What Does It Mean to Be a Responsible Pet Owner?
Pets are easy to love, but they need more than just love to survive, thrive, and live long and happy lives; they need proper care from a responsible pet owner.
But what exactly does responsible pet ownership entail?
How to Be a Responsible Pet Owner
Every aspect of responsible pet ownership starts with educating yourself about your pet’s needs and being prepared to meet those needs throughout your pet’s life.
Establish Care With a Veterinary Clinic
When you get a new pet, one of the first things you should do is schedule an appointment with a veterinarian. Your new pet will get a wellness check and preventative care treatments like vaccinations.
Additionally, the veterinarian will talk with you about the benefits of spaying or neutering your new pet to prevent future medical and behavioral problems in addition to unwanted litters.
Meet All of Your Pet's Needs
In addition to veterinary care, pets need food, shelter, and plenty of water. They also need lots of exercise, socialization, and enrichment activities (toys, games, walks, training, and interaction) to keep their minds active, their bodies healthy, and their behaviors in check.
Set Aside Enough Time for Your Pet
Meeting your pet’s needs means making time to take them out for daily walks, exercise, and play in addition to planning their routine veterinary visits.
Budget for Your Pet
Meeting a pet’s needs can become quite expensive when you factor in wellness and preventative veterinary care, food, toys, supplies, grooming, training, medications, nutritional supplements if necessary, and sometimes even emergency care.
Add a line to your household budget for monthly pet expenses and start saving for unexpected expenses like a visit to the emergency vet – or consider purchasing pet insurance to help offset unexpected costs.
Get Permanent Identification for Your Pet
In addition to current, readable ID tags on your pet’s collar, we recommend getting your pet microchipped. A microchip is a permanent form of identification that greatly increases the chances of reunification should your pet become lost.
