Any suggestion of a pet for our situation?

CathyMoran

Hi,

we have adorable goldfish but I would really love to have a pet that we can hug! The problems are that we are in a townhouse, work long days and I will be trying for a baby in about a months time (we hope)...should we just stick with goldfish? Hope that you dont mind me asking. We will be moving to larger accomodation with a garden but with house prices that could be years from now.

animalcrazy

If your planning on having a baby soon then I would wait until awhile after it is born, you may find that you don't have much interest/time to look after the pet with a baby.

Whispered

A pair of cats They will live happily indoors and sleep 18 hours a day so once you spend time with them when you are home there should be no problems, and they will have each other for company during the day.

If you are planning on trying for a baby, please research cats and babies so you are happy that they are safe together. So many people will tell you that cats can cause you to loose your baby, toxoplasmosis can be carried by cat faeces afaik, but it's just a matter of being hygienic which you would be anyway when pregnant. Or the one where you'll be told that cats will smother your baby, they may climb into the pram due to the smell of milk, but then you're not going to be leaving baby alone with cats or any pets for that matter, so not really a problem. You might be told that the cats will get jealous, well they might, but so might a dog, any other kids or even your OH.

Just be sure you're happy with that before you decide to go ahead or else people with the best of intentions may persuade you that it's better for baby to get rid of the cats.

CathyMoran

We just lost a pregnancy today, but I really want a pet to hug. My desire for another pet has been ongoing for about a year though but it has only been in the past few months that I have been well enough to share the responsibility for another pet. I would be nerbous of cats as I know of someone who had a pregnancy problem (even though I love them), also, our fish are the most important creatures to us. Would love a bird but I hear that you need to be with them all day. I love reptiles but my hubby would not be that keen.

Trinity

animalcrazy wrote: »

If your planning on having a baby soon then I would wait until awhile after it is born, you may find that you don't have much interest/time to look after the pet with a baby.

I personally would wait til after baba comes along. Simple reason is people dont realise how much time goes into looking after pets. Now i know cats are not that much work, but you will be tired, you will be having sleepless nights

I would not advice a pup until baby is at least 1. I learnt the hard way after fostering when i was getting up in the morning and having to step over piles of poop and wee at 7am, a baby crying for a bottle while i had to disinfect the place first. This was several times a day until eventually i nearly had a breakdown.

Yes they can be trained but again, when you nave a baby it takes longer cos you just dont have the time. Also walks come into it too.

Then if you havent got him trained he could be jumping up on baby. Now there are ways around it like confining pup to a crate at night time, but if you are set on getting a dog, i would look to getting an older rescue dog or pup out of the nipping stage that has been with a foster and already trained so you will have established his temperment beforehand etc.

Check you have no allergies before hand too.

Now i will probably get hammered if i am mistaken here so someone feel free to correct me, but given your circumstances i will mention it anyway. I have heard pregnant women should avoid cat litter i.e faeces and possibly urine. So you might want to check that too.

I have a rabbit, hes no bother other than feeding and cleaning out a hutch and they are very cuddly so theres another option!


Edit: sorry Helena for some reason i hadnt seen your post about the cats!

scatty

hi cathy moran ,i know you said your hubby is not too keen on reptiles neither was i until we got our leopard gecko 2 years ago ,he is so easy to look after .
i know reptiles are not cuddly but they can be responsive,we take him out of his tank and he sits on our shoulder, my 8 year old has great fun watching him climb around his tank and every time we walk pass he looks out at us.
(sorry about your pregnancy loss if you need to contact other couples in your position try www.rollercoaster.ie there is a board on pregnancy loss and also one on trying to concieve )

CathyMoran

I have fallen in love with a parrot at the local store, but know that we can not adopt him. Would mice be OK? If and when we do get pregnant again I will be home for 6 months and will want a break from baby! I adore dogs but we do not have the time or the space for one at the moment, I adore reptiles and they adore my husband but the feeling is not mutual...am I talking myself out of a pet? I hope not, I would love to have a little cuttie asleep on my lap...I do love rabbits but they bite my husband...hmm, I notice a trend here...I know that when we move to the country we will be getting cats and dogs but in the interim...

