Hello fellow pet lovers,
My girlfriend and I are starting to seriously look into getting an animal to love.
I'm going to try to follow a format kind of close to the one on r/dogs, as it should cover most bases.
Previous animal experience
We individually have had dogs, fishes, a rat and a turtle. I have also been around cats a semi-fair amount but never had to actually care for one for any lengthy period of time. I tend to read a lot about animals I'm interested in, so I also know how to care and bond in theory with some more animals that I have not had the chance to interact with, something I would look to do at least a bit before actually committing to an animal - as a matter of fact, we are hoping to do a bit of that at an animal expo very soon.
Living arrangements
We are young professionals, in a small flat. Space is at a premium, but we are willing to sacrifice some of our 350 square feet (32-33 square meters) to have a cage/enclosure/bed/litterbox. We have a medium sized bedroom (mostly filled by the bed), a bathroom, a small kitchen and a living room where we would be most likely to install our pet.
We are living in a neighborhood full of communist-era blocks with green spaces in between, so walks are not a huge hassle if our animal might benefit from them.
We do not have any other pets currently, and if we were to add another one, the elder would have preference in term of suitability. We also do not have kids, do not plan to have any, and doubt that there will be much contact between any young humans and animal.
Care
There is a certain level of care we are willing to accept. Feeding, meal prep (if necessary), cage/litter cleaning, that's to be expected. Things that might be beyond our reasonable allowance would include excessive grooming (I'm mostly thinking about some dogs like the puli, the komondor, the afghan hound, etc) or having to develop colonies of feeder insects - she does not like insects, so insectivores might be avoided preferably.
In term of attention and exercise, I work 8 to 4 (with my current job allowing pets at work, but the other ones I'm applying on won't), and my girlfriend is working remotely at least 4 days a week for the foreseeable future. Our evenings are free 99.383% of the time, so we would in theory have a couple hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening of focus, plus a very frequent day presence.
Legality and availability
I don't really expect that anyone will know much about the laws and availability of my region, but it doesn't hurt to try: we are living in Poland. ''Aggressive'' dog breeds require a permit, that's the only legislation I could find with a quick look - still, don't suggest high level predators or animals that are basically illegal everywhere, if possible. I am also not sure if there are certain species that are impossible to find around these parts, but suggest anyway and I will do my due diligence regarding availability and quality breeders or rescues.
Our landlady is not on board with snakes, and would probably object to most other reptiles. Not that we were specially interested.
Preferences
Obviously, we already have discussed the subject a lot. The main criteria we are agreeing on are:
- Must be willing to cuddle, preferably on our terms
- Must not be extra noisy - we would like to avoid conflicts with our neighbors
- Preferably diurnal or at least be willing to interact during our waking hours
We then have minor objections, like extra smelly (since the cage/litterbox/etc would be within 3 meters of the dining table), fluffy is a plus, not too small or fragile to avoid accidents, preferably does not need insects (specially live ones). It would also be great if the animal could be let free under decent supervision, in a space made safe. Reptiles, amphibians, insects and arachnids are out, and so are rats and mice.
Our budget is...well, let's say adequate. We are not looking to spend like crazy, but we are also not going to restrict ourselves to a couple of mice because that's all we can afford. We are also aware that low prices can mean bad breeder.
Some examples of animals we are keeping on our mind: dogs (following which I might do the actual r/dogs questionnaire), cats (I am partial to the Savannah, mostly, but she would need to strongly bond with any feline), guinea pigs, rabbits, possibly chinchillas and hedgehogs. I am also personally very partial to aracaris, but space, price and possibly veterinary could be definite issues.
However, if you have other ideas, shoot away. I could be forgetful of many great species. I would also be glad to give more precisions if needed.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/pddxol/looking_for_pet_recommandations/
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