Animals on the Homestead

So you want to own an animal. It takes a lot of thought before bringing home any animal.

First you need to decide what animal you want of course. Usually you will already have this in mind because you saw something cute and fuzzy and can’t imagine your life without it.

Once you have decided which animal you will bring home, there is a lot of research to be done. This can be a very difficult process. You need to know what type of environment to provide for this specific animal. Will you house it inside or out? If kept outside, will it be comfortable in your climate or do you need to provide anything to help it be more comfortable? What does it eat? Will you be buying its food or growing it? How long will the animal live and will you be able to care for it over its entire lifetime? What types of problems and illnesses is this type of animal prone to? Are there ways to prevent or care for these problems and illnesses? Will you have the finances to take care of the animal should it become sick? Do you intend on training this animal? These are just a few of the many questions you need to have at least some idea on how to answer before bringing in a new life into your care.

There are many different ways to answer these questions. My first go to is always the internet. A short internet search will give me a good idea for the answers to these questions and give me a good idea on how much thought I need to put into the care for the animal I want to bring home. Some other resources include your veterinarian, books, magazines, and other people that own the animal you wish to own. Keep in mind to make sure your resources are reputable. There is a lot of information out there and it is not always accurate.

There are also different ways to do different things as well. As they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat. When you come across information on, say, how to house your animal, ask yourself if that is the way you want to do it or if there might be another way to provide housing.

Depending on the type of animal you are researching will tell the difficulty of the search. For instance, if you wish to own an animal that is very common, such as a dog or cat, the information will be easy to find and varied in content. You will have to search through a lot of content to find the right information for your purpose, to include breeds, food, etc. It also means that you will find a lot of opinions on how to raise and keep them as well. However, if you were to want a more exotic animal such as alpaca, you will find less information but the information will be of more value and have fewer opinions attached to them, but still beware of the quality of information that you are receiving.

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Follow-Up Posts:

• Housing For Animals
• Feeding Your Animals
• Containment For Your Animal
• Have We Thought of Everything Yet?
• Choosing Your Next Best Friend