CathyMoran

Sorry that I seem obsessed with babies at the moment - not functioning on a higher levels and all I can think about is our loss. I may ask more about the gecko, the only thing is that I would like to be able to stroke our pet and play with its ears and see it get happy if that makes any sense.

We both really loved the parrot and even though it was expensive would have adopted it if we thought that we could provide it a loving home - it was almost purring at my husband and loved being stroked and would give anything to look after him.

bigpinkelephant

Hi Cathy, yeah the parrot would not be the best option for you. Birds will chatter and sing to themselves during the day and would probably wake baby up. My cockatiel begins his dawn chorus at 6am every morning!

CathyMoran

The bird that we fell head over heals in love with is a cocateel (sp?)...I also heard that you need someone in the house for them full time?

Trinity

Do all rabbits bite your husband?

Surely if you raised him (rabbit) from a baby he would not bite? My rabbit never bit anyone before yet when a stranger came to the house to deliver his hutch he pciked him up and my rabbit bit him :eek:

He hasnt bitten anyone since either. The more you handle them as babies the more tame they become and jump on your lap for cuddles.

bionic.laura

I wonder if you'd think about a hamster? They are adorable, very cute and easy to look after. They also don't take up a lot of space. When I was in college and could have no other pet I had a hamster. You can take them out and pet them too. My hamster is spoiled rotten with a huge cage.

My family has a cockatiel, he was originally mine but when I moved out he stayed. He's a good pet but I think I should have gotten two of them at the same time, I now think birds prefer not to be on their own. I got him 18 years ago when I was 11 and I didn't know as much as I do now. A parrot could be good but you'd have to decide about the noise they make. They take some time and care but they are rewarding.

Hope this helps and very sorry about your loss.

ttm

CathyMoran wrote: »

The bird that we fell head over heals in love with is a cocateel (sp?)...I also heard that you need someone in the house for them full time?

Really depends how much space you can give them, if its only one bird then you need to be there but if you have room to have a really big cage as many houses do these days and can have more than one bird I can't see why not? But by big cage a mean like half an aviary, 3ftx 3ft base and about 6ft tall not that difficult to make out of standard avery panels http://www.finchinfo.com/housing/panel_form_aviary_construction.php gives you some idea of what I'm on about. Just depends on the space you have and if you have a practical partner.

We only have, Red Rumps, Love birds, Diamond doves and Bobby a blue faced amazon, if we had more room we'd have many more

CathyMoran

Trinity1 wrote: »

Do all rabbits bite your husband?

Surely if you raised him (rabbit) from a baby he would not bite? My rabbit never bit anyone before yet when a stranger came to the house to deliver his hutch he pciked him up and my rabbit bit him :eek:

He hasnt bitten anyone since either. The more you handle them as babies the more tame they become and jump on your lap for cuddles.

My husband has a strange relationship with animals, this gorgeous rabbit almost ignored me but then again I had his "daddys" scent. Horses hate him but most other creatures adore him.

May still work on Shane on the bird, would be very expensive but if you saw the way he bonded with us you would be trying to adopt him too...

Dont know much about hamsters but would consider them...

peasant

Parrots are a very looooong term commitment.

Depending on breed, they can easily outlive humans.

Even the small cockatiels can easily live 20 years.


They can also be very noisy (all parrot types), especially when all YOU want to do is nurse your hangover

CathyMoran

Its a cockateil that stole our heart - would just be worried about him through the day, would not want him to be unhappy...can put up with the noise, we talk to our fish all day as is. I would hope that our to be child would be the parent to our parrot (if we get him) some day. I want to have kids growing up loving and respecting pets.

ttm

peasant wrote: »

Parrots are a very looooong term commitment.

Depending on breed, they can easily outlive humans.

Even the small cockatiels can easily live 20 years.


