What exotic pet makes you go, '--huh??'

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I vote for the sugar glider. Why would anybody want one of these?
http://www.isga.org/
http://www.zoo.utas.edu.au/sugarglider.html
And the pathetic story of Gizmo, who died anyway.
http://www.primenet.com/~val/sugargliders.html

I mean, I’m sorry, but I just don’t get it. Why keep an exotic animal for a pet when there is evidently very little information available on its care and feeding, so that it comes down with weird nutritional deficiencies, and when there are no vets who know how to deal with its illnesses?

Whatever happened to just plain cats and dogs and parakeets and maybe a hamster or two?

#2

Brrrrrr! What the hell are those things? They look like Alien Chipmunks.

I agree with the dog/cat/fish/bird sentiments. If I have to find a specialized vet to care for it, I don’t want it as a pet.

#3

I’ve had a couple of friends who have owned sugar gliders, and they are very cool pets. With the proper research, keeping them heathy and happy is not very difficult. They bond closely with their owner, if brought up correctly, and are generally good with children. I wouldn’t get one, but I’m a dog person.

The pets that make me wonder are spiders. Now, I’ve never owned a spider, but they don’t look like a great pet to me. I know they do great things for pest control, but how does someone love a spider? Do you rub its stomach to show affection? How do you scratch behind it’s ears? Where are it’s ears? Like I said before, I’m a dog person.

#4

I vote for Halvsie, the Two-Legged Dog.

#5

My wife said that if she went to the effort of starting up a salt-water fish tank, she’d want to get a lionfish, which, in addition to being beautiful, just happens to be painfully (but not lethally) poisonous…

umm… no.

#6

Scorpions and hissing cockroaches. I worked at a petstore that sold both. YUCK! At least the Sugar Gliders are a little cute. Also those hairless Guinea Pigs (Skinny Pigs) that squeal and twitch when you touch their bare skin. Ewwww

#7

Yeah, i have seen hairless rats and wondered. I don’t get it because they were cuter with fur, so why breed them to be naked? Plus hairless rats are more susceptible to rashes and drafts. That was a dumb creation.

Sugar gliders are really cute. I wouldn’t go for one though, because they are probably expensive and as you said, there are vet problems.

There are a lot of reasons why people might opt for a non-dog/cat/bird/hamster.

I love William, my millipede (he’s really big- 8 inches). He is really gentle and I am busy a lot so I can still have a millipede for a pet because they require so little care. You never have to clean the cage, and they aren’t noisy or smelly and feeding them is no big deal- any leftover veggies are fine.

And he’s cool-looking. Fish are easy to care for and cool-looking, but you can’t pick them up and play with them.
William doesn’t really jump through hoops or anything, but he was only nine bucks and he has a million tickly little legs and it feels so neat when he walks up your arm. He looks almost like a toy and not a real animal. And he never bites.

My hissing cockroach is not as much fun as William, but I keep him in there so William can have company.

And then there is my rat, Turpentine- anyone who has ever owned a rat would understand the appeal here. Rats are the sweetest animals in the world. Much nicer than a dumb ol’ cat that thinks it’s cool to be aloof.

#8

Snakes. Icky Icky ICKY!!!

Guin ducks under the desk, hiding from any possible serpents…

#9

Wallabies.

A friend of mine had a male one. Apparently, when the male reaches maturity, he has to have one or two female companions to screw on a constant basis or he gets surly. ( just like human males, too.)

My friend, who probably didn’t do his research in the first place about this animal, immediately returned it to the dealer/breeder.

I was like, " What would be the point to get one in the first place. It’s not like it will chase a ball or sit on your lap for a pet."

I will say, though, it was cool to watch the wallaby hop up the fifteen flights of stairs at my friends house in two bounces. And it cornered on a dime. After about ten minutes, the thrill wore off.
He also had a boa constrictor for years. The thing just laid in its cage day after day for over ten years. I use to take it out and hold it every now and then because I felt sorry for it. My friend, a guy, would always say, " Shirley, I love it when you hold my snake."
this same friend has also had chincillas, hedgehogs and ferrets. All totally useless as pets.

