Species guides

Dogs

Dogs are a cooperative social species built to work alongside people, which is both why they fit our homes so well and why they struggle with the parts of modern life that involve being left in them.

• Lifespan roughly 10–16 years, shorter in giant breeds.
• Two meals a day for most adults, measured by weight.
• Movement need varies enormously by breed and individual; sniffing time counts.
• Needs to learn to be alone deliberately, in small increments.
• Breed shapes behaviour: a herding dog with no outlet will find one.

Cats

Cats are territorial obligate carnivores that are extremely good at concealing illness and stress. Most feline behaviour problems are environmental problems in disguise.

• Lifespan commonly 13–18 years indoors, often longer.
• Several small meals suit their physiology better than one or two large ones.
• Litter: one tray per cat plus one, in separate quiet locations, scooped daily.
• Vertical space and hiding places are needs, not luxuries.
• Scratching is a physical requirement — provide tall, sturdy, vertical posts and horizontal options rather than trying to stop it.

Rabbits

Rabbits are widely mis-sold as easy starter pets. They are prey animals with continuously growing teeth, a delicate digestive system and a strong need for a companion — closer in complexity to a cat than to a hamster.

• Lifespan 8–12 years with good care.
• Diet is roughly 80% grass hay, available at all times, plus greens and a small measured portion of pellets.
• Should live in bonded pairs; a solitary rabbit is a compromised rabbit.
• Needs several hours of free-range space daily, minimum — hutches alone are not adequate housing.
• Teeth grow for life; hay is what wears them down and prevents painful dental spurs.

Parrots and small birds

Parrots are intelligent, long-lived flock animals. They are also loud, messy, destructive by design, and capable of forming an attachment so intense that rehoming is genuinely traumatic. Consider one only if you can commit for decades.

• Lifespan from around 8 years in a budgerigar to 60+ in a large macaw.
• A formulated pellet diet plus fresh vegetables; an all-seed diet causes documented disease.
• Several hours out of the cage daily, with foraging and destructible material.
• Cage width matters more than height — birds fly sideways.
• Company of their own kind for most small species.

Guinea pigs and small rodents

Small does not mean simple. Most commercially sold cages for these species are considerably below the size welfare guidelines recommend, and most of these animals are social.

• Guinea pigs: 5–8 years, must live in pairs or groups, and require dietary vitamin C because they cannot synthesise it.
• Rats: 2–3 years, highly intelligent and strongly social; keep in same-sex groups.
• Hamsters: 2–3 years, solitary by nature, and need far deeper bedding for burrowing than most cages allow.
• Gerbils and mice: social, need secure housing and a lot of digging substrate.
• All of them: unlimited hay where appropriate, hiding places, and an exotics vet identified before you need one.

Fish and reptiles

These animals depend entirely on the physics of the enclosure. There is no affection or attention that compensates for wrong temperature, wrong light or wrong water chemistry — the equipment is the care.

Aquariums

• Cycle the tank before adding fish — establishing the bacteria that process ammonia takes weeks.
• Test water rather than guessing; ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.
• Partial water changes on a schedule, forever.
• Research adult size and social needs before buying. A common goldfish is a large, long-lived pond animal, not a bowl ornament.

Reptiles

• A thermal gradient with a measured basking zone and a cool end, checked with a probe thermometer rather than a stick-on dial.
• Correct UVB for the species, replaced on schedule — output falls long before the bulb stops emitting visible light.
• Humidity appropriate to the species, measured.
• Species-correct diet, supplementation and shedding support.

Common questions

Keep reading