They can also be very noisy (all parrot types), especially when all YOU want to do is nurse your hangover

Yep cockatiels can be very noisy! But you get used to them after a while and hardly notice the noise. We used to have a pair when we were in England and a couple of friends would go on and on about how the noise did their heads in but it didn't affect us at all.

kazza90210

Have you thought of a pet rat? they are much more socialable then the other rodents and dont sleep all day, they are very intelligent and enjoy being handled and human interaction.
the only problem is they need alot of attention to keep them occupied and some people are terrified of them!!!

Our man in Havana

Cockateil's or Cockatoos are not really suitable to be left all day - a pair of cockateil's should be OK in a large indoor aviary. Cockatoos need almost constant companionship as they get very stressed & can suffer from severe psychological problems (all big parrots can suffer very easily)

I would suggest guinea pigs they are easy to handle carry very few germs or zooanotic diseases. Mice STINK! Pregnant mice & pregnant hamster can cause human woman to miscarry - so if you get these make sure you have males!

Gerbils in a large tank are lovely - great fun to watch - smell very little & are very friendly - its unlikely you will get bitten by a gerbil & they are diurnal like rats (daytime & early evening active)

Good luck with the baby making! The OH & I have been trying for over 6 years now & its heart breaking when it does not work.

The_Conductor

Trinity wrote: »

Do all rabbits bite your husband?

Surely if you raised him (rabbit) from a baby he would not bite? My rabbit never bit anyone before yet when a stranger came to the house to deliver his hutch he pciked him up and my rabbit bit him :eek:

He hasnt bitten anyone since either. The more you handle them as babies the more tame they become and jump on your lap for cuddles.

Not all rabbits bite me, no- just that psychotic giant ball of fur. Fecking thing was chasing me around the house- our friend had to lock it in the kitchen to keep it away from me....... Other rabbits love hopping up onto my lap and snoozing, or gently nibbling- not like this vampyric rabbit who managed to draw blood......

If I had the space- I'd love a pet goat, I'm not joking, I grew up on a farm and used to have a small herd of goats. Very friendly creatures.

dancingqueen

CathyMoran, I very sorry to hear of your sad loss.

Pets are wonderful, and you seem to love your fish a lot. Having had a lot of pets over the years, I know how attached you can become to them.

The OH and I have a parrot and he's wonderful, I can see how you'd fall in love with one straight away... I do know that they can be noisy at the best of times, but that is something you learn to cope with and over time, you tend not to hear it!! He's a happy little bugger and they really become very attached to you. Kids love him also

I couldn't recommend a parrot more to be honest, although I think that pets come to you when the time is right.... one will connect with you one day and that'll be it, you'll just know that he/she's the one for you be it a parrot or a crocodile!

The_Conductor

dancingqueen wrote: »

CathyMoran, I very sorry to hear of your sad loss.

Pets are wonderful, and you seem to love your fish a lot. Having had a lot of pets over the years, I know how attached you can become to them.

The OH and I have a parrot and he's wonderful, I can see how you'd fall in love with one straight away... I do know that they can be noisy at the best of times, but that is something you learn to cope with and over time, you tend not to hear it!! He's a happy little bugger and they really become very attached to you. Kids love him also

I couldn't recommend a parrot more to be honest, although I think that pets come to you when the time is right.... one will connect with you one day and that'll be it, you'll just know that he/she's the one for you be it a parrot or a crocodile!

We have two more butterfly ghost koi on order for this Saturday- they will be at home with our small family of fish, and no doubt train us before too long (these fish really have trained us- if you sit down in the living room and don't play with them they splash water out of the tank!) Thankfully they sleep from about 10PM onwards- so you do get some peace.

I don't think a parrot or a cockateel is realistic at the moment- it really wouldn't be fair in our current situation. The cockateel in the Orchard Garden Centre in Celbridge was such a beautiful bird. She loved when I preened her, and insisted on sitting on my hand and was very distressed when we had to leave....... She is a beautiful bird.

dancingqueen

smccarrick wrote: »

I don't think a parrot or a cockateel is realistic at the moment- it really wouldn't be fair in our current situation. The cockateel in the Orchard Garden Centre in Celbridge was such a beautiful bird. She loved when I preened her, and insisted on sitting on my hand and was very distressed when we had to leave....... She is a beautiful bird.

