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A pet when you live by yourself, in an apartment, and when you work all day?

S

selena

Well-Known Member
I must ask. Does it make sense? I've looked into hamsters and rabbits, but apparently they're usually not social or cuddly, which defeats the point of having a pet for me.

What I really want is a macaw or a cockatoo, but they will be loud, and I'm not home often enough for them. I've considered a pair of budgies, but I feel like I'll be "settling" and not like them as much as I should.
 
I agree about cats. This would not be the right living situation for a dog and I wouldn't recommend getting a dog at this point in time. But cats can manage on their own a lot better than dogs, or birds. Dogs and birds are social animals. Cats are social on their own terms, for the most part, and are capable of doing their own thing. But a cat would still need to be socialized, and fed, picked up after, played with, etc.
I've found that Guinea pigs are a lot more cuddly than hamsters, or at least they can be trained to be more used to human contact and handling. Look into Guinea pigs and see what you think :)
 
Cats are a good choice. If possible get a pair, so they can be company for each other. Keep in mind that while independent, they do need active interaction. e.g. 30 minutes a day of active play, especially for indoor cats. A bonded pair is a smart way to go. Can't commit 30 minutes to active play? Then is it really fair to a cat? A bored pet can be anxious and often times that anxiety results in destructive behaviours. Clawing, counter surfing, etc.

Like dogs, most kids, and autistics cats flourish with routine. Play with them before you feed them. Feed them on a schedule and stick to it. People often free feed out of guilt for leaving their cats alone for long periods of time. This can and does often devistate their health due to overfeeding. Recent studies have shown that free fed cats live and average of 3 - 5 years less than schedule fed cats. This is due to weight management and its associated diseases like diabetes, renal failure, and cancer risks.

We have two dogs and a cat. One dog is immensely labour intensive (enrichment activities). The other is lazy to the point of resembling roadkill. Potato Cat tags after Rue Dog, so he gets included in the games and puzzles, but he needs enrichment of his own. Cat tree, several tunnels, scratchers, bags, springs, ribbon, etc.

Just as a heads up most shelters and rescues do NOT declaw any of their cats. The practice has fallen out of favour due to the long term impact it has on cats, as well as for the pain it causes. It is also one of the main sources of problem peeing, a major reason cats end up at the shelter in the first place. The litter hurts their paws. A majority of vets also refuse to declaw because it is basically removing the kitty's toe tip to the first knuckle. Get a cat, it comes with claws. Plan for it. Potato has six on two floors with a perference for corrugated cardboard.

My previous cat was declawed as a kitten nearly two decades ago (Mom's decision, I was still a kid at the time.) She ended up with noticable arthritis in her front paws later in life.

Invest time in your cat and it can be an immensely rewarding experience. I had CatCat another twenty years after I pulled her out from under our neighbour's shed. We've had Potato Cat going on three years. He turns three at the end of the month. He has more friends on social media than I do, but he is also my common ground ambassador. The majority of people in the US have pets, 53% have dogs, 35.7% have cats.
 
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Seconded that cats have to have claws. You get a cat? Get the whole cat. Part of the cat experience is having claws.

Now I'd suggest, for a nice pet--get a pair of doves. Doves are very friendly birds, and they can keep themselves entertained. They're quiet, they're cute, and you can let them out to walk around in the house a little bit if you've bird-proofed your home.

I used to go outside & get the ones that fell out of the nests--Keep those as pets--then turn them loose when they were big. Would not recommend keeping a protected species. You can get doves from a reputable breeder, or a rescue.

Believe it or not, "city pigeons" work too. They are technically called Rock Doves and are the same species as homing pigeons. If you want birds, doves and pigeons are fine birds. They are just BIG, so give them plenty of habitat.
 
Gerontius said:
Seconded that cats have to have claws. You get a cat? Get the whole cat. Part of the cat experience is having claws.
Click to expand...

:smile::smile::smile: I love writing like this. Thanks for being on the forum and making us smile, @Gerontius. :sunglasses:

Hello, @selena! I personally love donkeys as real Zen companion animals, but that might be a bit hard for most people to arrange. So I think the prior suggestions other people made would probably be more suitable! And I love the fact that you are considering the welfare of your incoming pet so it will suit your situation. I didn't have a dog for most of my adult life because I wasn't home enough. I do now.

But donkeys are totally adooorable...

This is Don Quixote, Mary Lou, Sparkle...



And here's the other two - Benjamin and Nelly - more recent arrivals here...



Nelly (RHS) had terrible feet when she got here - had no heels left at all - but I've since fixed that for her, with gradual corrective trimming. :)
 
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everyone: I have 1 gigabyte fast internet connection
@Callistemon : I have 5 donkeys

:tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:

my pet would be a HK-47 assassin droid (irony) (from star wars). he is very sarcastic. he always speaks like that:

"Statement: Now do you understand the travails of my existence, Master? Surely it does not compare to your existence, but still."

