I’ve been running my own little Petcare business for seventeen years now. The bulk of bookings are for dog-walking services, and these take up the bulk of each day. At its pre-Covid peak, I was walking up to twenty-two dogs a day.

It’s not just dogs I look after, though. I’ll visit cats in their homes while their owners are away on holiday, or whatever. I’ll also visit or board all other types of household pets as and when required by clients.

Over the years, I’ve also cared for: rabbits; guinea pigs; rats; gerbils; chinchillas; hamsters; cockatiels; parrots; budgies; ducks; quail; hens; bearded dragons; gekkos; tropical fish, and tortoises.

(You can read about some of my fun experiences here.)

Anyway, with all that experience behind me, I feel I’m in a good place to comment on what animals would make good / bad household pets:
Good: gerbils.
Bad: elephants.

The criteria I use for arriving at this decision, is the size of poo that requires to be cleared.

Gerbil poo is of course quite minute. You will also find that they generally use a common spot, which makes cleaning their cage relatively easy. They are pretty hygienic wee things too, using an area away from their food larder. Gerbils are fascinating creatures to watch, especially if housed in a large, old fish tank, filled with wood shavings. They can then be viewed interacting in the tunnels they dig and scamper through. Take care though. They breed like, well, like rabbits, so be warned. 😉

Elephants though … well, if you want to keep an elephant as a household pet, you must first have your head examined. Secondly, hire a skip for your driveway in which to clear the enormous amounts of poo into and have removed every day or so.

An elephant will not fit comfortably into an old fish tank either.

I hope you found this post helpful.

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter