Pet Parenting 101
Everything you need to know to responsibly care for your pet and make the most of your relationship with them!
Welcoming a pet into your family is an exciting experience, but it is not without its challenges. Pet parenting can be a challenging experience for those who aren’t prepared, but that shouldn’t deter you from welcoming a furry friend into your home. As long as you take some time to understand the basics of pet parenting, you can expect to enjoy your experience and build a healthy bond with your pet. Here, you will find the core concepts of pet parenting. You and your pet will definitely be thankful for this insight in the future.
Educate & Contemplate
Becoming a pet parent is a serious commitment, regardless of what type of animal you are welcoming into your home. When you take on the role of caring for a pet, you become solely responsible for their survival, health, and happiness. It is extremely hard to keep something healthy and happy when you know nothing about it, so self-education is always a great place to start.
Take some time to consider what you are currently capable of offering a pet. This includes your home environment, your financial capabilities, and your free time. Also, consider what you are looking for in an animal companion. Feel free to jot these factors down and contemplate how they interact. For example, you may want a playful and cuddly companion, but you live in a small apartment and you are not home for a good part of the day.
You can take these factors and use them to educate yourself on pets that fit your situation and needs. You will find that an indoor cat is best suited to this specific scenario, and from there you can expand your education to be sure that you want to make this commitment.
Be sure to check life expectancies, dietary needs, dispositions, possible allergies, and regular forms of maintenance that are related to the pet you are interested in. If everything checks out with your wants and abilities as a pet owner, you can then refine your search to look for an individual animal within your desired species.
Don’t forget, responsible pet parenting starts with obtaining a pet from a reputable breeder or a shelter, so do your research in this area of focus as well.
Prepare & Provide
After confirming that you are ready to take on the responsibility of a pet and determining which pet fits you best, you can move on to preparing for them to come home! Pet parent preparations include purchasing bedding, food, sanitation measures, toys, and safety precautions that are all specific to your future or current pet.
Preparing these tangible items is often the fun part, as you can customize them to your pet’s personality or your style, as long as the items meet your pet’s needs. If you are unsure of food or bedding your pet needs, then you can ask your veterinarian.
This brings us to another part of pet parent preparation, organizing and providing your pet with their first veterinary visit. Medical care is a critical part of every pet’s life. Veterinary visits provide your pet with preventative treatment against damaging conditions, and they also give you the opportunity to gain professional advice on animal care specific to your pet’s needs.
Medical care includes everything from parasite preventatives and vaccines, to emergency surgeries. Providing for these needs helps guarantee your pet a long and healthy life, but it can be costly. To aid with medical expenses, pet parents normally keep an emergency reserve of money for their pet’s care, or they enroll in pet insurance.
Respect & Responsibilities
Proper pet parenting is built on respect for your pet, as well as the identification of your responsibilities as their guardian. You can show your pet respect when you treat them with care and take the time to understand their perspective to the best of your ability. Respect will make it easier for you to work through behavioral problems and build a healthy relationship with your pet.
As a pet parent, you will have many responsibilities beyond providing the basic necessities. You guide your pet through their life, and by teaching them how to behave and socialize properly, you can guide them through a comfortable and secure life. The actions of your pet will often reflect on you as a pet parent, so you will want to deeply consider the impacts of your choices.
One such responsibility is to ensure that your pet does not contribute to the current pet overpopulation issue. You may choose to get them fixed, keep them indoors, or discuss other options with a trusted veterinarian. It is your responsibility to make these choices with the well-being of your pet and others who may be affected in mind, so be ready to make decisions and show respect regularly as a pet parent.
Identify & Adapt
In the literal sense, it will be up to you to provide proper identification for your pet just in case they get lost. In a more broad sense, pet parenting is a cycle of identifying issues and adapting to generate solutions.
Pets age, they face different medical complications, and living situations change. These variations in life are inevitable and they can generate new issues for you and your pet. As a committed pet parent, it will be your responsibility to identify any issues you and your pet are facing as they arise. Since you have more problem-solving capabilities than your pet, you will also be in charge of adapting to these changes or finding solutions that are mutually beneficial.
Companion animals provide us with unconditional love and unwavering loyalty in many cases. The least we can do is put in the effort to be well-educated parents that reward our pets with a loving and caring home. Taking the time to consider and integrate all the major points of pet parenting can save you a lot of time and trouble, leaving you with more time to enjoy your pet’s company!