Remember it’s a change for your pet too
Not all pets do well moving back and forth between residences, so observe your pet for any unusual or worrying reactions.
“Behavioral problems can be just as serious as medical problems,” says Angelica Dimock, a veterinarian in Minneapolis.
Mild negative behaviors include being cranky, refusing to follow commands, going into trash cans, chewing on things, not wanting to eat normally, and going to the bathroom inside the house, Dimock said. may be included. These behaviors can worsen and escalate to separation anxiety, destroying furniture and parts of the house, and becoming aggressive towards humans and other animals.
To avoid confusion for your pet, Dimock recommends instilling the same rules and deciding whether each home will have a longer or shorter stay.
Dimock points out that some types of pets are difficult to transition. She suggests that hamsters and other pets that live in cages would feel safer if they had the same environment everywhere – in the case of snakes, the same temperature, humidity and lighting. For rabbits and ferrets with sensitive stomachs, the same food is especially important to avoid gastrointestinal problems.
And sharing birds can be a complete outing, Dimock said, adding that birds are stressful animals. “They like their own schedules…and when they get stressed, they stop eating and pluck all the feathers from their bodies. A month here, a month there probably isn’t the best thing to happen to them. I guess.”
Co-parenting a pet doesn’t have to mean separation.
Pannella has many clients who have pet custody agreements but have never been intimate partners. They just want the companionship of a pet, but they also want to travel.
This is common among snowbirds, she says. For example, a person who spends the summer in Ohio may leave the primary care of their pet to a friend while they spend the winter in Florida.
And remember that a break from care can be a good thing.
Terra misses Willie terribly. “But at the same time, it’s like, ‘Oh, I can sleep through my alarm without that sweet dog tap dance telling me to wake up,'” she says.
