Strange or unusual pets

In My Humble Opinion
1

Spin-off from the pet rat thread in MPSIMS. What unusual pets would you love to have, but can’t? Or what do you have that’s considered unusual?

I am dying for a rat. I love rats - everyone in my family thinks that I’m odd, but I think they are the most adorable things in the world, aside from my kitties. Unfortunately, due to aforementioned kitties and an SO who would more than likely say no, a rat is probably not in my future.

I also want a giant snake. Preferably a boa constrictor - I developed a fetish for them last New Year’s Eve when a guy had his pet boa, Lexie, at a drag bar where we celebrated. I held her, she gave me kisses, and man, I fell in love that evening. I am aware that I don’t have the means or the patience to train a snake the way that they should be trained properly and I’m gone too much to give them the proper attention, so I know better than to even start researching it (and that’s not including what I’m sure are the pet regulations around here).

Neither SO nor I want a dog. I like them, he doesn’t, but I also don’t like the work that comes along with a dog, so I’ll never get one. But I would love to be the crazy mom in the neighborhood who lets her kids have rats, cats, snakes, and hedgehogs (there’s a pet store around here that sells hedgehogs and it takes all I have not to go in and look at it to see about taking it home).

If anyone’s owned a rat and a cat (or two cats) together, how did it work out? I wouldn’t want to put either animal in danger, but I would be willing to work with both animals to ease a transition if it’s possible to keep both.

And do you have any strange or unusual pets or have any that you want to get?

Ava

2

I have chinchillas - those rodents they make fabulously expensive fur coats out of. They are utterly useless, but cute. If they ever become un-cute, I can always make them into earmuffs. :wink:

3

I had pet squirrels. They were Corean squirrels (translation from the French), those poor things were not made to be in a cage… They were sick (great choice on the “quiet” ones Mom!) and died pretty fast…
I had a rat, she was awesome, had a great time. She is now gone and I would love to have another one but hubby is not cooperating.
My friend has a hedgehog named Emma , she is cute but doesn’t trust/like humans. Although my friend told me it was her fault not to have picked her up and handled her more often as a baby.
My one comment on the hedgehog… very, very, VERY messy… You would not believe the amount of poop such a small animal can produce…

4

At one point, I did have a few rats in the house along with a cat. I am usually super-careful about mixing pets, but in this case, the cat was:

a. kind of sullen and xenophobic. She spent most of her time hiding in the closet or under stuff, so I didn’t really worry about her getting very curious about the ratsies.

b. scared of EVERYTHING. If it moved, she wasn’t going near it.

So I figured I was ok to get a rat. I kept him in a tightly closed tank in my room when I was out of the house - with the door closed and locked for extra measure. I let him run around when I was in the room. One thing I learned is that rats can and will squeeze through the tiniest holes imaginable. This one managed to go underneath my bedroom door. Fortunately, I saw this, and blocked the bottom of the door completely from then on.

Soon I noticed that the rat was getting restless, so I got him a companion. They were both males, something I was worried about - I figured I would put them together, and if it didn’t work out, I’d just have to bring the new guy back to the store. Luckily, they were pretty good with each other. Oh, and this required a larger place for them, so I got them a lovely three story cage.

The cat never cared much about the rats. After a while, I even experimented with letting her sniff them. The cat got spooked and ran away. The rats were actually more curious about her than she was about them. They used to scratch on the door whenever she passed by.

I’ve also had button quails. They’re ADORABLE. They look like quails but they’re the size of sparrows. They’re also pretty low-maintenance. Only downside is you need to have a pretty wide tank. Here’s a link: http://www.cyberquail.com/index.html

5

Oh, yeah I would.

I have a ferret, you see. I’m pretty sure that she’s just one long skin filled with poop. Awful cute, though.

6

I had my rats live in my parents’ house with our cat for a few weeks. He completely ignored them. I think that in the wild rats are pretty bad-ass and other critters try to ignore them, including most sensible cats. Try it, just get an un-escapable cage!

7

i had a Siamese cat and a white rat i rescued from the Biology lab tarantula cage at college. (i hate spiders. i felt sorry for the baby rat.)

Ben (the rat) got one of those little Habitrail™ cages, with the little penthouse platform attachment. he was pretty cool. cat didn’t seem to care much one way or another.

i even got Ben one of those hamster-type exercise balls – hollow plexiglass ball with opening. you put small rodent inside, close the opening, and let 'em go. it was one way to let him get more exercise. however, it’s a VERY GOOD IDEA to make sure you block off access to any stairs before letting them go. i thought for sure he must have killed himself the first time he went plonking down the steps. :eek: fortunately, he survived in good order. i think i did need to do a good cleaning of the exercise ball interior afterward, though.
:smack:

i finally gave Ben away when his nocturnal nature started interferring with my sleep. (his cage was in my bedroom, and he started rattling the metal cover of the penthouse section in the middle of the night. it was like trying to sleep through someone banging on a metal pail next to your bed.) :frowning:

8

I was the kid whose Mom let her have all sorts of pets. The parade through our house growing up included rats, mice, hamsters, cats, dogs, birds (wild and parakeets). We had chickens for quite a few years (in town, mind you), and one became so tame that you’d have to physically remove her if you were trying to dig with a shovel.

Mom never let us have large livestock though! I’ve become my mom, but the more rural version. Just last night, my five year old won a baby goat at the barnyard scramble at the county fair, and we’re keeping it! It’s still on the bottle, but I figure I can get some lawn mowed before we have to take it out to where we keep the horses and cattle. My kids are so excited about raising it!

