Weird question

namurt

As the title says, this is a pretty weird question but just thought I'd see what people think. Do you think it's possible to be addicted to getting pets?

We started off rescuing one dog, then before we knew it "just keeping an eye on a few websites" led to rescuing a second. Now luckily my logic kicks in but I'm still occasionally tempted to look at rehoming and rescue sites.

What prompted me to ask this was that today we were passing a pet shop and decided to pop in for a look and I was even finding myself looking at their small caged animals (nothing specific, just the usual small furries) and thinking, awww they're pretty cute, I wonder should we get one. I never had one growing up, don't have a particular attachment to them, realistically wouldn't have sufficient space, but still had that moment of "should I?"

Should there be an association called PET PALS......People Eternally Tempted to Procure Any Lovely Species!!!

Shazanne

Yes, it is very easy to become addicted to anything that has fur, four legs and a pair of adoring eyes! I have been there - had seven foster dogs at one time some years ago. But I had to get real:D It's a bit like having too many children - you cant provide adequately or fairly for them. I now have one rescue dog who is extremely spoiled and happy and I tell myself that it would be unfair to her to spoil this new life that she loves by crowding her out with other animals. So far this thought process is working - until I start to think she might be lonely........:rolleyes:

The Sweeper

Oh ho yes it is, very easy.

A lot of people get into trouble collecting way beyond their means. Collecting past your ability to care for them, including cleaning, grooming, feeding, vets bills and also - and this is most important of all - time to interact with them, is a bad idea.

I have six cats so I know how easy it is to end up with a lot of animals, but I'm very lucky in that we have the means to care for them. I also have the time - I only work three days a week.

I try to make sure I get time to cuddle all my cats - I have each one of them on my lap or beside me on the couch for a period of time at least every second day. I mean, they're all around me daily, and we have pats and contact daily and I play group games daily, (and usually all six are splayed out on the couch with me in the evenings every day!) but I try to make sure I have a 'love-in', a cuddling session with one-on-one time, with each of them every day or every second day. Some are easier than others because they seek out the attention, some I need to make time for.

OH is also a cat lover and he shares the 'love-load' but they do go through phases - Sas is currently following OH around like a dog, but next week he'll be back to focusing more on me and one of the other cats (Eric, probably) will be OH's shadow.

But yes, it is very easy to 'collect' animals!

ghost_ie

I'm afraid it is indeed possible to become addicted, and not just to one type of pet. My late husband started off with a tank of cold water fish. By the time he died we had a pond full of goldfish and shubunkins, a tank with 2 pirhannas, a tank of warm water fish, two snakes, a hermit crab, 6 chipmunks and an aviary.

When all those died I settled for a peaceful life with a dog. I now have three and I admit to looking at the columns in the papers with rescue dogs advertised and wondering if I could possibly manage a fourth

lrushe

After getting my third dog last year I had to put my foot down (with myself!) and decide enough was enough, apart from the fact that I couldn't physically squeeze anymore animals into my little three bed house I wouldn't have the time to look after anymore. Luckily for me common sense kicked in but for some it doesn't, animal hoarding is seen as a mental illness but I think even for the average animal lover it can become a slippery slide cos its always in the back of the mind "just one more, just one more" its all about having the ability to know when "just one more" is too much.

morganafay

I have 3 small dogs, 5 cats, 5 guinea pigs and 4 rabbits . . . but I'm not addicted! Well maybe I am, but I do look after them all well. I want 2 more guinea pigs and one more rabbit, but the smallies are easy and cheap to look after. They just take quite a lot of time (a lot of cleaning and giving them attention to make them tame and keep them tame). It sounds like I have too many animals, but rabbits and guinea pigs aren't really the same as having loads of dogs and cats.

I also want a puppy, but I don't really want more cats right now (which is weird because I usually want more!).

I think if you have enough money for them and enough time, then you can have as many as you want

Edit: Also my dogs are old so I haven't gotten one in 6 years, and I found all my kittens in the last 6 years (except for one) so I'm not that bad!

txt_mess

I definitely think you can get addicted to getting pets have to repeatedly stop my other half from trying to buy animals in pets stores when we are in restocking on suplies.

