How much research do you do before getting an animal?

[Avic_Addict]

It never ceases to amaze me how little some people know about their pets, especially when they are exotics with specific requirements. I use a number of forums including this one, and I keep coming across posts along the lines of 'Just bought this lizard, does anyone know what is temperature/humidity/UV/dietary requirements are?' I recently had to explain to a young gentleman that the salvator monitor baby he had just purchased would grow up to 9 feet in length and require a medium sized room to live in - he had no idea, and had been told by the pet shop that it would live comfortably its whole life in a 3 foot vivarium! Thankfully he gave the monitor away to someone who had kept them for years and was able to meet its needs.

Is it just me or is does this not come across as being rather irresponsible? Surely it is much more responsible and better for the animal to find out these things first and ensure you have the correct setup BEFORE buying the animal?
I am curious to know how much research people do before purchasing their new livestock.

 

[Bulldog08]

Impulse buys with animals isn't a good idea. I try to do a lot of research on the animals I buy to give them the best home/environment I can. There is tons of info on the web on just about any animal you'd like to buy. There really is no excuse not to know what you’re getting before hand. Unfortunately it happens a lot though, which leads to many abandoned/neglected/unhappy animals.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

I sure wish that I'd had access to a resource like the web a lot sooner than I did. I use to struggle to find information on exotics that are at my fingertips now. The net can be a real boon to keepers.

That said, one annoying thing is that there is so much conflicting information that I sometimes find myself suffering from "paralysis by analysis" where I have read so many differing opinions that I can be a little unsure what is the best thing to do. That's when you have to start researching more meticulously, weighing the credibility of each source and paying attention to which pieces of advice are most prevalent and deciding if their prevalence is due to accuracy or merely popular misinformation being passed along.

 

[AneesasMuse]

It really gets to me when I see these posts.. "Just bought 'such and such' and how do I care for it now?" I think both the person selling and the person buying are at fault in these scenarios.

I guess I'm a geek or a nerd, but I even research the animals and bugs that I have on my 'wish list'... or casually consider adding to my collection, yet never do. I never know when I'll get a rescue in and need the info already. I can't take the chance that a "baby" will need me and I'm clueless.

I also don't sell or rehome any of my "kids" to people who can't answer my simple husbandry questions, etc. I feel it's an injustice to the animal to do so.


But the world is full of irresponsible pet owners....

 

[LeilaNami]

Sometimes I research over a year before I buy an animal

 

[AneesasMuse]

That said, one annoying thing is that there is so much conflicting information that I sometimes find myself suffering from "paralysis by analysis" where I have read so many differing opinions that I can be a little unsure what is the best thing to do.
QUOTE]

Yeah, this makes it tough... I always try to find long time breeders and check the BOI on Fauna Classifieds. I spend a lot of time asking people I already know about people they might know. It's very time consuming, but also well worth it when you end up with a healthy critter.

 

[AviculariaLover]

I do tons of research, heck, I do research on animals I know I'll not be able to get until years down the line... but I still want to know everything I can.

The only impulse buys I've made have been things I had already done research on, but hadn't made the concrete decision to purchase one until I saw it. Like my sand boa, I had just spent a few weeks doing research because I had discovered how cute they were, and *bam*, my local pet store had one, so I snatched it up. And with my second pink toe tarantula, that was a bit of an impulse, but I already had one so I knew what I was getting into.

Though when we got our Caique, a rescue parrot, it was quite sudden (the death of a friend of a family friend and the parrot needed a home right away), so it took us a while to realize what we were getting ourselves into.

With some animals it had taken me a while to do enough further research (mostly thanks to discovering this website) to get conditions just right, as opposed to following caresheets online. It really helps having other owners with experience to talk to, because there can be a lot of confusion from reading dozens of caresheets with conflicting information.

Theres no way I could buy something without knowing anything about it... a lot of thought has to go into getting an animal, especially one that could live for another 20 years like a snake.

I wish we had done more research on our jack dempseys before they beat up/killed all our other fish... knew they were aggressive but eesh :wall:

 

[ShadowBlade]

To be honest, I only need a couple weeks of research before buying an animal, because I have the experience to for the most part, figure it out. If you own a kingsnake, you don't need a month's work of studying to get a milksnake, know what I mean? Actually the couple weeks is usually spent deciding what to get.

-Sean

 

[P. Novak]

I read on the web and find as much info as I can, then browse some forums and then ask questions. Once I have everything I need to know, I go buy it. It usually takes a week or two. Some animals though, I don't even study, cause they are so similar to something else, it really isn't needed.

 

[Hedorah99]

I usually do research to the point that I don't buy it. While researching the husbandry it becomes apparent very quickly if you can care for this animal correctly or not.

 

[ChrisNCT]

Just to be different. I buy the animal and then research. ;P

 

[Midnightrdr456]

It depends on the animal. Such as a Tarantula, or a snake i usually spend a week + learning about its care and making sure I can meet it. My boa i spent about a month researching it.

Im also looking to get into venomous snakes and large pythons (retics and burms). For these Ive been researching for quite a few months now, and doing hands on training with people I know that have them. I dont plan on having them for at least another year anyway since I'll need to get out of college first before Ill even have the space to keep them. So thats another year at the very least of researching these.

So short answer anywhere from a week to a couple years or so depending on the type of animal and the difficulty of it's husbandry

 

[Bear Foot Inc]

It all depends for me. I know so much already about the snakes i'm going to keep that when i have more room/cash to get a new one i have all the info i need, also now i'm trying to get males for all my females so i already know what i need.
Also i do a lot of rescuing so somtimes i get a snake out of the blue, though i know how to care for all the diferint species of snakes. (ie. boas, pythons, kings, corns, ect...)
~Samuel

 

[Falyn]

Ok i hafta say im horrible i buy a animal and then find out what it needs but i work at a pet store so i usually have at least a week to find out everything about it before i actually receive it. And generally everything i buy is Scorp, Snake or Spider soooo we already have those things around in large multiples lol.

 

[dtknow]

For a totally new kind of animals, its anywhere for 6 months to a year, but this is often partly due to delays in getting ahold of them. For similar animals less time of course(such as a new T species after keeping a few of same genus/lifestyle, a month or two is plenty).

Also, I'm assuming everyone here doesn't stop research once they get the animal either.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

For me it's a several step process:
- I will look on the web first to find out general information
- I'll ask people who'm I trust and who'm I know are keeping or have kept said animal
- Possibly a book, if there is a lot I need to know or if I still need inspiration for the setup.

 

[arachnocat]

The only impulse buy animal I purchased was my Axolotl. I saw them at a reptile show and had to have one. I asked a lot of questions before buying it though and knew I would provide anything it needed and do more research when I got home. Researching an animal first is definitely the way to go but I think it's ok to buy something new as long as you ask a lot of questions and you believe the person selling the animal to you is knowledgable. I just read another thread about wrong info that people in petstores give about pets they sell so even if you think your questions were answered research them yourself just to make sure!