If the animal doesn’t adjust well, it will likely fall ill and die. So, getting your new pet adjusted as soon as possible is crucial.

Here are a few tips that may be helpful…

1) Don’t buy puppies or kittens less than 8 weeks old. They could develop some behavior problems later on, especially in pedigree breeds. Also talk to the petshop owner before you decide, try to get as much info as you can. If the animal has been abused, the chances of it growing up into a misfit, is there.

2) Take a piece of soft cloth with you when you pick up your pet from the petshop or breeder, and rub it on the fur of the animal’s mother and siblings. When you get home, put the cloth in the pet’s bed. This will remind it of its family.

3) If your new pet is a fish, do not let out the fish from the plastic bag but let it float in the aquarium for about 1 hour. This is to get the water temperature in the plastic bag equalized with the main aquarium. Also feed the other occupants of the tank so that they are happy. Observe the reaction of the other fishes. Are they hostile? If yes, you should remove the new fish and put it in a seperate tank.

4) If your pet is crying a lot at night, it probably still misses its mother. What you can do is wrap a ticking clock in a towel, and place it beside the animal’s bed. This simulates a heartbeat. You could also wrap a thermoflask containing hot water in the cloth that you used in point 2) and place it in the animal’s bed.

Hope this helps.

A fox known as Miss Snooks has been the dear pet of Steve Eddington for years ever since he found her as an abandoned 10 day old cub. She is so domesticated that she sleeps on the couch, and goes for walks on a lead.

Despite Mr Eddington’s efforts to release her back into the wild, Miss Snooks has refused to go, and now has become very much a part of his family. The vixen wanders in and out of her owners home through a cat flap, spends most of the day lounging on the sofa before a meal of chicken cooked in honey and dried cat food washed down with half a cup of coffee. She also gets along fine with Eddington’s other pets.

Why this story is noteworthy is because foxes are difficult to tame by nature. Even the RSPCA advises against keeping foxes as pets because of they are really wild canines, unlike your usual family dog.

Source: Telegraph