One way round it might be fostering I know the DSPCA do it were you foster an animal back to health or new pups kittens until they are weened and then you give them back for rehoming. Might fill the void and the addiction but without gaining another member of the family.

blondie7

txt_mess wrote: »

One way round it might be fostering I know the DSPCA do it were you foster an animal back to health or new pups kittens until they are weened and then you give them back for rehoming. Might fill the void and the addiction but without gaining another member of the family.

i thought this too, until i fostered a kitten who had cat flu, had his tail amputated and had stints in his back leg. The poor thing was tiny and terrified. When they rang me after 3 weeks to give him back i asked to adopt and was accepted straight away. i no longer foster as i no ill keep the next one that was given over :(

Sigma Force

morganafay wrote: »

I have 3 small dogs, 5 cats, 5 guinea pigs and 4 rabbits . . . but I'm not addicted! Well maybe I am, but I do look after them all well. I want 2 more guinea pigs and one more rabbit, but the smallies are easy and cheap to look after. They just take quite a lot of time (a lot of cleaning and giving them attention to make them tame and keep them tame). It sounds like I have too many animals, but rabbits and guinea pigs aren't really the same as having loads of dogs and cats.

I also want a puppy, but I don't really want more cats right now (which is weird because I usually want more!).

I think if you have enough money for them and enough time, then you can have as many as you want

Edit: Also my dogs are old so I haven't gotten one in 6 years, and I found all my kittens in the last 6 years (except for one) so I'm not that bad!

Smallies are cheap to look after and feed until they get sick amazing how quick vet bills mount up with guinea pigs and buns.
Rabbits also require 2 sets of vaccinations per year and spaying/neutering.
Their food is slightly cheaper but their vet bills aren't.

People can get addicted to keeping animals plenty of hoarders out there sadly.

Sapsorrow

I'm totally addicted to getting pets, I struggle so much with myself not to get more especially kittens god I love kittens soo much , the only reason I don't is because I know I won't have the time to give them all the love and attention they deserve if I do. I don't know why but I just love being surrounded by other living creatures that aren't human! I'm only 25 and have so far managed to accumulate 5 cats and a sheepdog, I'm minding a cow (called Mooka) until she has her baby and now it looks like I'm getting a fox cub! I'm dying to get chickens and a pet goat during the summer too as I live on an old farm and the last person who was here has kept chickens and left the coop and fencing up so it'd be very easy. I also plan of building a pond this summer to start keeping some fish. The boyfriend is now mad to get 2 dwarf bunnies after watching that episode of Father Ted when Bishop Brennon visists and Douglas rabbit is after multiplying all over the house! Nuff said? :pac:

The Sweeper

Woah tiger! Sounds like you'll have your hands full!

Here's another thought - there is also a problem with accumulating a lot of young animals in a short period of time. If you go from zero to 10 cats and dogs in three years, for instance; in 12 years you're going to have 10 geriatric dogs and aging cats and you'll be bleeding money out the eyeballs at your vet.

Also beware the time for attention thing. I was doing well with my cats - or so I thought - until one of them became ill with a stress-related condition. We couldn't figure out the source at all because he seemed so chilled out all the time. It was interstitial cystitis, often caused by stress created by another cat invading your cat's territory. Anyway, being ill, he got spoiled - moved into our room so I could keep an eye on him, I gave him a heap of attention while the OH focused on the other five.

Well, the cat *completely* changed. He had his own personality before this, but he just came out of his shell with the extra attention. Tricks and quirks and habits appeared from nowhere. Suddenly, there was purring! Don't get me wrong - he'd had plenty of one on one attention as described previously, but he's never been vocal. Now, however, a big tractor purr rumbles up as he gets onto the couch and he comes to us for attention, instead of the other way around.

His stress-related illness improved with the additional attention plus one or two other tweaks in the cats' environment. The amazing part really was that we didn't realise that there was a problem until the change came about. Perhaps 'problem' is too strong a word - but looking back it does appear that this cat's personality was too shy to carve himself out a niche in the multi-cat household we had, and that was stressing him out. What we thought was a natural chilled-out demeanour looks now to have been anxious keeping-head-down sort of behaviour. There is a tiny, but complex, peanut brain in that little fuzzy head and it can get lost in the crowd if you have a lot of animals.

Sapsorrow

The Sweeper wrote: »

Woah tiger! Sounds like you'll have your hands full!

Here's another thought - there is also a problem with accumulating a lot of young animals in a short period of time. If you go from zero to 10 cats and dogs in three years, for instance; in 12 years you're going to have 10 geriatric dogs and aging cats and you'll be bleeding money out the eyeballs at your vet.

Also beware the time for attention thing. I was doing well with my cats - or so I thought - until one of them became ill with a stress-related condition. We couldn't figure out the source at all because he seemed so chilled out all the time. It was interstitial cystitis, often caused by stress created by another cat invading your cat's territory. Anyway, being ill, he got spoiled - moved into our room so I could keep an eye on him, I gave him a heap of attention while the OH focused on the other five.

