Animal care provider vs animal attendant

The differences between animal care providers and animal attendants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-3 months to become both an animal care provider and an animal attendant. Additionally, an animal attendant has an average salary of $26,394, which is higher than the $24,866 average annual salary of an animal care provider.

The top three skills for an animal care provider include PET, administer medications and husbandry. The most important skills for an animal attendant are PET, patients, and animal handling.

Animal care provider vs animal attendant overview

	Animal Care Provider	Animal Attendant
Yearly salary	$24,866	$26,394
Hourly rate	$11.95	$12.69
Growth rate	28%	28%
Number of jobs	70,701	53,000
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 44%	Bachelor's Degree, 40%
Average age	32	32
Years of experience	3	3

What does an animal care provider do?

An animal care provider is someone who provides care and attention to pets. Usually, this person is part of a veterinary clinic and offers all kinds of care pets ranging from grooming, medical attention, and hygienic care. The animal care provider is an essential contact person for animal lovers, which makes the position important. Part of an animal care provider's responsibilities is exercising animals, monitoring their health and nutrition, treating wounds, sicknesses, and other ailments, and giving owners advice on how to take care of their pets better.

What does an animal attendant do?

An animal attendant is responsible for administering high-quality care for the animals in a shelter, clinic, or wildlife preserve. Animal attendants monitor the health conditions of the animals, manage their food intake and medications, maintain the adequacy of animal stock inventories, and report any critical findings and unusual observations to the veterinarians. They also ensure the cleanliness and orderliness of all the facilities and cages, as well as the efficiency of tools and equipment to support daily animal operations.

Animal care provider vs animal attendant salary

Animal care providers and animal attendants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Animal Care Provider	Animal Attendant
Average salary	$24,866	$26,394
Salary range	Between $14,000 And $41,000	Between $20,000 And $34,000
Highest paying City	-	Ithaca, NY
Highest paying state	-	New York
Best paying company	-	Baylor College of Medicine
Best paying industry	-	Education

Differences between animal care provider and animal attendant education

There are a few differences between an animal care provider and an animal attendant in terms of educational background:

	Animal Care Provider	Animal Attendant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 44%	Bachelor's Degree, 40%
Most common major	Biology	Biology
Most common college	Stanford University	Ohio State University

Animal care provider vs animal attendant demographics

Here are the differences between animal care providers' and animal attendants' demographics:

	Animal Care Provider	Animal Attendant
Average age	32	32
Gender ratio	Male, 25.1% Female, 74.9%	Male, 29.2% Female, 70.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 6.4% Hispanic or Latino, 18.2% Asian, 2.6% White, 68.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 4.2% Unknown, 6.3% Hispanic or Latino, 17.9% Asian, 2.6% White, 68.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between animal care provider and animal attendant duties and responsibilities

Animal care provider example responsibilities.

Maintain care on the horses, pigs, goats and sheep.
Work with turtles, snakes, frogs, skunk and owl.
Fed and water horses, chickens, goats, pigs, cows and dogs.
Locate pet product merchants willing to donate food/ toys/ litter to families struggling to financially provide for their pets.
Complete physical checks and monitor patients to detect unusual or harmful behavior and report observations to professional staff.
Milk animals such as cows and goats, by hand or using milking machines.

Animal attendant example responsibilities.

Assist in managing shelter for animals and arranging for adoption or euthanasia of confiscate animals.
Skil at handling, restraining, husbandry and veterinary procedures with reptiles, mammals, raptors, amphibians, and songbirds.
Clean goat and pig yards, train goats and pigs, keep records.
Serve as midwife for birthing dogs, cats and goats.
Care for goats by providing them with feed every week.
Maintain cleanliness of the shelter and medicate animals direct by supervisor as needed.

Animal care provider vs animal attendant skills

Common animal care provider skills

PET, 35%
Administer Medications, 17%
Husbandry, 9%
Animal Housing, 7%
Customer Service, 7%
Laboratory Animals, 6%

Common animal attendant skills

PET, 59%
Patients, 6%
Animal Handling, 6%
Cleanliness, 3%
Euthanasia, 3%
Autoclaves, 2%

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Personal Care and Attendants Industry
Animal Care Provider
Animal Care Provider vs Animal Attendant

Updated January 8, 2025

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