Posts Tagged ‘Pet’
Choosing a Rabbit as a Pet
February 25th, 2011 | 
Author: When you and your family are ready for a pet, there are many decisions to make as to deciding what type of pet would be best for your family’s situation. There are many factors that you would consider when choosing the right pet including size and eating habits.
For some families, a rabbit might be the right pet because of its size, manor, and eating habits. One thing that you should consider is that having a rabbit can sometimes be slightly difficult to deal with because of its natural actions. Rabbits are the type of pet that doesn’t like to be held or touched. If you continue to try and hold them they might bite, scratch, and kick you in hopes of freeing themselves from your grip. If you have kids that are going to want to pet and play with the rabbit, this might not be the best option for a pet because of its lack of a social nature. Along with being hard to handle, rabbits take quite a long time to adapt to their new environment and to bond with their owner. This process will usually take a lot of time and a lot of patience in order to make it work with your rabbit. Rabbits are not usually a good pet for children because of all the patience and time it will take for the rabbit to feel comfortable in the situation.
The next thing that you should consider is that rabbits can be quite a destructive creature. Understand that they aren’t intentionally like this, but their natural habits are to chew through things that are around them. If you don’t take away all the inappropriate things away from the rabbit, it is likely to chew up all of your cable and electrical cords if it is let loose in your home. Another factor to remember is that these rabbits will chew through anything no matter what the size or shape of the item may be.
The last factor that you should consider is that rabbits require a lot of attention to the many needs that they have. Rabbits are herbivores and will only eat food without meat. Usually rabbits will eat pellets and fresh fruits and vegetables. You need to make sure that everyday their cage is cleaned and they have some sort of fresh food and water. Although they require quite a bit of extra attention, this pet can provide a good companion for many people.
Pet Rats
Rats make interesting pets. They are intelligent, learning how to solve puzzles based on food and this can be used to train them to show their dexterity and versatility in performing a variety of tasks.
They are very sociable and like to interact with their owners, enjoying being held if used to it from being young and enjoy being played with. Rats are also very sociable with each other and it is common for more than one to be kept in the same cage as pets.
Although white rats are the most popular as pets, as they have gained in popularity a wide variety of colours have become available and so classification systems have been developed to establish quality breeding standards.
Rat food
Rats will eat almost anything but care should be taken to give them a balanced diet to keep them healthy. They love fruit and vegetables (potatoes in any form are a favourite) but this should be balanced with a good amount of rat food. The kibble type of rat food, similar to dry dog food is especially useful as often it is hard which both helps check the continuous growth of the rat’s teeth as well as indulging one of their favourite activities, chewing.
Vitamin supplements are also useful to help maintain your rat’s health. These are often supplied in a liquid form so that they can be added to your pet’s drinking water.
Rat health
Domesticated rats are usually good at keeping clean and if they are provided with a clean environment, good diet and maintained at a reasonably stable temperature, they will thrive.
The rat’s coat provides the best guide to its health. It should be sleek and shiny. As the owner, it is worth keeping a daily watch on your pet’s condition. Excessive scratching or the appearance of bald patches or scabs, listlessness and dull eyes, tilting of the head to one side, mucous or excessive sneezing are some indications of possible illness. If you lack experience with rats, a trip to the vet will be required.
Problems with the rat’s fur are often mites or lice which can be treated. An allergy can also be the cause, which again can be diagnosed and treated. Infections of various types are also fairly easily treated if diagnosed early enough. Hence the need to observe them regularly.
Generally though, rats make a healthy, active and enjoyable pet.