowledge you know about a particular

i've always been fascinated by rabbits
they're not my favorite animal (dogs are) but i've kept them for years and i always tell people they're the closest thing you can get to a tiny house horse, to varying degrees of skepticism
i took my rabbit to a new vet recently and he confirmed my assertion
rabbits are, in fact, tiny house horses

>>2327298
You may find this post interesting: http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/05/most-freaky-of-all-mammals-rabbits.html

How did he confirm that they are horse-like?

>>2327302
that's a cool read. i love any literature about ubiquitous, human enhanced animals

obviously rabbits and horses are quite different physiologically- but their diet, husbandry and behavior are amazingly similar.

in the context of my vet visit, for a weird buggy eye problem, he told me to stop feeding her anything other than cheap cow hay (not even timothy hay) and the reason was basically because way back when some farmers in the midwest? usa figured they had the best hay in the world so they would package it into pellet form to sell all over the continent. horses started getting sick and dying from eating it and it was because it was over processed to the point it would equivalent to humans eating baby food all the time. he figured the same sort of thing is happening to rabbits (eating pellets and processed hay) and so far he's been right, her health problems have all but gone away now that she's eating just super cheap local hay. he could have ordered all sorts of expensive tests and procedures but he just extrapolated from his horse knowledge, which really made me giddy

also, pigeons are one of the smartest animals on the planet

Dogs and canines in general. I love their hierarchies and how extremely different breeds can be. That and dogs are the OG GMO.

>>2327296
Why are those goats drinking dilk?

Female ferrets that aren't spayed will die if they don't mate

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49KB, 425x413px

Starlings are surprisingly smart birds.
They are affectionate, loving as pets, and can mimic sound better than parrots.
Mozart had one and was quite fond of it.

>>2327298

Vet student here. Rabbits, in terms of GI anatomy, are extremely similar to horses bar the fact they undergo coprophagy (plus some of the peristaltic movements), they're both hind-gut fermentors with an adapted enlarged caecum.

Your vet was bang on point- we've always been told to treat rabbits like miniature horses in terms of GI. Hay, hat and more hay- with no pellets or treats.

Another fun party trick about the rabbit- their placentas are identical to humans, so much so that rabbits are used in research as human equivalents for testing. They also have a duplux cervix (two cervixes), so you can fertilise each uterine horn separately.

Hamsters I'm still amused by, their cheek pouches are immunoprivilidged due to the lack of lymphatic drainage (normally the only places immunoprivilidged in a mammals body is the brain/ spinal cord/ eyes), hence why we experiment on them so much.

>>2327310

Her eye problems were likely related to her teeth. Feed her low quality hay, she has to eat more and thus her teeth are ground down more- thus the eye problem went away. One of the first signs owners see of teeth problem tends to be runny eyes, simply due to the fact rabbit owners don't tend to look in their animal's mouths.

>>2328513
You mean their lack of hierarchies? Dogs aren't pack animals. Neither are wolves.

Tigers will almost always only attack when they know they have the element of surprise, so people who live and hint near Tigers wear masks on the back of their heads to make the Tigers think they are looking at them. Also there are more illegally owned captive Tigers than there are Tigers in the wild

>>2328513
>their hierarchies

I hope you don't mean the alpha/beta/omega bullshit.

>>2328632
[citation needed]

>>2328745

http://www.msdvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/ferrets/endocrine-disorders-of-ferrets

It's called hyperestrogenaemia, basically the problem is that ferrets are induced ovulators. So, if they don't copulate they then get a prolonged oestrus (as they don't ovulate, so thus can't pass the folliculr phase of the cycle), leading to prolonged high oestrogen in the system. This then can lead to anaemia, which could kill the ferret.

Typically, we spay/neuter male and female ferrets to avoid this. We can also remove the adrenal glands.

>>2328791

Or, just to add to this, you can administer GnRH to induce an LH surge (thus ovulation) too. Rare in males mind, but still present.

But obviously spaying is preferred to medical management as that sorts out the problem entirely. MSD can be a bit of a mouthful I realise, so https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/ferrets-reproductive-disease this has a nicer layman's page on it.

Cats can have the same problem as again, they're induced ovulators, but they're either outside (so can find a mate) or spayed anyway, so you don't hear of the problem so much.

We have a ferret due to be spayed in a few weeks booked in, having recently done an extremely fiddly rabbit spay I'm hoping it'll be a bit more straight forward!

>>2328791
Breeding the female once will save her life or will she need to mate all the time?

>>2328801

She'll need to mate each oestrus cycle she has, well she doesn't 'need' to mate, you could treat her medically too. The rule of thumb we've been taught is that you shouldn't let a jill have an oestrus cycle of longer than two weeks without management.

Really, the best idea is just to spay her.

Female elephants have tits on the front of their chests. Straight up they look like human boobs. I think it's a bizarre placement.


According to some documentary I can't remember the name of, female elephants are also forever virgins because of some shit about how the male doesn't actually penetrate the vaginal canal or something. I found a .pdf about it after being called a liar but someone else can find it if they care that badly.

I think pronghorn antelopes are extremely underrated as well. They're not antelopes, gazelle, or deer. They're the last living member of their extinct family left over. Their closest relatives are giraffes and okapis.
What makes them so interesting to me is the convergent evolution that makes them so similar but completely unrelated to those similar animals. They're also the second fastest land animal, I believe. Supposedly they evolved that way due to American cheetahs.

>>2328868
The elephant thing is interesting to me, though I can find nothing on it. It seems unlikely.

>>2328945
>Anatomy of the reproductive tract of the female African elephant - Reproduction
.pdf popped up googling 'elephant hymen', first result.