25 Ways to Show Your Pet You Love Them
Posted - February 27, 2025
By Carol Bryant, Professional Pet Blogger
Pets and babies are the purest forms of love on the planet. You may often wonder if your dog, cat, bird, or pet knows you love them, too. Fortunately, there are many ways to show your pet love and build an even stronger bond. Whether it’s a wagging tail, a kitty nuzzling against your leg, or a fish following you around the tank, pets have beautiful ways of showing affection back.
Understanding how your pet expresses and feels love can deepen the human-animal bond. Could it be a wagging tail? A kitty nuzzling against your leg? A fish following you around from the tank? Sure, all of these and more are ways pets show love.
February 20 is National Love Your Pet Day, but here at ZYMOX, we believe that sharing love with our pets is 24/7/365. We asked pet parents, experts, and behaviorists how pet parents can show their pets love. Here’s everything you need to know to spread the joy, share the love, and make your pets happy year-round.
Does My Pet Love Me?
First, here are some ways our beloved pets show love to their humans:
- Wagging and excitement seeing you
- Bringing you their favorite toys
- Following you around
- Relaxed eye contact
- Lounging on or near you
- Giving you kisses
- Sleeping near you
- Yawning when you yawn
- Nosing at you or nudging
- Following you with their eyes
Recognizing these signs will help you show love to your finned, furry, feathered, or any pet. Here’s how to show your pets love.
25 Ways to Show Your Pet You Love Them
Dogs and Cats
- Schedule Regular Veterinary Check-Ups: Regular veterinary visits help your pet live a happier, longer life. Catching problems before they become overwhelming is always a good practice.
- Maintain a Healthy Diet: Dogs and cats change with time, especially regarding food. Feed a species-appropriate diet that meets all the nutritional requirements for their age, breed, and size.
- Keep Their Coats and Skin Clean: Keeping their skin and coat clean is imperative. The skin is the largest organ of your pet’s body. A healthy skin barrier prevents microorganisms from entering the body. Products we recommend you have on hand include:
- Spend Quality Time Together Without Phones: Put the phones away and spend one-on-one time playing, snuggling, walking, or whatever activities your dog or cat enjoys most.
- Respect Their Likes and Dislikes: Does your cat love chin scritches? Do more of that. Does your dog not like their ears touched? Stop that behavior. Do what your pets love, including sniffing on walks or playing with toys. Like people, each pet is unique and has likes and dislikes.
Fish
- Maintain Optimal Water Quality and Habitat: Using test kits, regularly check the water parameters to ensure a healthy environment.
- Provide Enrichment: Add new objects or delicately change up the tank’s décor occasionally to mentally stimulate fish.
- Avoid Overfeeding: Provide a species-appropriate diet that your fish can consume within a few minutes. Never overfeed.
- Introduce Tank Mates with Caution: One fish is great, and multiples can be fun. Before adding fish, ensure compatibility and space to prevent aggression and stress.
- Perform Regular Tank Maintenance: Proper filtration, lighting, and partial water changes help prevent toxin buildup.
Reptiles
- Keep the Environment Clean: Make sure you use the proper enclosure for reptiles while mimicking their natural environment regarding humidity, lighting, and hiding spots.
- Examine Skin and Use Proper Products: Relieve skin irritations and provide healing, soothing comfort with ZYMOX products. The water-based formulas are ideal for extra-sensitive reptile skin. These include:
- Respect Their Space: Allow your reptile to get familiar with their surroundings before engaging in too much handling. When they are acclimated to a new environment, slowly begin handling them.
- Avoid Overhandling: Limit the time you hold your reptile, as too much can be stressful since they are generally solitary creatures.
- Monitor Health: Like all animals, reptiles need veterinary care. Watch their physical condition and behavior, and know their normal baseline. When anything is out of the ordinary, you can act.
Birds
- Rotate Toys and Enrichment Activities: Like all pets, birds get bored with the same toys and activities. By interchanging toys and engaging them with items they enjoy, you show your bird you love them.
- Maintain a Clean Living Space: Clean and disinfect your bird’s cage or living space at least weekly.
- Offer a Balanced Diet: Provide your bird with the nutritious food and vegetables designed for them, avoiding too many treats.
- Promote Healthy Skin and Plumage: Keep ZYMOX Avian products on hand to promote healthy plumage, prevent microbes and infections, and offer soothing irritated skin. We recommend:
- Keep Birds Away from Potential Dangers: These include other animals, fans, cooking fumes, and direct heat.
Small Animals
Animals like rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, and ferrets need care, too. Here’s how to show them your love:
- Provide Space and Enrichment: Smaller pets need space, so consider multi-level hamster cages, a large enclosure with hiding spots for guinea pigs, a secure rabbit space, and a cage with levels and toys for ferrets.
- Handle Them with Care: Small animals may look cute (and they are), but they don’t always love being handled. Use both hands to support smaller animals and avoid rapid movements or too much handling. Support your rabbit’s back and hindquarters when touching and handling.
- Provide Mental and Physical Stimulation: If your small pet enjoys playing, engage in fun sessions. Hamsters like exercise wheels and puzzle feeders, while guinea pigs like tunnels and chew toys.
- Use Species-Specific Products: ZYMOX offers small animal solutions for healthy skin and ears with the exact patented LP3 Enzyme System used in all the products. They are safe and non-toxic for sensitive pets, too. We recommend:
- Monitor Health and Offer a Balanced Diet: Keep a close on your small animal’s behavior, appetite, and physical condition, seeking veterinary care when needed. Never second guess any concerns you may have. Coupled with a species-specific diet, your small animal will feel the love!
Cheers to happy, healthy pets who give love and feel your love for them all year round!
