| How to choose the right pet for you. |
| Choosing a pet takes careful consideration. While dogs and cats may only live to be 10-20 years old, birds and some reptiles may live up to 50 and over 150 years old respectively. It is important to research both the intended pet's lifespan and needs, as well as your needs and resources. One website alone couldn't possibly offer enough information on the different pets available, so this one will mostly try to cover some of the basic considerations you need to make about your wants, needs and resources. I will have several links at the bottom that will be useful for researching pets. Time is probably the number one factor in determining which pet to choose. Certain pets need more of your attention to remain happy. Many birds may become extremely aggitated when their owners leave. They may resort to feather picking or screaming for hours. Other pets may need more time spent on care and cleaning then they do on attention. Food preparation, cage cleaning, food/heat lamp shopping, and temperature monitoring may take up more time than you actually spend petting or playing with your pet reptile. What needs an animal has for your time and how much time you have available to spend should remain your number one priority. Lifespan is another very important factor. Are you going to be able to care for this pet for its entire life? Horses can live to be around 25-30 years old; birds can live up to 50 years; reptiles can live well over 100 years. Are you willing to spend that long taking care of this pet? Millions of pets are euthanized each year; that doesn't include all the ones that die along roadsides after being abandoned or lost. It is important to look at what the future holds for this pet in your life. Space can be a limiting factor. While this is obvious for certain pets (horses/large dogs), it may be easily overlooked for exotic pets. Enclosure size will need to increase as the animal grows. A play area is recommended to keep the pet in shape and healthy mentally. Maybe the most often overlooked necessary space is a storage area for the feed, bedding, and toys. My 64 gram gerbils (rodents who weighed about as much as a candy bar), took up several shelves in my closet to house their bedding, running balls, chew sticks, paper towel rolls, treats, and food. So part of a closet, as well as a corner of a room should be available for any indoor pet. The size of the animal isn't the only factor to consider when deciding if you have enough room for a pet. Dealing with an animal's care needs can be a problem. Many reptiles need to be fed insects and rodents. Birds and reptiles often need their own meal specially prepared along with preparing yours. Are you willing to have mice in your freezer, insects in a container? Are you willing to prepare these foods, either by growing your own or marinadng them(it is recommeneded to at least cover insects in vitamin/mineral powder if you don't grow your own)? Are you willing to clean up accidents? How often are you willing to take your pet to the veterinarian? How far are you willing to drive to find quality care? How much exercise are you willing to do to keep up with your dog or horse in their play? It is also important to realize that these needs will change as the pet ages. A baby pet will need more frequent care than an adult will in most cases. Then, as the animal becomes "old" their needs again will increase. These needs change and can be very difficult to deal with at times. Cost can be a deciding factor as well. Not only the cost of the animal and initial purchases, but the overall cost of care for that animal. How much are you willing to spend on veterinary care, food, housing, toys, and other needs of your pet? You must also keep in mind that these expenses will change and vary depedent upon what problems this pet may have in the future. Another question that needs to be addressed is how far you will take the pet's healthcare to save its life. When will you decide it is too much? As you can see, here are many factors that affect how much a pet will cost in its lifetime. Function is an important factor. Will this be a family pet, a form of security, a form of transportation, or just as something pretty to show your friends? The last two, for the sake of the animals, are pretty much limited to sled dogs and horses for the first and fish and certain species of birds for the second. As you can see, choosing a pet requires a lot of thought and research. The best resource to use in making this decision is your veterinary team. Call your local veterinary clinic and ask them if they have a pet-choosing seminar. They will be able to also give you locations in the area where you can find your desired pet and more information. |
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