Why It's So Important to Microchip Your Pet

As a dog or cat owner, there are several things you can do to take the best possible care of your pet. One of those things is to feed your dog or cat quality pet food. By giving your pet food that’s made from ingredients that are fresh and all-natural, you can help your dog or cat feel its absolute best on a daily basis.

Another important part of taking great care of your pet is to microchip it. Although it’s not something any owner wants to imagine, the fact is that more than 10 million pets are lost each year! Every pet has over a 30% chance of being lost at some point during its lifetime. And for every ten family pets that are lost, only one is found.

Given the significant disconnect between the huge number of pets that are lost each year and the small amount that are found, it’s easy to understand why this is such an important issue. As a loving pet owner, you may already have an ID tag on your pet’s collar. While that’s definitely a good measure to take, it’s not foolproof. As any vet or animal shelter worker can attest to, collars can break or fall-off. And if that was the only form of identification that a pet had, the likelihood of the animal being identified is very low. Ensuring pets have a more reliable form of identification is exactly what a microchip can do.

The Basics and Benefits of Microchipping

A microchip is a computer chip that’s about the size of a grain of rice. This tiny chip is implanted into a pet and includes a unique ID number. Unlike a tag, there’s no chance of a microchip breaking or falling off. When a scanner is waved in proximity to a microchip, it transmits the ID number, which can then be used to quickly access the pet owner’s contact information from a database.

From vets to shelters, most establishments that work with pets have a microchip scanner. The widespread adoption of this technology is one of the reasons it’s so beneficial. Research into microchipping found that microchipped dogs that get lost are 2.5 times more likely to be returned, while lost cats with a microchip are 20 times more likely to be reunited with their owner!

It’s also worth mentioning that if you ever find a stray dog or cat and are looking for its owner, you can take the animal to a vet or shelter and they will be happy to use their scanner to see if it has a microchip. And once you get your pet microchipped, be sure to promptly update your contact information whenever it changes.