"HK-47's personality programming caused him to appear misanthropic, bordering on sociopathic, to those who encountered him. The droid enjoyed observing—and often causing—death and destruction, showing complete disregard for bystanders on more than one occasion. Despite this, HK-47's programming caused the assassin droid to maintain a protocol of professionalism, preventing him from senselessly slaughtering his way to his target. The only organics HK-47 displayed any respect for were his masters, although he indirectly caused the death of almost all of them."

"HK-47 displayed several unique behavioral tendencies as a result of his programming. He had a definite sense of pride and considered himself to be superior to all organics and droids except for Revan, who was the only person he seemed to admire—mostly for, what the droid considered, the "creative atrocities" that Revan performed as a Sith Lord. The droid also had a peculiar and perverted idea of the concept of love, which he described as "making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope."

He further mused that love was a matter of odds and found it strange that although most "meatbags" could not make such a shot, not many would derive a feeling of love from it. HK-47 had a unique speech trait and vocally prefixed all of his sentences with a word conditional describing the type of sentence that it was. For example, if asking a question, he would first say "Query:" before beginning to speak."

HK-47 | Wookieepedia | Fandom
 
This one might not sound immediately appealing but reptiles can be good pets for someone who's also busy.

I made this vid over 10 years ago when I was showing someone my first enclosure interior build. It shows one of my adult corn snakes, one of my babies and my leopard geckos, they're very curious animals.

 
@Catherine Read, I once lived in a house-share where one of the housemates had a 6-foot diamond python, which liked to ride around the house on the back of our necks! :) I just would unwind it if it started trying to wind itself around my neck, but it was a nice animal and very beautiful.

...I can't believe how interactive your reptiles are! Wow! I was already amazed that the housemate's python recognised us more than I thought it would, but your snakes are really responding to you there. And they actually look super sweet...beautiful and interesting animals. The geckos are so cute! And did you make the interiors of the terrarium yourself? They are full of variety and make a far more stimulating environment than I usually see in people's terrariums - you are giving zoos a run for their money there. Do you work in a zoo by any chance?
 
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Get a tamagochi or an electronic cuddly toy, creatures die inevitably and pet insurance doesnt cover all medical costs, free vet clinics are limited to what they can treat ,cats can still get fleas,ticks .
 
I have two cats in an apartment. They don’t really like it when both me and my boyfriend are gone all day though, they prefer having someone around the house.
Possibly because they used to be outdoor cats and they get bored being indoors all day without a human to play with.
 
Two cats, please.

sleep-cat-two-cat.gif


Ed
 
No, I don't want cats. I mainly don't like that they climb on things, and I'm too much of a germaphobe to put in my mouth anything they've stepped on.

Reptiles - yeah, maybe. I gravitate toward fur and feathers, but maybe I'll just sit on this one some more.
 
That they've stepped on? What would you put in your mouth that they've stepped on? Just wondering!

I wonder if a sloth would make a good pet. Sounds kind of low-maintenance.
 
It was tongue-in-cheek, @tree, not a serious suggestion. :) Part of the fun is to make the outrageous suggestion. To play naive and simple. The teenagers enjoyed that kind of humour.
 
Callistemon said:
It was tongue-in-cheek, @tree, not a serious suggestion. :) Part of the fun is to make the outrageous suggestion.
Click to expand...


Not everybody realizes that.

And many people actually do think that sloths are
some kind of natural slow motion teddy bear.

The fun of an absurd suggestion is subjective.
 
Many things are subjective, @tree. And I find that the people who get to know me tend to get to know my leg-pulling and realise I am often not serious - whether they are NT or ND. On this forum I don't find that much different to the general forums, despite some of the stereotyping around ASD, and I don't find it that different to a classroom, which is typically a mix. If anything, I find - and several US friends of mine agree - that the biggest mismatch is with American culture there, because compared to Europeans or Australians they tend to not get parody, irony, sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek or metaphor as much and be more easily confused by it - bigger difference than with any other group, in my experience anyway.

If some people don't get it, it can be fixed after the fact, rather than treating a whole group like they won't get it. Plus people learn. :)
 
I supply information so that readers can obtain information
that may not be readily apparent to them.
 
Agreed with other responses. Cats seem the most likely choice. Two would be even better.

Even housepets that are amenable to apartment living can suffer with separation anxiety. Nothing sadder than a little Yorkie hanging their little heads back to gurgle. Er uhhhh....howl. :oops:

There's that saying- "Dogs have masters; cats have staff."


Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww..................
 
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