Have you ever wondered about gifting a pet during the holiday season? It can be a wonderful thing, but it does come with major responsibilities. Since many people like to give pets as gifts during the holidays, some new owners don’t know what it takes to care for a new pet and they tend to return the animals back to the shelters a few weeks later. Knowing the basics of how to take care for a pet is a good way to avoid having animals being returned to the shelter later. It takes commitment to take care of a pet; you have to give time for exercising, feeding it, and especially giving it love and attention. 

Fostering  

Fostering a pet during the holidays can be the best way to know if you should adopt an animal. Fostering creates a temperary home for the animal and opens up another spot at the shelter for an animal in need. Fostering helps the animals get potential forever homes as the person fostering sometimes does adopt the animal. Even if the foster does not adopt, it gives the animal a break to relax away from the shelter where they’re always caged in. 

Adopting

The pros of gifting a pet during the holidays is the animals have a higher chance of being kept since they bond with the new family over the holiday break. According to the ASPCA they highly encourage folks to adopt during the holidays since 86 % of pets stay when adopted during the holidays. It’s also beneficial to children as they learn responsibility and care for the pet, and the most important thing of all is saving a pet’s life. 

Costs

Knowing the yearly cost of owning a pet is something to pay attention to since it’s a new life you have brought into the home. A dog’s monthly cost of food can range anywhere from $20 – $60 dollars a month, now multiply that and it ranges up to $240 to 720 per year. The annual check up of the dog can range up to $45-55 for an office call, $18-25 for vaccine boosters, $45-50 for a Heartworm test, and $25-45 for a Fecal exam. There are also additional costs depending on the age or medical condition of the dog, and the most expensive cost can be emergency visits to the vet, which can be thousands of dollars, depending on what has happened to the dog. The basic necessities of a dog can range from $125-800 per year which covers the dog’s toys, beds, leashes/collar, and grooming.This only explains the expenses for a dog; other animals can range from $200-400 for a small pet like a bird, $300-500 for a hamster, $500-1,000 for a cat and $600-1,000 for a rabbit per year. So making sure you have enough money to care for a pet is a must. 

If you are thinking of giving a pet as a gift, you should be careful on which type of pet you give since each animal has different care needs. You want to do some research on what type of animal to give since different families operate in different ways. Here is a list of questions from NBC News to ask yourself before adopting a pet. Here is a list of local animal shelters to find an animal near by.