9

Oh, will you be my mom??? I would love a goat, too! Good for your kids - they will have so much fun! I want livestock. A farm. Horses. Cows. Just pets, though (well, I’d want to train and ride the horses). I’m much more of a strange-animal person than my SO, though, so none of this is gonna happen. I still linger on the farms with pony pastures in the home catalogs around here, though…I keep thinking how nice it would be…

Amanda

10

I’ve had more pets than I can remember. As a kid I always had the classic cat and dog, plus small snakes, lizards, turtles–even had a baby alligator for a while before it bit my pops and he made me give it away. :frowning: I’ve kept rats (very clever, and fun to watch), mice (less clever, but more fun to snuggle), birds (never, never again), fish of all kinds, frogs, and hamsters. I had a burmese python for the longest time, but when my son was born I felt obligated to find her a new home because of the danger of salmonella. She was 11 feet long by then, and one of the sweetest pets I’ve ever had. And so beautiful! Like living breathing coiled copper.

If I could get an “unusual” pet now, I’d really like a sugar glider. They are incredibly cute, and will hang out right in your pocket like a little furry mascot. Unfortunately, they’re pretty hard to keep alive, prohibitively expensive, and require more time than I have to devote to myself, let alone a pet. So I guess I’ll just have to be happy with my cat and dog and let it go at that.

11

They are also nocturnal. I know someone who has 2 of them and she never sees them. She gets up at 4am, and they are just going to bed at that time. The males have a musk gland on their heads and they make a noise I can only describe as electric pencil sharpener. Oh yeah, and whatever they land on, say for instance… your face, they hook their little razor sharp claws into. Cute little critters, but none for me thanks. :slight_smile:

12

Ugh. Now I can’t stop looking at the cuties. I want quails!

13

A friend of mine has a dead scorpion. He says it’s easy to clean up after, cheap to feed, and low risk for an accidental sting.

14

My daughter had a water snail called Mr Booby, but it did not live long.

15

Would love to have a fennec fox 'cause they’re so cute. I fell in love with one when I saw the Discovery Channel documentary about a fennec fox and it’s wild cat neighbor. A kinkajou is also another unusual pet that has caught my eye. They’re sometimes mistaken for being a monkey because of their prehensile tails and they look like lemurs, but they’re actually related to the raccoon. They’re both just soooo adorable.

16

The wife raises miniature sheep and wallabies for pets, among other strange things. She just put up new pictures on her website, which is the little “www” button below this post. Check em out, they are kinda cute.

The wallabies are too cool. They have these gnarly, huge claws that look like they can rip you apart, but are kinda well-mannered for the most part and fun to watch. She bottlefeeds the joeys to tame them and they make real nice pets when tame. Kinda like a rabbit or something, I guess. Hell, what do I know? I spend my time in the garage, drinking beer and tinkering with cars and motorcycles. They don’t eat or poop.

Fagjunk Theology: Not just for sodomite propagandists anymore.

17

Oh great. Now I want a mini sheep. :o

18

avabeth you just come around here, and I’ll let you play with any of them! I completely understand, as a kid I always thought it was very unfair that we couldn’t have any large animals (didn’t know how good I had it!), so I’ve been moving myself more and more rural since I left. It won’t be too long before I’m living with my SO and the horses and cattle and all the critters I want.

Looking back at the OP, I guess my childhood pets weren’t all that exotic, but there were so many of them! And in town too! Thanks mom!

19

From my experiences owning a hedgehog, the first part is true. If you don’t handle a young hedgehog, they become unfriendly. But an acclimated hedgehog can be a lot of fun. In my experience, the second part depends on what you feed your hedgie and how much exercise you let him/her have. My hedgie had a wheel and managed to pee in the wheel every time she went for a run (every night, 4-6 hours of running). The poop was far less prevelant. With some clever wheel design, I could easily clean up after her.

If you get a hedgehog, get a young one and make sure you hold and handle him/her for at least a few minutes a couple of times every day. That’ll make the hedgie much less likely to ball up on you.

20

Do Leaf-Tailed Geckos count? These aren’t my photos, but I had these guys, among others.

Oddly enough, you’re in one of the few states in which I don’t know of a local herpetological society. Normally, that would be where I’d point you for info on local laws, regarding the keeping of herps (reptiles and amphibians). I don’t know the laws in Virginia. But, if they sell them in pet shops, there, they’re probably legal.

But, as far as the boa you met in the bar, she A) shouldn’t have been there (it’s not healthy for her), and B) wasn’t trained, per se. Most boa constictors are pretty calm critters to begin with, though there are exceptions. Add to that the presumably lower than ideal temperature (that’s a guess; if it’s comfortable for people, it’s too cool for boas), and you’ve got a pretty lethargic snake on your hands. One who is likely to make a good impression, and one who is also at risk for a respiratory infection.

Boas are very cool (no pun intended, for a change), very beautiful creatures. And, they make great pets, for those who are large enough (they are one of the “giant” snakes), and willing to care for them properly. But, people who buy them for the attention they attract in public should get a facial piercing or a tattoo or run around naked or something. And, not mistreat a nice animal, which is what taking her out into rapidly changing climates amounts to. They’re tropical; they don’t handle rapid, or drastic, temperature changes well.

But, boas don’t actually take much, nor are they capable of much, training. Handle them on a regular basis, while they’re young, so they get used to your touch and smell. It’s also a good idea to get them used to eating in a separate container, not in their cage. That way, they don’t associate hands coming into the cage with food, and you reduce the risk of being bitten by mistake. That’s it, you’re done training your snake.

They’re also ideal for people who don’t have much time to spend with their pets. As adults, they only need to eat every other week, at most. And, they usually only defecate once or twice in that two weeks. So, the occasional cleaning and fresh water, preferably daily, are all they need.

Sorry for the long-winded response. If you’re really interested, feel free to email me, and I can give you more details. I used to breed them, and I’m always happy to talk snake. :slight_smile: