Shailene Woodley Reveals Her Yays and Nays as a Pet Parent, Including Making Them a Social Media Page (Exclusive)

Shailene Woodley loves being a pet parent!

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the actress, 33, reveals her yays and nays when it comes to how she raises her two rescue cats, Bear and Pharrah.

In terms of celebrating the holidays with her feline friends, Woodley says, “Oh, you for sure have to.”

“The animals have stockings at Christmas, and stuff for Valentine’s Day or whatnot,” she continues. “I love including them in life journeys.”

“But it’s also anytime I’m traveling,” adds the Big Little Lies star. “Because I travel so often for work to new locations to do films, anytime we’re in a new home, I’m like, ‘Okay, you get a new little bed, or you get a new toy.’ ”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

When it comes to marking birthday celebrations for her two cats, Woodley has a similar outlook. Recalling a dog she and her family once owned, she says, “I knew his exact birthday.”

“I’d take him for an extra-long walk, and I’d sing to him. He was a German Shepherd, so he had these chronically moody eyes, and I’d be like, ‘You live the best life ever. Where is this moodiness coming from?’ But I celebrated it nonetheless,” Woodley continues with a laugh.

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

When asked her thoughts on making an Instagram page for her animals, Woodley admits she isn’t one to do it — “I’m not a social media person in general, so for me, it’s not something that I have ever done” — but the Divergent alum still loves to share photos of her cats on her own account.

“My feed is mostly architecture and animals, those are the two things that I care about, and some food, but I will say, my close friends Instagram Stories is basically only filled with my cats,” she explains.

Woodley, who recently teamed up with Mars and Calm to raise awareness for pet adoption for Global Adoption Weekend, says being a pet parent “transcends an idea of love.”

“It’s just pure energy. It’s something that I personally can’t find words for, knowing that they have given me their lives and entrusted me with their lives,” she continues.

“Just having their trust, I guess, feels like such an honor, because I know the life that they lived before they came into my home, and it was a rough life,” adds Woodley. “So the fact that they give me so much of their unconditional love and gratitude makes me emotional because I know how hard it is for me, in my personal world, to trust people. So knowing that they have chosen to trust me truly feels like an honor.”

As for the hardest part of being a mom to her two little fur babies, the Emmy, SAG and Golden Globe-nominated star says trekking across the globe can be hard.

“Because I have two of them, if I travel, I usually need another person to travel with me, and so sometimes I don’t get to bring them places. And being apart from them is hard,” she admits.