As far as pets are concerned, there are many different kinds available for you to care for. Some people enjoy the company of a cat, while others prefer having a dog as their furry companion. If you’re down with the bigger animals and think that an elephant would make a great pet, we’ve got some unfortunate news for you: owning a giant elephant as a house pet isn’t going to be possible anytime soon.

As some might imagine, it’s pretty difficult to give a pachyderm the care that they require when you’re stuck inside of a home or apartment. In fact, most experts agree that elephants shouldn’t be kept in captivity at all, but that hasn’t stopped the occasional person from keeping one in their home.

As we’ll discuss in this article, if you want to own an elephant as a pet, it’s going to be expensive and  difficult. We hope that by reading this article, you’ll understand why having such large pets is just not feasible for most people, and why it’s much wiser to stick with a cat or dog.

The cost of housing such a pet is one of the primary reasons why elephants don’t make good house pets. For starters, they need an extremely large enclosure and you’ll need to install a hot tub for them. As we mentioned before, elephants can grow up to be about 13 feet tall when they reach adulthood, which means that you’ll need to have a large space for them to move around in. Second, the price for this type of enclosure is pretty high, even if you try keeping costs down by doing some of the work yourself.

Depending on where you live, owning an elephant may cost hundreds or thousands of dollars in taxes. If you’re wondering why, it’s because elephants need a lot of food and much more space than other pets. Plus, if you leave them outside during extreme weather conditions, they could easily perish — which means that you’ll need to install some sort of heating or cooling system inside of the enclosure.

And like we mentioned earlier, you can’t forget about the elephant’s water requirements. Elephants are large animals that take up a lot of space, so it’s vital that they have enough room to move around freely inside of their enclosure. So how much does an elephant actually drink every day?

Well, adult elephants usually need to drink between 40-50 gallons of water per day, which means that you’ll have to plan for this or else the animal will go thirsty. Other costs that homeowners need to think about include having a veterinarian who’s trained in treating large animals and purchasing a crane to lift hay into the enclosure.

Elephants also need a lot of food, and while some people might be okay with buying large amounts of hay, keep in mind that it can get pretty expensive. Plus, when elephants are kept in captivity they’re often given elephant chow — a mix of grains and fruit that’s specially prepared for them. In fact, some people say that this type of food costs about $1 per pound if you buy it in bulk. An adult elephant can eat up to 300 lbs per day! This quickly adds up to thousands of dollars per month for food alone.

As you can see, owning an elephant is impractical for many reason, including housing, water, food, and veterinary costs. Keeping a smaller house pet is likely a better option.