# Anyone Here Have An Unusual Pet **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 11, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924 "2009-12-11T22:10:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/41 "2009-12-14T19:58:13Z")
> [@flight](#): > > Three sugar gliders. > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpSuXwmE4Ww&feature=channel](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpSuXwmE4Ww&feature=channel) > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79-MM0P\_77M&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79-MM0P_77M&feature=related) > > Note the videos are not of mine, just two I found on youtube. I would love a couple of those, they’re the cutest things in the history of everything. I used to have a hedgehog, who was quite fun, she liked to burrow in dirty clothes, and swim in the bathtub. I want a bearded dragon. I almost got one, but since I’m probably moving halfway across the country within the next year, I decided to wait. Moving a giant reptile habitat sounds unpleasant, and I’d worry about keeping said dragon healthy during the move. Also, I already have to move two cats. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/42 "2009-12-14T20:12:57Z")
I, personally, only have a cat (he is _my_ cat). My 9YO **mudgirl** , however, in addition to having a pair of dwarf hamsters, also has a ball python, an albino corn snake, and a baby corn snake. At least one person in town calls her “snake girl”. She has been known to take shed snake skin into school for show and tell. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![schnuckiputzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@schnuckiputzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schnuckiputzi)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/43 "2009-12-14T21:08:08Z")
Oh, my…pigs (bottle-raised a litter) horses, chickens, ducks, geese, canaries, crows, an English sparrow I hand-reared, peach-faced lovebirds, cockatiels, an iguana, African pygmy hedgehogs, guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, hairless rats, tarantulas, millipedes, an alligator snapping turtle, various fish – and my crawdad is NOT sociable at all. I never see him unless I deliberately uncover his hiding place. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Joe\_Meager](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Joe\_Meager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Joe_Meager)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/44 "2009-12-14T21:27:43Z")
Three adult iguanas. Isabella, 10 years old, Corrado and Little, both about 15 years old. I’ve raised Little since she was a wee baby, about eight inches long tip to tip, now she’s 13 or 14 inches snout-vent and easily 3.5 feet tip to tip. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Joe\_Meager](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Joe\_Meager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Joe_Meager)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/45 "2009-12-14T21:31:08Z")
My grandfather had an odd sense of humor. When they retired and bought a motor home with the intent of traveling the country, my grandmother told him she wanted a pet that would be good in a motor home - small, low maintenance, etc. Grandpa brought home a tarantula. Grandma was not amused. This is how I came to have a pet tarantula as a kid. They live a surprisingly long time. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/46 "2009-12-14T21:56:57Z")
I used to go out in the woods and get my own pets. I was a kid…I didn’t know it wasn’t a good or even legal thing at the time. I’ve had turtles (wood and box), salamanders, newts, frogs (leopard, bull and spring peeper), butterflies, crayfish, and toads. I have had three rabbits (a big white one when I was a toddler, a brown one when I was a teen, and we currently have a Dutch with gray-brown and white fur), also. Oh, and we had sea monkeys a couple of times when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/47 "2009-12-14T22:37:52Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Only if it speaks Bulgarian 🙂 I speak to him in Bulgarian. He doesn’t seem to register it any differently than when I speak to him in English. He seems to consider both to be an invitation to bite me. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/48 "2009-12-14T22:55:06Z")
Dogs, cats, snails (aquatic), goats, chickens and turtles. I hope to have more goats in the spring. It turns out two pygmy goats are not enough to keep an acre well trimmed. They are plenty to keep iris, tomatoes, peppers, lilies and anything else I plant well trimmed however. 😉 I prefer the goats anyway. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/49 "2009-12-14T23:00:47Z")
> [@flight](#): > > Three sugar gliders. > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpSuXwmE4Ww&feature=channel](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpSuXwmE4Ww&feature=channel) > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79-MM0P\_77M&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79-MM0P_77M&feature=related) > > Note the videos are not of mine, just two I found on youtube. Those are too cute for me. I’d suffer a saccarine overload. I prefer a rodent at the other end of the cuteness scale: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/J8KFaUi493E/hqdefault.jpg "Ever Seen a Nkd Mole Rat?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8KFaUi493E) They are the most fascinating animals ever. I’d love to have a colony. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/50 "2009-12-15T19:18:21Z")
