Tips for Choosing a New Pet
Where do I start a new pet for the family? What is the best pet for our family? Good start 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 large choice of potential pets to pick from, all of them can be pleasurable, but have dissimilar pluses and negatives. You can decide from a dog, cat, gerbil, guinea pig, fish, rabbit, bird and the list goes on and on.
You should to involve everyone in the choice, it needs to be a complete family decision. Due to its importance I recommend you thrash out and commit to paper your objective 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 headings for a pet include, time (yours), cost (pets are expensive), pet care, space needed, aptitude to fuss, interest, joint 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 still have many of those characters. They are used to regularly covering large areas every day to search for food, so most breeds need a minimum one to two hours a day walking. This should be part of a regular schedule and done everyday. Other animals may require a lot of grooming, changing water etc. A pet sitter often spends much of their visit to brushing long haired cats, though the cat and the sitter enjoy it. You may want a certain animal, but do you have the time for him? Be direct with yourself and the prospective pet.
Expense, consider all expense. There is the potential cost of the pet to start with, which for a pedigree pet can be costly. I would like everyone to consider taking a abandoned pet, there are increasing numbers of these at the moment 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. After that are the ongoing pet costs, food, which for a large animal can be substantial. I strongly recommend you to have your pet sterilized, many pet specialists and studies have shown that you will have less behavioural problems with a neutered animal. There are routine veterinary expenditure such as vaccinations, however some are impossible to plan for. For this reason I strongly propose you to take out pet insurance, so you can cope with any situations that may occur. There are ongoing costs for flea treatment etc. These costs mount up.
Is your house large enough for the pet? Some pets can be interesting, but you may not be able to fuss them, what is the most important for you? No pet has it all. Can you pick up the pet? Rats are remarkably interesting, but a few people do not like the scaly tail, or the idea of one.
You should to review the summary table, you may not have the time for dog walking during the week due to work pressures, the upside is you have the money to pay for a professional dog walker. Not enough space for the horse, use stables, but watch the cost.
So once you have identified a type of pet, there is often a huge variety of different types and breeds to choose from, looking at hamsters there are five basic types, with very different features. There is also the choice of how many, some animals are better off single, others as a pair because they must have the company. Then there is the choice of sex, some animals 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 recommend you to organise a pet test drive. Do you know anyone with a similar pet, that you can look after for a few days, or even be a pet sitter for them during the summer vacations. Discuss with the owner about the expenditure, the work that is required, and do not forget the pleasure that the animal gives. An alternative is to do some pet charity work.
Pet breeders and dog trainers are exceptionally knowledgeable, so visit and talk with them.
I hope this helps, go and enjoy a new pet.
