Animal Caretaker Feed, water, groom, bathe, exercise, or otherwise provide care to promote and maintain the well-being of pets and other animals that are not raised for consumption, such as dogs, cats, race horses, ornamental fish or birds, zoo animals, and mice. Work in settings such as kennels, animal shelters, zoos, circuses, and aquariums. May keep records of feedings, treatments, and animals received or discharged. May clean, disinfect, and repair cages, pens, or fish tanks.
Animal Caretaker is Also Know as
In different settings, Animal Caretaker is titled as
- Animal Care Giver (ACG)
- Aquarist
- Dog Bather
- Dog Groomer
- Groomer
- Kennel Attendant
- Kennel Technician (Kennel Tech)
- Pet Groomer
- Pet Stylist
- Zookeeper
Education and Training of Animal Caretaker
Animal Caretaker is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Animal Caretaker
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Animal Caretaker
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Animal Caretaker
- Bachelor in Dog/Pet/Animal Grooming
- Associate Degree Courses in Dog/Pet/Animal Grooming
- Masters Degree Courses in Dog/Pet/Animal Grooming
- Bachelor in Farrier Science
- Associate Degree Courses in Farrier Science
- Masters Degree Courses in Farrier Science
- Bachelor in Anthrozoology
- Associate Degree Courses in Anthrozoology
- Masters Degree Courses in Anthrozoology
Training Required for Animal Caretaker
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Animal Caretaker in different industries are
- Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers
- Animal Trainers
- Animal Breeders
- Animal Control Workers
- Veterinary Technologists and Technicians
- Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals
- Personal Care Aides
- Childcare Workers
- Home Health Aides
- Nursing Assistants
- Veterinarians
- Animal Scientists
- First-Line Supervisors of Personal Service Workers
- First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers
- Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
- Phlebotomists
- Locker Room, Coatroom, and Dressing Room Attendants
- Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists
- Child, Family, and School Social Workers
- Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers
What Do Animal Caretaker do?
- Feed and water animals according to schedules and feeding instructions.
- Answer telephones and schedule appointments.
- Examine and observe animals to detect signs of illness, disease, or injury.
- Respond to questions from patrons, and provide information about animals, such as behavior, habitat, breeding habits, or facility activities.
- Provide treatment to sick or injured animals, or contact veterinarians to secure treatment.
- Collect and record animal information, such as weight, size, physical condition, treatments received, medications given, and food intake.
- Perform animal grooming duties, such as washing, brushing, clipping, and trimming coats, cutting nails, and cleaning ears.
- Exercise animals to maintain their physical and mental health.
- Order, unload, and store feed and supplies.
- Mix food, liquid formulas, medications, or food supplements according to instructions, prescriptions, and knowledge of animal species.
- Clean and disinfect surgical equipment.
- Discuss with clients their pets' grooming needs.
- Observe and caution children petting and feeding animals in designated areas to ensure the safety of humans and animals.
- Find homes for stray or unwanted animals.
- Adjust controls to regulate specified temperature and humidity of animal quarters, nurseries, or exhibit areas.
- Anesthetize and inoculate animals, according to instructions.
- Transfer animals between enclosures to facilitate breeding, birthing, shipping, or rearrangement of exhibits.
- Install, maintain, and repair animal care facility equipment, such as infrared lights, feeding devices, and cages.
- Train animals to perform certain tasks.
- Sell pet food and supplies.
- Do facility laundry and clean, organize, maintain, and disinfect animal quarters, such as pens and stables, and equipment, such as saddles and bridles.
- Advise pet owners on how to care for their pets' health.
Qualities of Good Animal Caretaker
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Tools Used by Animal Caretaker
- Air purifying respirators
- Algae scrapers
- Ammonia test kits
- Animal cages
- Animal clippers
- Animal crates
- Animal handling gloves
- Animal handling sleeves
- Animal harnesses
- Animal muzzles
- Animal nail clippers
- Animal nail files
- Animal nail grinders
- Aquarium filters
- Aquarium heaters
- Aquarium lighting
- Aquarium pumps
- Aquarium tongs
- Aquarium ultraviolet UV sterilizers
- Benchtop electronic toploading balances
- Binocular light compound microscopes
- Blow dryers
- Carbonate hardness test kits
- Cat grooming bags
- Coat strippers
- Cordless animal trimmers
- Digital oxidation reduction potential ORP meters
- Eye droppers
- Fish tanks
- General hardness GH test kits
- Grooming combs
- Grooming rakes
- Grooming shears
- Grooming tables
- Handheld digital refractometers
- Hydraulic bucket lifts
- Inflatable rubber motor boats
- Mat breakers
- Nitrate test kits
- Nitrite test kits
- Personal computers
- Pet bathing brushes
- pH test kits
- pH testers
- Pin brushes
- Portable dissolved oxygen DO meters
- Pressure sprayers
- Protein skimmers
- Scaffolding
- Scissor lifts
- Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus SCUBA gear
- Shedding blades
- Siphon hoses
- Slicker brushes
- Slings
- Spear guns
- Stepladders
- Underwater cameras
- Wheeled forklifts
Technology Skills required for Animal Caretaker
- CEEJS The Pet Groomer's Secretary
- DaySmart Software 123Pet
- DaySmart Software Appointment-Plus
- Envision Pet Grooming
- Groom Pro
- Groomsoft
- K9 Bytes K9 Koordinator
- Kennel Link
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Mobile Dog Grooming Software mGroomer
- Petschedule
- The Groomer's Write Hand