5 Best Pocket Pets For The Office: Is Yours On The List?
On a scale of 1-10, how much do you enjoy your day job? Whether it’s at the bottom of the spectrum at 1 or the top towards 10, we bet it can be improved even more! Yes, that’s right, we reckon you might enjoy coming to work more if you bring a pocket pet into the office. Here we will discuss our 5 best pocket pets for the office.
A pocket pet is something that can fit in your pocket and is easily portable to take anywhere. Whether it’s your own, you’re encouraging a coworker to bring one in, or you wish to have a workplace pocket pet for your employees, it can be a great morale booster.
Long gone are the days of nagging when the next office party is! A pocket pet will cheer up everyone’s mood and add that extra bit of value to the workplace.
If you’ve not gone one already, you should and to give you some inspiration; we’ve curated a list of the top 5 best pocket pets for the office.
What are the 5 best pocket pets for the office?
1. Hamster
Hamsters are tiny cute four-legged furball. Out of the many little pets, these don’t require much maintenance. Because of this, it’s great to have one in your office as you’ll only need to clean their cage out once a week. If you’re the type of person to work during the evenings or you have staff working a night shift, then hamsters will keep you entertained between those long dreary hours. These creatures are nocturnal and love to run on their wheel, climb tubes and play with toys. Similarly, their cages are not costly; all you need is a wire cage with a solid bottom and some sawdust.
Beware on keeping more than one hamster in a cage. Read here a short article on what could happen.
2. Goldfish
Well, you can’t exactly put goldfish in your pocket, but they’re certainly smaller than your standard pocket size! Depending on the type of tank and fish you buy, these animals also require little maintenance at work. They do, however, require some of their water to be changed once a week, and fed every day. Some foods to feed your goldfish can be found here. Surprisingly, it’s healthy for goldfish to eat vegetables! The beautiful thing about fish is that they are so therapeutic to watch as they swim around in their tank, and the different colours they come in can be a sight for sore eyes. Fish are great animals to help you to destress between heavy workloads.
Should your goldfish look a little fat, here are some reasons why.
3. Chinchilla
Imagine what you would get if a puppy, kitten and hamster was combined! In fact, you don’t need to imagine! There’s such a creature that exists known as a chinchilla. These are incredibly smart creatures that have a happy nature. In comparison to other pocket pets, these animals prefer their own company.
Therefore if you wish to have them in your office, you should not take them out for a cuddle. Instead, these are pocket pets for the office that are good for staying in their cages and staring at. If you have a central space in your office that is vacant, having a chinchilla can be a great focal point for workers. Plus, they have a long life span of 12-15 years, allowing great bonds to be built between any employee and visitors.
However, note that this breed is crepuscular, which means they’re nocturnal and are hardly awake in the daytime. For this reason, chinchilla’s are good to have if you only work late hours. If you’re looking to get a Chinchilla, you should get them a multi-layered cage that gives them plenty of areas to play. Their food is mainly grass-based pellets, which are affordable and available to buy from your local pet store.
4. Guinea pigs
Out of the many pocket pets, Guinea pigs tend to be one of the bigger types. They are cuddly, gentle and fluffy. Plus, they come in a unique combination of colours and hairstyles, making them quite amusing for the office. The great thing about Guinea pigs is that they can either live in a cage outdoors or indoors.
You should only buy a Guinea pig for the office if you have enough space, though. These animals require large cages to live in to be mentally stimulated and have enough space to play around.
What’s even better is that they thrive off human interaction. Yes, they love to be petted and cuddled! Moreover, Guinea pigs tend to have the most vocal expressions amongst the different types of pocket pets When they bond closely to a person, they will give off different sounds to indicate if they’re happy, sad, hungry or any other emotion.
Unlike other pocket pets, companionship for Guinea pigs is an essential part of their survival. This can be great for any office as this will allow each employee, ample time to hold one, destress, return to work and pass the Guinea pig on to the next employee.
They’re also an affordable pocket pet to have, as they’re inexpensive and require little maintenance. Guinea Pigs only need to be fed large vegetables to help them survive, and therefore costs are quite low. Similarly, they’re good for bonding as they can live up to 7 years.
5. Sugar gliders
Sugar gliders are petite furry pocket pets. They’re a highly social animal, but you should not let them live on their own in your office. Ideally, if you’re looking to get a sugar glider, you should get two of them, so they have companions.
They’re not animals who like to stay in their cage; they require a lot of human affection. If they don’t get enough attention from humans, they can easily become nippy and get depressed quickly.
Like hamsters and chinchillas, these animals are nocturnal and, therefore, better suited to workspaces that operate in the evening. So if you work at night or have employees working in the evening, this is a good pocket pet to own.
They don’t need much living arrangements; all they require is a tall wired cage, as they are master escape artists. The cage should have shelves and branches as Sugar Gliders like to perch and a place where they can hide and sleep during the daytime. Sugar gliders require a balanced diet of meat and vegetables, but overall the maintenance costs tend to be low. Similarly, they have a long life span and can live up to 10-12 years.
