How To Become An Animal Care Taker: What It Is and Career Path

What is an animal care taker and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an animal care taker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $12.11 an hour? That's $25,179 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 28% and produce 101,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreAnimal Care TakerUS Average

Salary

2.0

Avg. Salary $25,179

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.7

Growth rate 28%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.44%

Asian 2.65%

Black or African American 4.36%

Hispanic or Latino 18.60%

Unknown 6.20%

White 67.74%

Gender

female 76.49%

male 23.51%

Age - 29

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 29

Stress level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an animal care taker

Explore animal care taker education requirements

Most common animal care taker degrees

High School Diploma

40.4 %

Bachelor's

25.5 %

Associate

21.3 %

Start to develop specific animal care taker skills

Skills	Percentages
PET	44.18%
Animal Rooms	12.97%
Medical Care	9.49%
Surgical Procedures	7.80%
Front Desk	4.48%

Complete relevant animal care taker training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New animal care takers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an animal care taker based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real animal care taker resumes.

Research animal care taker duties and responsibilities

Observe pet and family interaction as final determination for adoption.
Promote pet adoptions as well as initiated adoption forms and distribute volunteer information.
Assist elderly or disable adults with daily living activities provide companionship and insure safely practices with severe caution.
Milk animals such as cows and goats, by hand or using milking machines.

Prepare your animal care taker resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your animal care taker resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an animal care taker resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable animal care taker resume templates

Build a professional animal care taker resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your animal care taker resume.