It is very hard when you can't have a pet you'd love to have..... I wish I could have my own dog but unfortunately having a 9-5 wouldn't be fair on a dog and that's something I've had to come to terms with. One day I will though Same applies to you and a Cockatiel...

Trinity

smccarrick wrote: »

Not all rabbits bite me, no- just that psychotic giant ball of fur. Fecking thing was chasing me around the house- our friend had to lock it in the kitchen to keep it away from me....... Other rabbits love hopping up onto my lap and snoozing, or gently nibbling- not like this vampyric rabbit who managed to draw blood......

If I had the space- I'd love a pet goat, I'm not joking, I grew up on a farm and used to have a small herd of goats. Very friendly creatures.

LOL, he just took a disliking to you so. If he was circling you and grunting it means he fancied you and wanted to mate with you

My rabbit does this to me and follows me everywhere,it means he loves me

I would love a farmyard of animals, just for pets.

I was going to suggest fostering but its rare to get any pets other than cats and dogs and then you have the heartbreak of handing them back!


Good luck whatever you decide, i couldnt live without my pets but they are a handful, even the rabbit because he is so much like a dog he is almost treated as one (apart from walkies!!).

Its possible to take dogs from the pounds for walks,in fact they encourage it to get the dogs out and about for some exercise and are always looking for volunteers. Open from 10-12 sat and sun. Just an idea anyway if you cant have a pet of your own for the moment.

Raiser

animalcrazy wrote: »

If your planning on having a baby soon then I would wait until awhile after it is born, you may find that you don't have much interest/time to look after the pet with a baby.

+1 from experience.

- Also the pet-craving and the baby-craving were the one with us...... Didn't know it at the time - but stark in hindsight

CathyMoran

We were with the cockateil again today though she was a bit narkier today and bit both of us - not badly though. We are still considering adopting her but it would be a huge step.

I know the logic behind the baby but we have decided not to try for another child so that is no longer an issue (though my husband is trying to get me to change my mind, I just could not go through another miscarriage).

Sigma Force

So sorry for your loss Cathy.

Cockatiel wise they can make a great pet but one minute they can be lovey dovey and then the next minute peck your ear lol but usually it's not hard but it depends on the bird as well.
You can leave them during the day but not for the whole day, only solution would be to get two cockatiels to keep each other company during the day however they may not bond with you unless you put a lot of time in when you are there because they will bond to each other.
Again, it depends on the birds.

They do get used to a routine as well, there are things you can get like bird sitter dvds have one but so far not very effective for our guy but he'd prob. pay more attention to it when we're not there. He will sleep during the day but doesn't like it when we're gone for ages but at the same time he'd be fine if left for the day if we had to.

So a pair could be an option but they would require a large cage with free flight or an avairy, as Bond said perhaps guinea pigs or gerbils may suit.
There's lots of info on guinea pigs on my site below.

Here are some sites for you to read up on if thinking about a cockatiel, they can be great fun but really do need company during the day so perhaps a pair that get on well together would suit you.

This site sells general stuff, can be pricey though, from treats to perches etc.
http://www.24parrot.com/

This site sells cheaper cages than you'll find in some shops make sure you use the .uk and not .ie website when ordering to save more money.
www.zooplus.co.uk

This site has lots of info on cockatiel care, excellent site
www.cockatielcottage.net

This site is a good general birdy forum.
www.tailfeathersnetwork.com/community

Hope that helps.

bigpinkelephant

Cathy, are you sure it's a cockatiel?
I have family near the Orchard and they mentioned a sulphur crested cockatoo for sale there recently. It's in a cage by itself?

They are a lot more work than a cockatiel.

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Nature/Birds/Parrots/SulphurCrestedCockatoo.jpg

Very sorry for your loss, it must be very distressing

The_Conductor

bigpinkelephant wrote: »

Cathy, are you sure it's a cockatiel?
I have family near the Orchard and they mentioned a sulphur crested cockatoo for sale there recently. It's in a cage by itself?

They are a lot more work than a cockatiel.