Well, the cat *completely* changed. He had his own personality before this, but he just came out of his shell with the extra attention. Tricks and quirks and habits appeared from nowhere. Suddenly, there was purring! Don't get me wrong - he'd had plenty of one on one attention as described previously, but he's never been vocal. Now, however, a big tractor purr rumbles up as he gets onto the couch and he comes to us for attention, instead of the other way around.

His stress-related illness improved with the additional attention plus one or two other tweaks in the cats' environment. The amazing part really was that we didn't realise that there was a problem until the change came about. Perhaps 'problem' is too strong a word - but looking back it does appear that this cat's personality was too shy to carve himself out a niche in the multi-cat household we had, and that was stressing him out. What we thought was a natural chilled-out demeanour looks now to have been anxious keeping-head-down sort of behaviour. There is a tiny, but complex, peanut brain in that little fuzzy head and it can get lost in the crowd if you have a lot of animals.

Funny I had a very similar experience with one of our cats Tigerlilly, we found her as a little kitten out in the middle of a really hard frost at about 3 am walking home through the fields from a party in west cork. Had her about a year and she totally dominated our other cat bumblelion who's not really arsed with establishing herself as alpha or anything. She was always so fiesty and fearless. Then we adopted two brothers who were 3 months old. The little f*ckers tormented her day and night pouncing on her and wanting to play all the time as kittens do. She got really depressed and stopped purring, playing and cuddling completely and actually moved into the neighbours house for a few months (they left a skylight open for her all the time so she could have some private space). Took her a whole year to get over it, luckily when we moved to our present house they were all so excited about the big huge garden full of trees and flowers to play in she got over it immediately and is better than ever now. We give her extra special treatment all the time though so she knows full well she's the princess. We also put up a little triangular shelf in the corner of the sitting up really high with a cushion on it so she has her little safe space where no one can get her. 5 cats is more than enough for anyone, the boyf really wants another dog but one collie is more than enough for anyone they're mental so I'm having none of it. My sister ended up with 11 cats (who were all related, over 4 generations) before and it was a total nightmare. I know what you mean about having a lot of young pets it's something I think about, rather than have pet insurance (it's way to expensive for that many pets) I have a savings account set up for pet emergencies. I have one of the cats insured because she had cat flue as a kitten when we found her and suffers from constant kidney infections and gets gum disease a lot so had to go to the vet very regularly. Funny they never really get over cat flu 100%.

antocann

it is adictive to gething pets , but if you can provide and lookafter them then your ok ,

we have 6 dogs , 3 lizards , a snake , a ferret , a parrot , and fish ,

morganafay

Guineapigrescue wrote: »

Smallies are cheap to look after and feed until they get sick amazing how quick vet bills mount up with guinea pigs and buns.
Rabbits also require 2 sets of vaccinations per year and spaying/neutering.
Their food is slightly cheaper but their vet bills aren't.

Maybe I've been lucky but I've found guinea pigs and rabbits to be very healthy animals that don't get sick much. Well the only sickness mine have ever had in 7 years is mange once, and a baby rabbit died of a seizure and two guinea pigs and one rabbit died of old age. All my pets have been very healthy, but it's amazing how the smallies can live their whole lives without illness.

I know they can get sick, but if they do, then of course I'll take them to the vet, I don't mind the expense if they're sick.

And when three guinea pigs got mange, the vet said "I always think of guinea pigs as the low cost pet" so she only charged me €10 for injections for all three

They're really cheap to feed (when you buy in bulk and especially in summer, with all the free grass and weeds for them) but I guess with bedding and all the costs mount up. I buy their bedding and hay in bulk and it's really cheap, but if you're buying small bags from the pet shops, and cleaning them out every two days or so, it gets really expensive.

Rabbitandcavy

Yup it is really easy to get addicted to pets. It becomes a problem though when you can't stop taking on more animals and cannot provide for all of them properly. If you can't provide allof these: adequate shelter, food, attention, clean enviroment, vet's bills then you are in over your head. A lot of people think as soon as they see that a person has a lot of pets, that they are a hoarder which is not always the case.

An animal hoarder is someone who continues to get more animals even though they can't provide to their existing pets, and often they see nothing wrong with what they are doing and think they are helping the animals.

Most pet owners with a lot of animals spend a ton of time and money making sure they can provide for them all, and know when they are at their limit. They may be tempted to get more animals put know how to say no if it means their existing animals will suffer.

I have four ducks, three chickens, five rabbits, four guinea pigs, three cats, two dogs and a tank of sea monkeys. So 21 pets not counting the sea monkeys.

IvySlayer

I know if I was rich, I'd have a mini-zoo

I love pets. Fish, sea monkeys, cats, dogs.

Can't have enough friends, which dogs are