How to Adopt Out Your Small Pet on Your Own

Many people find that they have to rehome their pets due to reasons such as allergies, moving, or some other unforeseen circumstances. When you're talking about rehoming small pets such as guinea pigs, rats, and hamsters, there are many dangers to watch out for. Rehoming small animals has its own unique set of challenges. You can't just put a sign out for "free guinea pigs" and expect they'll all go to good homes. Snake owners may be watching for free food, a parent may drive by and think the small pet would be a good gift for their 5 year old, or a collector may wish to take all of your animals off your hands.

When faced with a decision to adopt out their pets, many people turn to shelters. The problem is, shelters are overcrowded and your pet may or may not be adopted. For small pets, the chances of being adopted are slim because a lot of people don't even realize they can adopt a small pet from a shelter. Depending on your area, the shelter may just euthanize your pets as soon as possible. Some shelters don't even show potential adopters the small pets. They may just be kept in a back room.

Even if you've found an excellent shelter that is no-kill, they could be full already. There are many homeless animals, don't think for a minute that you are the only person who ever moved and couldn't take their animals with them. If at all possible, try to rehome your pets on your own first and use the shelter as a last resort. Think of it this way: a shelter with a staff of 10 people might have 200 animals to place.

Even if each one of these shelter workers was working diligently to find the animals homes (and that's not generally going to be the case, because they have many other things to get done), that's one person trying to rehome 20 animals at a time. But if you're rehoming just your pet, or maybe 5 pets, but probably not 20 pets, you're going to have a lot more time to devote to your individual pets than they are.