Mental health is important and that has no clashes. The happy and calming survival of a person is totally based on good mental health. We can say, chances of overcoming ups and downs depend on good mental health. When it comes to human mental health, there are seen so many health care organisations that work to manage human mental health. It’s good but what about animals mental health?
They are also a living being and they have right to happiness.
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Why should we take care of animals mental health?
The exact answer for this question is that animals are also living beings and they feel what we do. We must always be very empathetic towards every living being and hence we should take care of animals too.
Today, we have the biggest challenge in front of us that is loneliness. We have less relations around us. So we just take some pets with us. Pets give us a smile, happiness, joy, love and affection. They totally make our lives enchanting. Having a pet inside our homes is a great idea but one thing is important here. We expect a smile and happiness from our pets so as, they need care and attention from us. Animals mental health is not to be avoided and we need to know the psychological behavior of our pet animal. Here we will go in detail about what we need to know about animals mental health.
How to take care of animals mental health?
Although we might repeat animals mental health again and again yet there is a hidden part in that. It is like we have to take care of animals physically and mentally both. For example, if you have cat at your home, you need to know the psychological behavior of a cat. Cat is always an attention gainer animal. Also cats have a tendency to rule. So these are some basic point which you have to take care. You have to put your cat according to the tendency that she is naturally having. Likewise, dogs are very sensitive animals and if we avoid them, they might fall sick. It is because they mentally feel burdened and then they start getting sick.
For each animal, there are some certain psychological behavior described. So before taking a pet to your home, get yourself mentally ready for that.
- Just ask yourself if you are ready to take care of your pet. Once you confidently believe that you will not let your pet fall sick whether it is mentally or physically only then you have to go forward. So before taking care of your pets mental health, you have to take care of your mental health. Once you are mentally prepared, you will do what you are supposed to.
- Second thing, apart from your pet, if you see free roaming animals around your house or yard, you need to take care of them too. It is because you are a human being first. Secondly, you need to take care of your and atmosphere and hence you need to take care of these free roaming animals.
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How we can take care of our pets?
There are 7 guidelines through which we can pay attention to animals mental health.
Physical activity
When we pet any animal, we become parent for that. We need to take care of that pet as a child. So this starts from physical to mental. Keeping our pets fit is the first stage of animals mental health. For this we have to motivate our pets to play more and more. We can even play with them and make them happy.
Letting them play and jump will not only make them physically fit but also they will feel that we are giving attention to them. This will make them more happy as they will feel affectionate from us. If you are an owner of a cat, you can just simply take a rope and then make your cat and catch that. Definitely she will try to catch the rope and she’ll rush after that.
Likewise, if you are an owner of a dog, this becomes actually necessary to take that outside. You can take your dog for a walk. Taking your dog outside is really important when it comes to the mental health of your pet because dogs are animals who love the outside environment.
In fact, There are countries existing in this world who have made laws for pet animals in terms of their health –
- In Austria, the Austrian animal welfare act 2004 is all about to consider your pet as your own child.
- It is like a person has to take care the well-being of animals.
- In case, the owners of the animals do not take care of their pets, they might be subject to a fine of around $2420.
- If they are found to conduct extreme cruelty, they might be charged $18160 as a fine.
- On the other hand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark also have laws to protect the rights of animals.
So totally these laws are made to take care of the well-being and mental health of the animals. So now, we can see that taking care of our animals mental health is really important.
Attention is mandatory
Animals have a great tendency to catch attention. If a human is doing pet to any animal, it has to pay attention towards its animal so that the mental health of the pet can be secured. Even, there are animals who, if do not get attention, fall sick. For example cats. Cats show a tendency of catching the attention of their owners. If you are having a cat, make sure you give proper attention to it otherwise it will start pooping anywhere around your house. This is the behavior of cats to catch attention of their owners. They start peeing and pooping on the bed or sofa so that the owners may note their presence.
Just note down that an animal is always hungry to your attention. So do not let it hungry but feed it with your love and attention.
Personal hygiene
Once you start believing happiness in your pet, you will suppose the animals just like you. So here you have to remember that you have to maintain personal hygiene. If you are someone who is addicted to your cat or dog, before taking them to your bed make sure your pets are maintaining personal hygiene. It becomes our responsibility to shower the pets timely. If you have an animal who is having long hair, trim those hair especially on the tail.