My wife has wallibies and weird chickens. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/51 "2009-12-16T02:43:56Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Only if it’s a REAL pet rock you purchased in the 70s. Not a fake rock you found on the ground 🙂 I have an original 1970’s pet rock. I call him Murray. I tried to potty train him but I still find little piles of sand on the floor. He likes watching the Safelite auto glass commercials, especially the one where the talking rocks fly into windshields. He doesn’t each much so I think I’ll keep him. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/52 "2009-12-16T14:25:13Z")
Our ferrets only exist in video, photos, and memories now. ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/53 "2009-12-16T14:48:45Z")
I have a chinchilla right now. They’re adorable, but so high-strung. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/54 "2009-12-16T16:30:29Z")
I just became honorary mother to two white mice, Sophie and Alba. My roommate and her friend were out walking Sunday, and somehow or other they ended up making an impulse buy at a pet shop. Cute things. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/55 "2009-12-18T02:24:55Z")
Past ones, growing up: Lots of aquatics: Albino walking catfish, electric eels, Surinam toads, Bufo marinus toads, assorted frogs from South America, all kinds of fishes. Alligators for awhile, some salamanders. Boa constrictors, then breeding lab rats in basement as feeders, then lab rats as sweet pets selected from feeders; chinchillas as a cast off from someone who didn’t want them, could be housed in the same bank cages as the rats, umpteen hamsters who needed a home, gerbils, same, people lost interest, mice, yep. Ferrets, again as a rescue, a chimpanzee for a bit :eek: A couple of pelicans and seagulls on the mend in the backyard. My life is a pittance now with two cats and two cockatiels. ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/56 "2009-12-18T02:51:04Z")
Now we just have cats, but I used to have guinea pigs when I was a kid, since my mother had owned one when SHE was a kid. Cute little buggers; none of them lasted very long, though. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/57 "2009-12-18T04:22:12Z")
> [@elelle](#): > > Past ones, growing up: Lots of aquatics: Albino walking catfish, electric eels, Surinam toads, Bufo marinus toads, assorted frogs from South America, all kinds of fishes. Alligators for awhile, some salamanders. Boa constrictors, then breeding lab rats in basement as feeders, then lab rats as sweet pets selected from feeders; chinchillas as a cast off from someone who didn’t want them, could be housed in the same bank cages as the rats, umpteen hamsters who needed a home, gerbils, same, people lost interest, mice, yep. Ferrets, again as a rescue, a chimpanzee for a bit :eek: A couple of pelicans and seagulls on the mend in the backyard. > My life is a pittance now with two cats and two cockatiels. Similar here. I worked in pet stores for years and ran my own aquarium design and installation company for 8 years. My very first fish was an electric eel. Right now all I have is a Pacific Parrotlet, name of Mr. Pryddy-Byrd, but in the past I’ve had hedghogs, ferrets, several different species of turtles, including being part of an endangered species breeding ring. I bred Nightingales for a little bit. I’ve had umpteen different species of snakes, frogs, lizards, spiders, and hundreds of different kind of fish. Favorite fish: Poylpterus. I once had a red tail catfish that I bought at about an inch long, and donated it to the Chattanooga Aquarium when it got to be about four feet long. He liked to stick his head out of the tank to have it scratched. As I kid I brought any and all kinds of wild animals home. I’ve had raccoons, wild lizards and turtles, had a blue jay for a while, a starling. Catfish and various shines and minnows from a creek, a baby Blandings turtle I raised and released. And still there have been more. Dozens of cats over the years, many dogs. If I were rich I’d have a parallel plumbing system in my house: aquarium water piped into and out of every room through a filtration plant in the basement. And I’ve have aviaries built in all around the house. But for now it’s just me and Byrd. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/58 "2009-12-18T15:10:07Z")
**Acid Lamp** and I currently have two dogs, a green tree python and a fat-tailed gecko, but we’ve had a lot more unusual stuff in the past when he and a friend co-owned an exotic pet shop. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/59 "2009-12-18T17:06:34Z")
> [@ReticulatingSplines](#): > > I have a chinchilla right now. They’re adorable, but so high-strung. I had a chinchilla, I didn’t find mine that way. Maybe he needs friend or a bigger cage? Don’t they make a cool noise? 🙂 They don’t make it very often but it’s weird sounding ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924/60 "2009-12-19T00:58:03Z")
I have a couple of hermit crabs (in addition to my pedestrian pair of kittehs). Invertebrates, woo! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-have-an-unusual-pet/520924.md?page=2)