🗓️ March Pet Care Checklist
March is the hinge between winter and spring: fleas and ticks reactivate, winter coats start to blow, and brumating reptiles begin to stir. From dogs and cats to beetle larvae, this checklist gets every pet in the house safely into the new season.
🐕Flea & Tick Season Begins
Ticks become active once temperatures pass about 4 °C (40 °F), so March is the deadline to restart — or ideally continue — monthly flea and tick prevention for dogs and cats. Check your dog after every walk, especially ears, armpits and between the toes, and ask your vet about tick-borne diseases common in your region, such as Lyme disease or babesiosis.
🐕 Dogs🦎Wake Reptiles from Brumation Safely
If your tortoise, bearded dragon or other reptile brumated over winter, March is when most keepers wake them: raise temperatures and light hours gradually over one to two weeks and offer warm soaks before the first meal. Weigh them, too — more than 10% weight loss during brumation, refusing food after two weeks, or swollen eyes all warrant a reptile vet visit.
🦎 Reptiles🪲Beetle Larvae: Last Substrate Change
As rooms warm past 15 °C (59 °F), stag and rhinoceros beetle larvae wake from their winter slowdown and start eating hard — do the final full substrate (fermented mat) change in early March while they are still feeding. From April on, larvae begin building their pupal cells, making this the last safe window to disturb the enclosure; keep it at 18–23 °C and lightly moist.
🪲 Rhinoceros beetles🐈Spring Shedding Season Kicks Off
Spring coat blow starts in March: double-coated dogs like huskies and shepherds dump their winter undercoat in clumps, while cats swallow much of theirs while grooming. Brush daily with an undercoat rake or deshedding tool, and watch cats for hairball trouble — repeated gagging, constipation or appetite loss means a vet call, not just hairball paste.
🐈 Cats🦜Longer Days, Hormonal Birds
Lengthening March days flip parrots and parakeets into breeding mode: expect hormonal nipping, screaming and egg-laying in hens, with its egg-binding risk. Cap their day at 10–12 hours of light by covering the cage early, remove huts and shreddable nest spots, and stroke only the head — petting the back or under the wings reads as courtship.
🦜 Birds⚕️ This information is for general guidance and is not a substitute for professional veterinary advice. When a pet has eaten something questionable or shows any symptoms, contact your veterinarian or a pet poison control service right away.