Low-Maintenance Pets

While many families opt to have a dog as the family pet, they are not always the best choice. Between working, going to an east coast law school and my husband in a full-time nursing degree program, we needed a pet that didn’t require a lot of attention and didn’t mind the cold weather. My kids begged for a dog, but when we presented them with much “cooler” options, they were happy to oblige.

Here is a list of the top five low-maintenance pets:

1.      Snakes- Snakes are fairly simple pets to keep. They stay in their cage all day, unless you want to take them out, and are quite easy to maintain. If you are squeamish, however, you may want to avoid them as you most likely will have to feed them mice. Snakes are definitely not for everyone, but can make great pets for those who are well aware of everything that goes into properly taking care of them.

2.      Spiders- While some people are scared even at the mention of spiders, these creatures can make great pets. They require small cages, easy cleaning and simple maintenance. You definitely want to keep them in their cage, and they are more for just observing, but many people love having them as pets. Tarantulas are great because so many people are fascinated by them and are fairly inexpensive.

Be sure to buy spiders from reputable pet stores or breeders.

3.      Birds- From parakeets to love birds to cockatiels, birds are wonderful pets that are great alternatives to dogs. The biggest task with birds is cleaning their cage, but other than that, they are simple to care for. You can train them to repeat what you say and even sing songs on demand.

Some birds can even be very loving and nestle into your neck!

4.      Turtles- Turtles are fun pets with low maintenance needs. All that they require is making sure its habitat has enough light, shade, moisture, clean water, a basking lamp, and of course, food. The lamp is very important because they generally require 12 hours of sunlight, and using the right UV lamp will help the turtle get the amount of vitamin D3 it requires to stay healthy.

You can buy turtles that are very small and live in an indoor cage or even bigger turtles that can live in your backyard.

5.      Iguanas – Iguanas are the most popular type of pet lizard and for good reason. They are very fun animals to have and do not require much maintenance. Like turtles, they must be supplied with the proper basking light so that they can soak up the Vitamin D that their bodies need. They tend to stay in their cage all day to absorb the light, but can be taken out to be played with as well.

One advantage of these pets is that they don’t make any noise and won’t become a nuisance like a barking dog might.