Well if you want a pet to keep inside how about a tapeworm
I have a chinchilla. Although his food and care is a little more expensive than a guinea pig, he has basically no smell whatsoever, and he’s a very clean animal who bathes in dust. He’s also very affectionate with me, and willing to ride around in my arms or on my shoulder (although I have to be careful sometimes, as chinchillas like to jump and have little common sense about distance.) Like any rodent, you have to be careful and only let him run around under careful watch or put him in a room without anything dangerous, and he won’t be happy if you keep in him in the cage alone all the time. Even when I first got him and he was scared, he never bit me or urinated on me–although I’ve heard from other chinchilla owners that that’s a problem if you get a neurotic one. And his fur is the softest thing ever. 
But like I said, more expensive than other pets, and even though he doesn’t smell he has almost no control over his (scentless and pellet-like) bowel movements. So wherever he goes, I need to follow with a vaccuum later to clean. He’s not a perfect pet, but he’s a kind of interesting alternative to a guinea pig.
What kind of amazon do you have? I have a red-lored, and he’s a hoot. Short on words, but big on personality. He, too, loves talk shows or talk radio (laughs with them, of course). Must be a parrot thing
Uhhh… I guess that was sort of a hijack. Sorry 'bout that.
>hijack< THEIOS, Is that the Harpers Ferry where there was a bit of a scrap some years back?
I’ll second the recommendation for a guinea pig. Very little smell unless you get your face too close to one of the places they like to pee. They vocalize a fair bit, especially once they hear the voice of The Source Of Food. They aren’t as cuddly as a cat, of course, but mine does put up with being held. Their mess is reasonably well contained.
They do need a somewhat larger cage than you can buy commercially. You can make them economically, or use something like a child’s wading pool.
And they live a decent length of time compared with, say, a hamster.
Cats are the best, and having to take medication to alleviate your allergies is but a small price to pay for the companionship.
I prefer herps and fish, but then again I don’t have time to devote to handling them constantly, I leave them alone aside from feeding and cleaning, and they leave me alone for attention but they do get it, just on my terms. I love my Bearded Dragon to death, he eats a some crickets and a bag of salad mix a week. If you have the cash to buy one, I can recommend a few breeders who ship them weaned off of crickets and onto pellets, which are way, way more convenient.
For you, without knowing you better, I think Id go with a Ferret. Honestly, you’ll have to Ferret proof your house, wich isn’t a huge deal, but as long as you keep their litterbox clean, they don’t smell awful. I recommend Nature’s Miracle for that. Umm make sure you get one that’s descented, although most of them are sold that way now, especially from Marshall. I never cared for the little things until I started working with them, and then I figured out that they’re alot like kittens that stay kittens.
Aside from that, I’d go for a Guinea Pig over rats any day of the week. They both bite, but I have way more rat bites than Guinea Pig Bites, and the rats bite harder.
If any of these sound interesting, I can give you a rundown on what is needed to keep them happy. The petstores really don’t know what their ralking about alot of times. We have caresheets to hand out, but whenever I sell a reptile (the area I manage) the Sharpie marker and Bic come out.
A bit of a scrap? As in ‘Tom Brown’s Raid’, pre-Civil War scrap? If that’s what you’re thinking of, then yes. It’s that Harpers Ferry. I don’t know of anything more recent. It’s pretty quiet around here, unless you count the Civil War re-enactments.
Sugar gliders
If you get a rat from a breeder, instead of a pet store, you’ll get a well tempered rat. The breeder I go won’t knowingly let you adopt a mean rat, and she definiatly won’t use them for breeding. That’s not a trait they want passed down. Lord knows where a pet store gets their rats, or how they were bred.
I’ve owned four rats, and only one of them was nippy. Not outright biting, just nippy. Normally, it was food confusion. They don’t see well, so they tend to grab for what they think is food. Sometimes it was me. My other three were just more careful. The nippy one has become more careful now that he’s an only rat. I guess he was just trying to out compete his brothers before.
Honestly, they little guys are sweater than hamsters or gerbils. I don’t know how they compare to the larger rodents, like rabbits or guinea pigs. The meanest thing mine ever did was plot how they could steal treats from their brothers.
BUNNIES!!!
I have two bunnies, a girl and a boy (yes, they’re fixed). They’re cute as you can want, they can be litter box trained, you can let them out to run if you want…
They’re the best pet I’ve ever had. I love it when I let them run around on the carpet. They’ll just sit there looking like a little cotton ball. All of a sudden, one will leap straight in the air, do a half turn, land and start running. They get up a lot of speed. They dart around the whole room like maniacs. Suddenly, they’ll stop, right where they started. Back to looking like a cute little cotton ball.
They’re expensive to fix and you really need to. An unfixed bunny will almost certainly die of cancer. But, if you get one from a shelter, they’ll already be fixed for you.
If you want to know more, go to www.rabbit.org. It’s the house rabbit society website. It’ll tell you anything you want to know.
Good Luck!
From personal experience, males tend to have more odor than females. Even if they’ve been de-scented.
Well, you should get a bunny of course.
They are the best pet. Particularly the white ones.
And if you clean the pan regularly, they’re not particularly smelly either.
Well my bunnies & alot of other people’s bunnies eat electical cords, computer cords, answering machine cords =$$$$.
Just get a stuffed pet.
[QUOTE]
*Originaly posted by lurksfromwork[/]
Or a Sumatran Tiger and an alligator
[QUOTE]
Some guy did in New York this past summer. He went to a hospital claiming he had been bitten by a dog. While hospitalized, it was discovered he had a tiger and an alligator in his apartment. The bites were from the lion, not a dog. There is some more info here.
Get a pet rock.
Racer72: here comes the irony train… and there it went <whoosh>
Yes, I know that.
Meet my friend, Mr. Sarcasm. 
Someone, tell me more about ferretts!
My father owned a monkey he said and I quote
I am VERY VERY allergic to long haired cats. TO the point where It gets hard to breathe and I break out in ugly red welts when I stay around them.
The three short haired ones I’ve owned never gave me any serious problems. After about a week living with a cat I didn’t even notice. So don’t rule cats out, go to a friends house you know has a short haired cat and stay for a few hours. If you are OK with that, or have a mild reaction a few OTC remidies should have you getting through the adjustment period with no problem.
Now the cat being evil and spitefull, there is no cure for that
:smack:
Oh and on a side note (please don’t take this the wrong way rodent lovers) but…**I HATE RATS!! **
Living in New York, I see the little plague carrying bastards running around on subway tracks and platforms (Yes I said platforms.) The size of goddamn wombats, eating trash and mugging people they get so freaking big. I’m really sorry my dog Duke is dead, cause when he was alive I knew my back yard was rat free cause he’d kill any rat he could get his paws on. One must have weighed about 10 pounds. I WISH TO GOD I WAS MAKING THIS UP! It was the size of a small dog. One time he killed another Chupacabra that was a half breed with sewer (Norwegian wharf rats) and some white lab rat. The damn thing was laying out in the back yard with it’s nasty diseased-infested jagged-yellowed fangs agape, beady reddish eyes forever staring, forever snarling, as if it wanted to sink its teeth into my jugular with its last once of strength. NASTY STUFF MAN!! BAD RATS!! MESS YOU UP!. SO I set it on fire, it was to nasty to look at. Who cares anyway, it was already dead.
So in conclusion DOWN WITH RATS!!
It’s a blue-front.