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Nature/Birds/Parrots/SulphurCrestedCockatoo.jpg

Thats it.
By god it was in a cranky mood this evening......

bigpinkelephant

smccarrick wrote: »

Thats it.
By god it was in a cranky mood this evening......

They can live up to 80 years... definitely not something to jump into!

http://www.avianweb.com/sulphurcrestedcockatoos.html

The_Conductor

bigpinkelephant wrote: »

They can live up to 80 years... definitely not something to jump into!

http://www.avianweb.com/sulphurcrestedcockatoos.html

Thanks for the link- I think the Cockatoo is definitely out......
They have a Kookuburra bird there too- it was chewing a mouse quite happily- and letting out a bizarre laugh every now and then...... Looks like a cross between a Kingfisher and a tawny owl......

I think we really need to rethink this pet thing- our butterfly ghost koi are on route anyhow......

CathyMoran

...hmm. hubby and I are still in discussions, problem is that I love her totally...

The_Conductor

CathyMoran wrote: »

...hmm. hubby and I are still in discussions, problem is that I love her totally...

My fingers hurt :mad:
Why the cockatoo thought it was a good idea to do a loop the loop, using its beak on my finger, is beyond me.
Naughty cockatoo......

CathyMoran

smccarrick wrote: »

My fingers hurt :mad:
Why the cockatoo thought it was a good idea to do a loop the loop, using its beak on my finger, is beyond me.
Naughty cockatoo......

Ahh, but she loves you, she loves both of us...can I tempt you offline? I would do almost anything to have her!

Sigma Force

Cathy so was is a cockatiel or a cockatoo you saw, seriously you need to do a lot of reading up before getting any bird even people with birds already still read up because there's always something new. If it is a cockatoo that is an even bigger commitment and you also need to have someone the bird can go to in your will as they have such a long life and they can be very difficult as they get older esp. as they mature so someone you know that is good on bird behaviour is important to have on hand.

Think we've all been there with animals we have really grown attached to but we have to be realistic, you would need to think seriously on what you can do for the bird if it's to be left alone all day this alone could lead to boredom and frustration with the bird. Saying that birds do get used to a routine but all in all do plenty of research (sorry I'm repeating myself).

I think one of the most important thing is to have a very experienced bird vet you can go to in emergencies this is so important because they can be hard to find.

Also be wary of household dangers, like teflon and household sprays there are certain things you can't spray in the same area and even scented candles can irritate them. The cage, toys and stands etc can be expensive starting out. There's so much more as well but perhaps chat to some cockatoo owners and discuss with them how they deal with their bird when they have to go anywhere, also consider holidays it's very hard to get people to mind birds even budgies when you go on hols unless your lucky enough to have a relative or friend who isn't afraid of them (you'd be amazed how many people are afraid of birds).

Not trying to put you off just trying to prepare you lol.

CathyMoran

I got the bird mixed up, my mistake but we are looking into it seriously, in the end of the day the health and happiness of the bird is our first priority, no matter how attached we are to it. If nothing else we will visit the bird to make sure that it is OK, we love it.

Parnassia

CathyMoran wrote: »

I got the bird mixed up, my mistake but we are looking into it seriously, in the end of the day the health and happiness of the bird is our first priority, no matter how attached we are to it. If nothing else we will visit the bird to make sure that it is OK, we love it.

I have never owned a cockatoo, but have read a bit about them. Please have a look at some websites dedicated to cockatoos before you buy this bird.

http://www.mytoos.com/

That link is quite an eye-opening website.

MsFifers

Wow that is a scary website. I had heard that those birds often got severly mentally distressed but had no idea how bad it could get.

Cathy - so sorry for your loss. I know I shouldn't be sticking my oar in, but as a friend of mine very recently had the same experience as you, can I suggest that you wait a month or two before making a decision on a pet? I just know from talking to my friend that she said it took her a month to realise how the whole thing had affected her. She made a few big decisions immediately afterwards, and realised later that they were purely a response to the emotional upheaval.

Sorry - I know this isn't PI, but as you are looking at a lifetime commitment (or longer) with a cockatoo, it may be best to just give yourself some time until you are sure are making the right decision.