Help for Choosing a New Pet

« « Which pet to get? | Registered Veterinary Technician » »

Help for Choosing a New Pet

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

How do I go about choosing a new pet for the family? What is the ideal pet for the household? Well you are starting well by collecting information. This is vital as a pet is for life, so if in doubt do not have a pet.
A bit negative there, but there is such a wide range of Pets to choose from, all of them can be fun, but have different pluses and negatives. You can opt from a dog, cat, hamster, guinea pig, reptile, rabbit, bird and the list is never ending.
It is important to involve everybody in the decision, it needs to be a whole household decision. Due to its importance I advise you talk about and commit to paper your aim for desiring a pet. Add to it on a large sheet of paper, with a column for the pet, some columns to rank each pet. The considerations for a pet include, time (yours), cost (Pets are expensive), pet care, space needed, aptitude to fuss, interest, collective activity, any phobias, other issues.
Pets take time, some necessitate more than others. Time eating animals are those that have need of regular exercise such as Dogs and horses. Dogs evolved from wolves and maintain many of those characters. They are used to regularly covering large areas every day to search for food, so most breeds require a minimum an hour or two a day walking. This must be part of a regular schedule and done rain or shine. Others may have need of a lot of grooming, changing water etc. A cat sitter often spends much of their visiting time to grooming long haired cats, though the cat and the sitter enjoy it. You may hanker after a specificpet, but do you have the time for him? Be candid with yourself and the prospective pet.
Expenditure, consider all costs. There is the potential cost of the pet to start with, which for a pedigree pet can be costly. I would strongly advise you to consider adopting a rescue pet, there are more and more of these now as people are unfortunately abandoning them to the pet charities – is this an opportunity for you to help out? The other starting costs include cages, leads, grooming aids, blankets / beds. Then there are the weekly pet costs, food, which for a large animal can be substantial. I strongly advise you to have your pet sterilized, many pet specialists and studies have indicated that you will have less behavioural issues with a neutered animal. There are routine vet costs such as vaccinations, however some are difficult to plan for. Because of this I strongly recommend you to invest in pet insurance, so you can deal with any situations that may occur. There are ongoing costs for flea treatment etc. These costs mount up.
Do you have the space for the pet? Some animals can be watchable, but you may not be able to fuss them, what is the crucial for you? No animal has everything. Can you pick up the animal? Rats are remarkably interesting, but some people do not like the scaly tail, or the idea of one.
You may want to review the summary paper, do you have the time for dog walking during the week due to work pressures, the upside is you have the money to pay for a regular dog walker. Not enough space for the horse, use stables, but watch the cost.
So once you have chosen a type of animal, there are lots of diverse types and individual species to choose from, looking at hamsters there are five basic types, with very different characteristics. There is also the choice of numbers, some animals are better off single, others as a pair because they require the company. Then there is what sex, some Pets have very different behaviour between the male and female. Male rats are less active than females and urinate more.
After all of these decisions, I would propose you to take the pet for a test drive. Do you know anyone with a similar pet, that you can borrow for a few days, or even be a pet sitter for them for a couple of weeks during the holidays. Talk to the owner about the costs, the effort that is needed, and do not forget the pleasure that the animal gives. An alternative is to do some animal charity work.
Pet breeders are extremely knowledgeable, so visit and discuss with them.
I hope this helps, go and enjoy a new pet.