Too many pets?

[DownUnderBound]

Can I ask what you would consider 'too many pets' ? I am being tagged in Facebook things for crazy cat lady memes regulary ....quite often people make reference to 'ALL' my pets (said as if there are two million) so I just wondered what animals you all have and what your personal idea is of what makes too many? I'm watching animal hoarders and it got me thinking

About 2. Any more and it's becoming a full time job

I think 2 is probably the limit.

I have one dog and she is hard work, I think a second might actually lessen the load because she'd have a playmate other than me. As it stands she whimpers when I take a shower.

It's all relative. Personally I think the more sociable the animal, the less of them you should have, iyswim. So e.g. Dogs which are sociable creatures can never possibly get enough attention if you e.g. Have five or six of them. This would obviously be different if they were working dogs on a farm for instance but pet dogs is different IMO.

At one point I had two dogs, two cats, two birds and a rabbit. The numbers balanced out by the type of animals they were so e.g. Cats were fairly self sufficient whereas dogs needed walking, and birds needed time out of cages, and rabbit needed time in garden and plenty of attention.

But as the animals have passed on I haven't got any more, because Not only do they take time but also cost and are a tie when you want to go away. I now have one dog (working guide dog) and a parrot, and the only potential change to that will be when current dog retires and I may choose to keep him as well as have another working dog.

I think one of the issues wrt having multiple animals is that they don't have quite the same value iyswim. DP grew up with multiple animals - at one point they had something like eleven cats, and he said that if one was run over or disappeared it was just considered to be one of those things, because there were so many it was impossible to have close relationships with most of them. .

3 dogs 2 cats. 2 cats was a bit of an accident but actually 2 are no more trouble than 1. Freely admit I am the only person I know with 3 dogs but it works for us and they are all well behaved.

At one time we had -
5 dogs
2 cats
6 horses
1 sheep
2 hamsters
10 fish
1 rabbit
2 ducks
12 hens

All living at home. I'm probably not good at recognising animals in excess . Home was always immaculate and no smell.

There are 5 of us and we have 1 each, works for us.

Me/cat
DP/Dog
DS1/dog
DS2/cat
DS3/dog

If you have cats and any of them are urine marking, overgrooming or having repeat bouts of cystitis, the first thing you need to do is stop getting more cats. They don't like to be overstocked and need their own space.

My rule is no more cats than there are laps for them to recline on.

The number you can adequately care for.

I have a friend who has 4 dogs, 3 cats, guinea pigs, rats and birds and quite frankly her house is disgusting and she smells all the time.

It is too much, she has all these animals, 3 kids and both of them have physically demanding full time jobs.

She always has a comment about how nice our house is and how do we manage to keep it so clean when we have a pet and kids. The difference is I have two kids and one cat and don't need to work as many hours.

I love her, but she is blind to the situation and is constantly adding to the mess and often tries to unload 'extras' on to me. The kids are clean(ish), loved, well fed etc so no concerns for them - but all those critters in one place is just too much and it would make me crazy.

So any number is fine if you can manage a reasonable level of cleanliness and care. One may be too many if you can't.

I AM a mad cat lady

I have 5 cats

Foxy - 13
Olaf -2
Spock - 2
Bonnie - 9mths
Bernard - 4 months

I also have
Elsa, Pumpkin and Linda (???) the Guinea Pigs

Mr Fluffles, Lord Of The Dark Underworld - Hamster

and 2 fish !

When your home begins to smell is when you have too many pets. I several friends who have multiple cats and dogs and although their homes are visibly tidy there is always 'that smell' that owners seem utterly oblivious to.

I think the number of cats in the house should be less than or equal to the number of human sleeping spaces. In our house we have 2 doubles and 2 singles, so I would say we could fit 6 cats. We only have 2 cats, but are hoping to get a couple more later in the year.

Dogs are a different kettle of fish and I think that dog numbers should depend a lot on your lifestyle, size of garden and ability to provide suitable exercise and enrichment.