If your animal does not go outside of your house for pooping or peeing, arrange good quality litter or sand for the same. It will reduce the chances of unhygienic dirt flow. Also it will make your house odour-free if it is changed over a certain period of time.
Put them while they sleep
Being a cat or dog lover, this step becomes so necessary. Just take your hands on the cute body of your cat or dog while they are asleep. It will make them sense that you love them so much. They will show more love to you by reacting while in their sleep.
Don’t forget to name
To show proper care and love to your pet animal, get a good name for it. Then you can simply train your pet to react against it. Once they believe that the name has been given to them, they will show intense reaction to your calling. This shows a good mental well-being of the animal.
Good quality food
If you do not feed your pet properly, it might not only fall sick but also it may start becoming sad. Do serve good quality food to your pet so that it may have all beneficial nutrition. Read guidelines before serving food.
There are various kinds of pets and each animal has some certain diet. Try read it out and then make food for your loving pet. A hungry stomach can never make you happy so listen to it.
Regular check up and vaccination
For ensuring the animals mental health, it becomes necessary to ensure the physical health first. Do not let your pet play any hazardous game. Also, do not participate in hazardous activities that may injure your pet. In case you feel any problem in your pet, do prefer to go to a good doctor. Update your pet with the regular check up and vaccination.
Other animals and their care
Being a responsible human being, we need to do good deeds to others including animals. These animals’ can be our pets or other free roaming animals in the street. We also need to take care of these animals in terms of physical and mental health. Here are some tips –
- Arrange food for these poor animals. If you are living in a street, you might see stray dogs roaming around your house. They actually roam around such territories to find some food. So do not let their expectation die and serve some bread to them. Likewise if you see any other animal roaming around you, give food to eat.
- Do not try to make these animals go away from your house. You can see dogs, cats, cows, buffaloes, goats etc around your house. These animals are human friendly and they do not injure anyone. So try to be friendly with them and let them live where you live, exactly like around your house in the street.
- If you see any animal roaming free around you with some injury, call animal welfare organisations so that a team can handle it. Do not ignore it because it may not only harm animal but also the environment too. If that animal does not get any care, it may become a cause for infections. That will then give rise to various diseases. So better to arrange a team to take care of them. We will not suggest you to handle it because there maybe chances of infections and you might not knowing about the same. Hence let experts handle the case.
Important thing- If you see any jungle animal roaming around you, do not try to set its mental health. Jokes apart, do not try to get friendly with that. Call the animal rescue team and they will manage this situation. Do not let your self harmed by anyone, take care of yours too.
Benefit of having pets
So now, we have discussed how we can handle physical and mental health of our pets. Here is the question why we should pet any animal?
It is because pets can add a great meaning to our life. Let’s see what pets can do for us?
- After a great hectic office day, when you return home, your pet will come to you and take away all your problems. It will just give you a cute look and make you forget all the world.
- Research says that having a pet might even cure big mental problems like autism. It’s no lie. Autistic people have their own world where they see themselves as the loneliest person in this world. If there is a pet around them, they can share a bond with that because animals have unconditional love. It may make them normal and bring them towards real life.
- People having ADHD may benefit from their pets. These people are hyperactive who have a great ocean of energy inside them. They can spend time with their pet and manage their energy. They can invest the extra energy in feeding or walking to their pet. When it comes to children, they are really active and by playing with a pet, they might lose their energy and have a good sleep.
- Pets may help you to overcome your negative feelings. If you feel lonely, you must spend time with your pet. That will make you happy and delighted.
- Having a cat or dog in your house as a pet may reduce the chances of anxiety. There is research that says cats are an anti-depression creature. They help in reducing stress and anxiety. This goes the same for dogs and any other animal you like. What animal you like, if you pet it you will reduce your anxiety so much and you will see it.
Conclusion
People who are animal lover should go for pet care. They must pet the animal they like. It’s a good thing as they are giving shelter to any animal. A suggestion here is that we should adopt street cats and dogs first. In case there is no such cat or dog around us whom we can adopt, then we can go to buy these. It is good if we adopt those animals who are free roaming but make sure they are not dangerous.
One more thing is to remember, before going to pet any animal, do not forget to read the behavioural aspect of that animal. After knowing all psychological fact, go for the same. In case you have any medical issue with yourself, try consulting your doctor before putting any animal. Yes, we have to pay attention towards animals mental health but we have to take care of ourselves first. In the end, we can say taking care of animals mental health will automatically make their mental health good. So note this point.
