This is my Girl Scouts project. Read about what it really takes to care for a pet.

1. To Have or to Have Not?

Identify 4 animals that would make good pets for you. Identify 4 animals that wouldn’t make good pets. Consider daily needs, how well it would fit in with your home life, the cost of keeping it and how long it generally lives.

I thought about it. I think these animals would make good pets. They are rabbits, fish, dogs and cats. I do not think rats, birds, hamsters and snakes would make good pets.

2. Be Responsible

Take responsibility for a pet – yours or someone elses – for 2 weeks. Provide food, shelter, exercise, water and grooming. Did you spend more or less time caring for the pet than you thought you would? Which tasks were fun? Which ones were not so much fun?

Taking care of my bunny took more time than I thought it would. I played with her and cleaned her cage. This took more time than I thought it would. Feeding her was easy.

Playing with her is fun. I take her out of the cage. I hold her on my lap. Sometimes, I put her down on the floor and watch her. She sits still. Then she hops. Sometimes if I have black pants on (she is black) she will hop right back onto my lap if I am sitting on the floor. I think she thinks this is a safe place. Rabbits are very timid.

Cleaning the cage was not fun. It is yucky. That’s why I keep it clean every 3 days.

3. What’s the cost of owning a pet?

Figure out for a pet you have now, or for an animal you’d like to have as a pet. What does the pet eat? Does it need a special place to live? What will the space cost? What are its medical needs? Does it require special equipment, like a leash (dog), litter box (cat), a saddle (horse), or an air pump (fish)? Does your community have any laws regarding that animal? Are there fees? Figure out the daily, monthly and yearly costs of the animal

My Netherland dwarf rabbit eats rabbit pellets and timothy hay. She drinks water. She also likes to eat carrots and lettuce and sometimes a little bit of apple.

My rabbit lives in a cage. She is a house rabbit. I let her out of the cage and I put her on a rug in the study and she runs back my room and her cage. She likes to go into my dollhouse!

My rabbit does not need to go to the vet unless she is sick. It is a good idea to have rabbits neutered.

My rabbit needs some things in her cage. She needs a litter box, a water bottle, a food bowl and some things to chew on. Her bedding and litter need to be changed every 3-5 days.

Rabbits are good pets because you don’t need special permission to have one (except from your parents). They do not need animal licenses.

It cost $65 to buy my rabbit its cage, food bowl, water bottle, and litter box. I spend about $45 a month to take care of my rabbit. This includes $10 for rabbit pellets, $10 for timothy hay, $15 for bedding, and $5 for rabbit litter and $5 for rabbit chew toys.

4. Facts of life

Is your pet a male or female? If female, how many young could your pet produce at a time? How many pregnancies would be possible in a lifetime for your pet? Would you be able to take care of that many animals? What oes a vet or an animal shelter recommend?

I don’t know yet if my rabbit is a boy or a girl. She is still young. She is about 15 weeks old. The only way to know for sure if to have a vet who really knows rabbits to take a look at her. It can be very hard to tell. When she is older it is easier.

A female rabbit can have babies as often as every 31 days. This means she could have about 11 litters every year. The lifespan of my rabbit is 7 to 10 years. This means my rabbit could have 77 to 110 liters over her lifetime. The average litter is 4 to 6 bunnies but can be anywhere from 1 to 10 at a time.

I could not take care of all of those rabbits! That would be a nightmare.

Vets recommend that rabbits be spayed or neutered. This keeps them healthy and then they can’t make any babies.

5. Staying healthy

Find out about illnesses that are common for your pet. How can you prevent them? What are their warning signs? How can they be avoided or treated? Learn how to give medicine to a pet, if possible, and how to seek emergency treatment for your pet.

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6. Identify two diseases that pets can get or spread such as tick-borne Lyme disease, tularemia (rabbit fever), or rabies.

Find out what is being done to control these diseases and what you can do to prevent your pret from getting them. Do something that will help educate people bout a pet disease or help prevent a common pet disease.

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7. What is a good diet for your pet?

Collect ads for pet food. What information do they give you about the nutritional needs for your animal? Read labels on the food containers. Compare them for food values.

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8. Animal Talk

How do you communicate with a pet? How do you show a pet what you want it to do? How does your pet communicate what it wants? Describe some specific behaviors that your pet uses to comunicate anger, fear, hunger and loyalty.

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9. Book It

Create a scrapbook about your pet. Include pictures from when it joined your family until the present. Write about how you felt when you got your pet. Keep licenss, vaccination forms and other emergency information in the scrapbook, too. If you don’t own a pet, create a scrapbook for the type of animal you’d like to have.

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10. Other Ways to be Around Animals

Find out about groups and places that care for pets in your area. Are there rescue societies? A foster care program at an animal shelter? A zoo mentorship program? A bird rehabilitation clinic? Is there a group that fits your interests and abilities where you could volunteer? Share what you’ve discovered with a parent or guardian.

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