One really neat thing about rats is that they can easily be trained to wear a harness and walk on a leash. I used to take my favorite rat, Honey, out for a walk in the neighborhood nearly every day. Honey just loved it. She frolicked and scampered, and her little whiskers quivered joyfully. She was obviously having a wonderful time sniffing everything and scurrying through the grass.
I suppose some of the neighbors probably looked out the window and muttered “There goes that crazy old lady walking her rat again,” but I cared more about entertaining the rat than about impressing the neighbors.
As a seven-year breeder of Campbell’s Dwarf Russian hamsters, I take exception to this slander.
The common-or-garden Campbell’s (browny-grey with a black stripe down their spine) are hardy and very tractable, especially those raised at home. (I’d steer clear of the silver or white versions, as you never know how much damage the genetic engineering has done.) They’re also very small, weighing around 1 oz.
They live on average 2.5 years and 95% of them become very tame if handled a lot from birth.* (Yes, you can handle them even as newborns; pay no attention to the books and websites that say the mother will reject them. She’s always pleased to have them off her hands for a while.) We’ve got a litter of six at the moment (12 days old today, sort of like their Barmitzvah, as it’s the day they open their eyes and take their exploration of the world to new levels).
They are as active as you let them be - something as simple as a kitchen towel roll will bring them endless hours of amusement, providing a tunnel for games of hide-and-seek as well as a place to sleep and a place to chew. As for the wheel, there’s no better sight than to see them spinning side by side, or tag-teaming it, bumping one another off this most prized of all accessories. And if the wheel makes a noise, stick a pencil in the spokes or disable it. They get over the disappointment quickly, and are even more frenzied when you put it back in working order.
With the 5% who don’t, it’s usually because they were abused as kids (this is rare though, and usually the result of letting them get too close to adults who are not their ma and pa).
Bearded dragons are great, but you do need to at least scoop the poop out every day and change the water in the water dish and feed lots and lots of crickets and salad. Also, they require a bit of room–you can keep a baby in a 15-gal aquarium, but they grow quickly, and the larger enclosures are not cheap at all…much more expensive than the original animal. Ours is currently in a 2’h x 2’d x 4’l enclosure which we had to order off the internet…you can find large aquariums in pet stores, but they are even more expensive because they have to be strong enough to hold water. Pet stores generally don’t cater much to reptile owners, even if they sell reptiles.
But cute and cuddly? Absolutely! Fuzzy? Well, no…but those spikes are actually soft, not that he wants you to know that! You can take him out and stroke him and he’ll cling to your shirt or crawl on your shoulder, but if you don’t have time to do that everyday, he doesn’t mind…just as long as you put food and water in there, he’s set.
My husband tried to keep a ball python in college, but they kept dying on him. Maybe it was a bad pet store, maybe it was his inexperience…but I’ve heard that if you want a snake, a corn snake is good for beginners.
I’ve been looking to get an elliptical myself. I do fairly well on the one at the gym, but I’d really like to have one at home so I could do 20 minutes first thing in the morning and get my day started off right. I’ve been looking around and while Sears seems to have some decent machines it looks like you’re limiting yourself by trying to find one under $400. Perhaps you could could finance it?
Reptiles are a no-go. I’m sure they’re lovely creatures and I have no general issues with them, but I like my pets furry and warm.
As for the exercise machine, I did look at Sears, both in-store and online, and was unimpressed with their selection for the prices. I’m considering this ebay deal but I’m a little wary as I’ve never bought something like this on ebay before. If anyone could give me any advice in that direction I’d be grateful.