With all pets, whether 1 or 100, you need to make sure that you can afford to keep them to a reasonable standard, have regular vet checks, vaccinations etc, insurance, and time to spend with them. You need to have the knowledge to care for them and make sure that they are properly trained.

We have four cats and 2 dogs . You can never have too many cats though really ...

Maybe 4 dogs in a big house? Then you can walk two per hand! Cats-no more than a few-3 or so? Depends how keen you are on housework. If the place isn't stinking of piss, then go nuts.

I have two dogs and two cats.
I also have a tortoise and fish...and a pony.

Ideally I would have less cats but they are here now

15 cats and 2 dogs here, it was 4 dogs until recently

I've seen some very sad situations where things have got out of control. 100s of suffering rabbits and guinea pigs in a garden. Starving and inbreeding, giving birth to lethal babies (blind, deaf and infertile ). The owner had mental health problems, and didn't intend to be cruel. But she couldn't cope, and basically abandoned them to die in their cages, until we rescued them.

It Pisses me off to see people get pets, and get rid of them again quickly. I know some one at my work who's gone through about 5 puppies. She gets them, and talks about them, but when I ask how the puppy is doing, I get "Oh, we got rid of it. It was chewing furniture, biting the kids and pissing everywhere". I don't even know what she means by "got rid of it ", and then she'll get another one a few weeks later, and the whole sorry cycle starts again. :(

I have 1 cat from Cats protection, and 2 rescued guinea pigs. It can be very hard to say no. I definitely wanted a cat, and went looking for one, but I was asked to take on the guinea pigs by someone who had lost interest in them. I didn't really want them, but couldn't say no. I feed them and clean them out, but I don't feel any real love or bond with them.

I'd say that it's better to keep the numbers down if you can, but I could easily end up as a mad cat lady.

Another thing to consider is the cost. If I won the lottery, I would rescue many more animals, and pay staff to help care for them all. I paid £60 to adopt my cat from cats protection last year. They funded her first vaccinations and neutering. I had to pay £70 at the vets recently, for her booster vaccines, and her flea and worm treatments. Start multiplying those numbers, and responsible pet ownership starts to cost a fortune. I couldn't afford more pets.

The other thing is time. I work and have a disabled ds, so I wouldn't have the time to care for more pets.

Most we've ever had was

2 horses
4 dogs
2 cats
2 ferrets
Numerous fish
Wildlife being hand reared

All were beautifully cared for. Now we just have 2 dogs and a pufferfish. 6 chickens outside, but they are looking for a new home because I'm allergic to them :(

More than two cats was my limit. I had three for a mercifully brief period. Wherever you went in the house, there would be a cat staring at you. And at mealtimes all three would gang up on me and yowl at me.

all depends on how much time you can devote to them, surely? my neighbour's one dog is clearly too much for them, judging by how infrequently it gets walked.

on the other hand DD1's mate's mum is animal-mad, and has a parrot, snake, chickens and fish. All lovingly tended to and really well-kept.

at the moment we only have one cat, as the present incumbent won't tolerate other cats, dogs, or small furries. We're looking into getting chickens at the moment.

As PP have said it depends on how able the adults/children in the house are able to care adequately for the animals and not have a smelly/dirty house.

I love animals and at the minute we have 5 pets, it was 7 just before christmas last year but we had to re-home the Degu and one of our dogs, who was very old, had to be PTS due to cancer, and many other medical issues making her quality of life unbearable, even pain medication didn't help in the end.

We have one dog now who is 17 years old and on her last legs ,
two bearded dragons, one corn snake and a leopard gekco.
Both DD's & DH want another dog however if we do (Big if) then it wont be until our current dog has passed away. I would love another dog but will probably discuss not having another anytime within the next few years (if at all) as having our other dog PTS was a horrific experience and I don't want to go through it again more than I need to.

Costa your house sounds amazing I'd love more cats .