#10

Spiders and snakes, but mostly those pot-bellied pigs! At least spiders and snakes are kept in a tank or something. Pigs have the run of the house. People, they’re PIGS!

I look at http://www.petoftheday.com now and again, and I just don’t see how people can become so attached to birds and reptiles and other animals that you can’t cuddle. Do rabbits and guinea pigs have a personality? Rats and ferrets…yeah, tell me again how safe they are. Horses, I could see getting attached to, though if they’re too big to come in the house they’re not really a pet, are they?

Eh. Gimme a dog or a cat any day. Nuff said.

#11

Same here, nowalls; I just can’t fathom the attraction of spiders. They are magnificent creatures who serve a valuable function in the Great Chain of Life and I’d rather stab myself in the eye w/ a Ginsu knife than get near one of them. Hey, even the “harmless” ones are toxic–besides being nightmares walking on 8 legs.

I like snakes, but can’t understand people who keep poisonous varieties as “pets”. Snakes truly are responsive animals, and very clean, but why risk keeping a poisonous variety?

Mostly I abhor people keeping exotic pets because it’s so damned unfair to the critters. Some may be adorable and/or interesting, but that doesn’t mean they’ll thrive as domesticated pets.
Veb

#12

Thank you, Duck Duck Goose, now I want a sugar glider! My cat would just love that… we’ve just gotten over the adjustment issues surrounding the ferret…

I get the shivers when confronted with (or by!) spiders and large cockroaches, so owning one as a pet really isn’t something I’d be into. Like Veb, I acknowledge the usefulness of spiders, but I’d like to keep some distance between them and me, lest we have another large furry spider dropping off the ceiling and onto my arm while I’m showering incident <<SHUDDER>>.

#13

African fainting pygmy goats. Seriously.

#14

Dammit, I was gonna say wallabies! At an exotic animal show recently they had bearcats, which were kinda cute, but, why?, and (shivers) giant centipedes. Those suckers were a good foot long and as thick as finger. EEEWWWW!

#15

Bearcats? Ugh! They always look like dirty shag carpets to me. I’ve never yet seen a well-groomed binturong.

#16

Fainting goats?

My first instinct was that my leg is being pulled.
http://www.webworksltd.com/webpub/Goats/FaintingGoat.html
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/wicomico/meatgoat.htm

Can’t argue with Clemson. http://goats.clemson.edu/NC%20Handbook/breeding.htm

Evidently they aren’t “African”, just “fainting”, sometimes “Tennessee Fainting”. There is such a thing as “African pygmy goats”, but as far as I can tell, they aren’t necessarily “fainting”.

Whatever they are–sheesh. :rolleyes:

#17

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ervettech

I should have looked at this thread first–when I read Michi’s journal, I didn’t know what a “sugar glider” was.

[sub]Weird looking things. Kinda cute, I suppose, but I still prefer dogs and cats.[/sub]

#18

I had a savannah monitor once. Made a neat pet. He looked like a tiny komodo dragon, it was fun to watch him chase mice and crickets, he was very affectionate (OK, I know he really just enjoyed my body heat, but still…), and he was easy to take care of. I read that they can be problem pets, difficult to feed, required live-food only, but mine had no problem with canned cat food, and his stink was alleviated by the fact that he always shat in his water bowl, which made clean-up easy. When I got him he was 11 3/4" and when I sold him a year later he was 25 1/2". I wonder how big he is now…

I never understood people who got weird pets that you couldn’t really interact with. This includes people who bought reptiles but never took them out of their cage.

#19

Actually a friend of mine (who I am trying to talk into joining the boards) has one and he is cooool as hell. He has tiny little hands and two huge eyes.
Ya gotta like those eyes.

#20

I had a snapping turtle for around 7 years. Found him when he was about the size of a silver dollar, probably just recently hatched. Kept him in larger & larger terrariums and finally a kiddie pool in the back yard. Then one day a really heavy rain caused the pool to overflow and he got out and ran away. :frowning: He was never ‘cuddly’ and got more aggressive as he got larger. I’m probably lucky I can still count to 10 on my fingers!