careers with animals?

[pinkpink33]

hiya

i was wondering what kind of careers are available where i could work with small animals such as rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, hams etc.
at the moment i am in my 2nd year of a chemistry course, which i have no interest in.
do any of you have careers with animals?
i dont want to be a breeder as i think there are already too many unwanted pets in the world, not that i disagree with breeding when it's done properly.
im not looking to make a massive amount of money, and i know this is rare in animal careers lol, but i dont want to work in a pet shop either!
any info of your experience would be great thanks :)

[Geminigirl]

Well you could work with a rescue and maybe even eventuall have your own recue group. I want to eventualy have my own rat rescue.

[pinkpink33]

how would you go about eventually funding you own rescue group? i've thought about working at a rescue like rspca etc, but there seems to be a shortage of vacancies in this area :(

[PetLuver21257]

You could become a vet.

[pinkpink33]

am considering that option, but the plan is to cut my 4 year course down to a 3 year one, so i'll be done by this time next year. i would want a year out before studying another hardcore course.
i just dont know whether i'd be a good vet, i mean doing operations on actual living creatures is so important. blood doesnt affect me, but i have the feeling that organs might for some reason, ones that move like the heart and lungs.
grr i hate decisions!
maybe more research will help...

[rodentz]

im going to become a vet tech, and I want to go to denver to go to the bel-rea institute. Its been my dream since I can remember. :D

[halfwaynowhere]

you could be a groomer, although it probably doesn't pay as well as you'd like. I'm working towards a degree in pet sciences, I don't know where I'll go from there. My dream is to have my own holistic (possibly organic) pet food company, with foods for not just dogs and cats, but rabbits, and other critters, too, formulated especially for their needs, no shortcuts, and no wheat gluten (lol)!

[pinkpink33]

have looked briefly at grooming, but it's not really what i'd like to do - i'd prefer to be helping little unwanted animals than making happy/show animals look pretty. think i will look into volunteering at my local shelter part-time for a while, see if that gives me any ideas.
wow, u have so many animals halfwaynowhere! my live-in boyfriend would kill me if i brought another home!

[pinkpink33]

and i only have 3 russian dwarves lol! he doesnt like that they take up lotsa room with massive bin cages, they have more space in the room than he does lol!

[Geminigirl]

Wow he would hate my rat cages then.

[BlueBalloon]

I'm currently taking a vet assistant course. Its a one year course and you basically become a nurse to all the animals that come into the vet. It's very interesting.

[FemaleCheetah]

I worked as a vet tech assistant and loved it.

I also worked as a kennel attendant at a vet clinic and it was a lot of fun!

Once my baby is here and a little bit older I want to either work in a pet store, vet clinic, or kennel again.

[saralyn24]

well... you could be a vet and specialize in small animals, ect.