How many minutes does it take for you to feed/care for all of your pets?

What's the average time you spend daily feeding, caring, and cleaning up after your pet(s)? Which one takes the most amount of time? The least?


One a busy day where I have to do all the cage cleaning, I can easily spend an hour to get all the pets fed and cared for, not including the horse. On a normal day, I spend roughly 20 minutes just feeding dinner to everything and cleaning the water of the frogs and tadpoles, which has to be done daily. I always have a mental checklist just so I don't forget anyone

Fortunately, my horse is on full care board, so I don't have to take care of her myself (feeding, stall cleaning). On Sundays, though, I do, and that'll add an hour to the pet timer.

I just have one cat, so my care routine is pretty minimal (not including pets, of course!). I have a feeder system for her food and water, so I only have to refill the water once a week and the food every two or three. It takes about 5 minutes to clean and fill the water feeder, but for the food, all I have to do is lift the top and pour.

Most of the time is spent cleaning the litter box. It has a lid on it, so it takes a few minutes to get it undone, change the litter, and get it closed and back under the sink. Including taking the old litter out to the trash, probably around 10 minutes total.

Wow, mora2000, thats a serious time commitment. How many/what kind of pets to you have? It sounds super convenient to have full care for a horse! I can imagine that cleaning, housing, and feeding a horse is a full time job, not to mention shoeing and grooming.. Its crazy that just feeding and stall cleaning would add an extra 6 hours of mainenance time to your week!

11 in all:

1 horse
1 tortoise
2 cats
1 dog
3 hermit crabs
2 frogs
1 tadpole
1 rabbit

Looking to add another frog soon also.

I think this poll isn't having enough options. The longest time is only "over 20 minutes". There are people who spend hours on their pets every day.

If it is just feeding, then it takes no more than 5 minutes. The other parts of the "care" takes way longer. For example, cage cleaning for my birds will take 10~15 minutes if I decide to wash everything in there. Aquarium partial water change takes at least 10~20 minutes for each fish tank but I do it only once a week.

Then there is the definition of "care". I believe spend time to "socialize" with your pets is a part of the care. Since many pet species will be depressed and get sick if their owners do not spend certain amount of time with them. This part of the care is endless. For some pets who require human attention, the more time you spend with them, the more mentally healthy they get.

Currently, I spend around 30~60 minutes every day to let my budgies out of the cage. They can do whatever they want including stand on my fingers lol.

mora, if you spend time to "emotionally" care for all of your pets, it's going to be a full time job.

Feeding my pets doesn't take long. I have two dogs I feed during specific times, but all I really have to do for them is to put the bowls down. Then there is my cat who is able to get to their dish whenever. All in all it takes much less than 5 minutes.

Caring for them, like Thor said, would probably take longer - but also depends on the definition used. I love to spend time and play with my dogs, one is a rottweiler who just loves playing tug of war all day so that usually takes at least a few hours total. If I stop playing with her she goes to bother my other dog who is a German Shepard. He requires less care though, he is getting old and seems to enjoy just laying around with the family more than anything.

Back when I had horses it took a lot longer for me too feed everyone (during that time though I had 5 horses, 3 cats, 5 dogs, and a lizard) so most the work got split up between my family to make things go quicker and easier on everyone.

I only have one dog so in terms of basic things to do, it does not really take much of a time. It takes about 10 minutes to bathe him, about 20 minutes to clean his house, and then 10 minutes to prepare his food. However, I spend a lot of time playing with him and I walk him a lot. This helps us form our bonding. He is much like a friend. Also, I noticed that the more time I spend with him, the more he becomes used to people and is more friendly when friends come to visit. He looks more active as well, compared to when I just live him in the playpen alone. Dogs are very social animals and you need to make them feel that they are given enough attention and that you really interact with them.

Under five! I have two cats, Minnie and Snookie, and they practically look after themselves. We feed them twice a day, replace their water whenever it's needed, and that's about it. They have free access into our backyard so they don't need a litter tray. Aside from that, its just very occasional vet visits. I used to have guinea pigs and they were a LOT of work. Any animal where you have to clean cages is a lot of effort, really. Fish are surprisingly hard too! I think people expect small animals to be easier, but it's actually harder because they can't look after themselves as much.

I only have 2 dogs, but one is super high maintenance. I feed them and take them outside. I clean up after them (the big boy sheds a lot). But mostly, I spend almost 15 to 20 minutes a day just grooming my Yorkie. I've often considered getting a shorter cut on her so we could both have less "maintenance" time, but I can't bring myself to do it. I don't have kids so she is like my daughter. I love the bonding time of brushing her hair and putting it up in the top knot every day.