I mean, obviously you CAN, but is it really feasible and fair to all the animals involved? (I already have a dog who can’t be in the same room as the cats, and a boyfriend who can’t be in the same room with the dog, so essentially my house is one of those logic problems with a river and a little tiny boat.)
I’ve just been idly (not seriously at all at this point) considering getting a lizard or a snake or something. Maybe a gecko or a little corn snake. I’ve read a bit about how unprepared people generally are to keep reptiles, etc, and I know there’s a good bit of upkeep and specialized equipment and such involved. (I also have fish, so I’m not unacquainted with the concept of “this is much much more expensive than they sell you with the starter set”.) I guess my question is really, how much handling of these animals do you do outside their cages, and is it feasible to have the cats around? I assume a cat will try to murder a corn snake and that any dealings with the snake would require the cats to be exiled from the room, right? Do any of you manage to enjoy both kinds of pet?
I certainly don’t want to get an animal that should be spending some time running free on the carpet and slithering around up my shirt sleeve or whatever and just locking it up in a cage all the time, but on the other hand, that suits my fish just fine; we look at it, it looks at us, and nobody feels the need to get more up close and personal. So how touchy-feely are reptiles as pets?
Or what about amphibians? I assume if you have a paludarium then the frogs or salamander or whatever is like basically having an amphibious “fish”, right?
Reptiles are about as touchy-feely as fish. Most snakes are content with an enclosure of suitable size with ample places to hide, readily available water to drink, and species-appropriate temperature and humidity. To meet their needs, you would only need to handle them when the cage needed cleaning. Many species of snakes, like the corn snake you mentioned, are quite tolerant of gentle handling on a regular basis if you want to do so. Some lizards can be skittish and need to be grasped to keep them from running off.
If your cat has access to the reptile’s cage when the snake or lizard is securely inside, the cat’s scrutiny may upset the reptile.
Most of what I have said here also applies to amphibians, but most amphibians are somewhat less tolerant of frequent handling due to the more delicate nature of their skin.
Yeah, I think Edison stressed a particularly nervous betta to death by chasing him “around and around” the tank. Isn’t it funny how a cat I’ve had since kittenhood knows that thing in the clear box is food?
I had a caiman that squished my cats paw. He was in a foot bootie for about 2 weeks. Cats will have to find out , They got to know whats in there.
My cat right now is curious but respectful of my big turtles. He senses they can bite real good.
Bearded lizards are pretty social, and like a lot of human interaction and running around time. It is, indeed, a complicated process to keep my cats and dogs away but still separated during that time. That’s definitely not true for most other lizards, though.
I had an iguana and cats for years. I didn’t let Oscar (the iguana) roam loose around the house until he was fairly big. Being a vegetarian, he didn’t care much about the cats. They poked him a few times and got swatted by his tail and decided he (a) wasn’t edible and (b) didn’t make a very good toy. After that, they pretty much ignored each other except when Oscar and a cat both wanted to sit on my shoulder (that got unpleasant once or twice).
One of the more amusing moments in life was when we fed Oscar a big plate of steaming hot grated zucchini and didn’t latch his cage tight. I came back in a moment later to find Oscar and one of the cats happily eating side-by-side from the same plate in the cage. Who knew cats liked grated zucchini?
We have a couple of fire-bellied toads. They are small, pretty sociable (with each other anyway) and easy to keep. They do require live food, though. We feed ours crickets a couple of times a week.
Ours are both males and occasionally make little hooting noises as they wait for babes, who are, alas, never going to show up. One of them seems to be the alpha male, but they have never done any harm to each other.
They like a mixture of land and water and you can set them up in a fancy filtered tank. Ours just have a “pool” that we empty and clean out on the same days they are fed.
They don’t appreciate much handling, but they also don’t need to come out of the tank.
I don’t know about the fish part. Toads would probably try to eat any fish small enough to stuff in their mouths.
My ex-housemate had a snake for a pet (besides the 3 dogs and 2 cats the house had), and I have another friend that has two snakes (and 2 dogs). Both of them (and I when I was pet sitting) handled the snakes about half an hour per day and made sure their enclosure was OK (not too dirty, clean water). My housemate took care of cleaning her cage, of course, so I don’t know much about that. The snakes were fed about once a week, dead pinkies thawed and cut in half.
The snake cage in the house was placed up high, and the cats, while they could look at it, were not able to “play” with the snake inside. The dogs I’m sure would’ve been more interesting in “playing”, but thankfully they were easy to kept entertained and away from the snake while it was being handled (or petted).
The major health problems with many reptiles and amphibians are husbandry related, due to their environmental and nutritional needs. As long as those two things are in the appropiate range for their species, health problems are less frequent (but can still occur, of course).
That is a very important point. Metabolic bone disease in iguanas is very common, and usually poorly responsive to treatment.
Also, if young children (five and under) are going to be exposed to the animal, avoid iguanas in particular due to their propensity to shed Salmonella. While Salmonellosis might make you wish you were dead, in young children it has caused fatalities.
I’ve often wondered about people who keep snakes. I’ve seen them kept in relative small enclosures (no chance to straighten out fully or get up to a fast slither). Don’t snakes like to move? to me, as a mammal owner, it seems as mean as veal.
I’ve always had enclosures big enough for my snakes to move around. In nature, snakes rarely stretch out to their full length, so it’s not a huge deal, but I always liked them to have some room. With my iguana and my smaller snakes, I would let them swim around in the bathtub every now and then for exercise and a good soak.
I have to say that this phrase will stick with me for quite a while.
I used to have a cat who hunted snakes and lizards. I never tried to keep snakes and lizards, but she’d hunt them anyway, and I frequently came home to find her on the front porch, intently watching a lizard tail squirming frantically. If your cats have any hunting instinct at all, I wouldn’t try to keep reptiles and/or snakes around them, unless the coldblooded critters were safely under lock and key.
We have a corn snake and three cats in our house. Two of the cats are not at all interested, and the other has been trained thoroughly that going near the cage is punishable by death or water.
It’s my roommate’s snake and she does take her out frequently to play, which consists of the snake slithering over her hands and shoulders. She keeps her hands moving so that the snake effectively has a treadmill to move along. She also takes the snake for a walk around the house to satisfy its curiosity with the different environments. It’s at these times that the one cat interested in the snake will stare fixedly at it and follow her around the house, but again she’s been trained to the point where she doesn’t dare go after the snake.
(It’s a pretty cuddly snake, too. It was initially afraid of my roommate, but as it’s grown it learned to trust her, and it’s surprisingly expressive and friendly when it wants to be.)
In the end, I suppose it depends on your cats’ temperaments. It certainly can be done, but if your cats will stop at nothing to go after it, it may be a doomed experiment. A heavy cage with a weighted-down lid helps, as they won’t be able to knock the lid off or move the cage.
Well, while they’re certainly VERY INTERESTED in the fish they’ve never learned how to open the aquarium top. On the other hand, they’ve opened and dumped out (and eaten most of) several plastic cans of fish food. Jesus, does that smell gross when you vacuum it.
Most snakes are content with an enclosure of suitable size with ample places to hide, readily available water to drink, and species-appropriate temperature and humidity. To meet their needs, you would only need to handle them when the cage needed cleaning. Many species of snakes, like the corn snake you mentioned, are quite tolerant of gentle handling on a regular basis if you want to do so. Some lizards can be skittish and need to be grasped to keep them from running off.