This isn’t that exotic I guess but I had a customer at the restaurant that would smuggle in his pet rat (I worked the graveyard so usually nobody was around). Its name was Gizmo and it would sit on his shoulder under his sweater and he would feed it French toast. Sweetest little thing.
A caiman. Vicious little git
Oh caiman
saw someone with a big ass snake.
Also, I owned a hedgehog once, dude had some serious trauma from his 5 previous owners. Yeah, 5.
He was always angry, but I still played with him anyways trying to get him to warm up to people. Never did, but he did like exploring all the books and crannies of the room. Wish I could’ve had him before all his previous owners :(They need to regulate ownership better if he went through five bad owners, like was the person managing those transactions Dr. Eggman?
Half dog, half wolf hybrid. That thing made a Great Dane look small. I mean, his head was slightly lower than mine at 5’8”. I could’ve easily ridden him. Beautiful animal. Wish I had a picture.
My aunt worked as a zoo vet, and was one of the people animal control would call if they found an exotic animal and didn’t know what to do with it. As a result I grew up being able to casually play with several different species of monkeys, as well as an asshole African grey parrot. When I was in high school she even fostered a serval cat for a short time till they could find a more permanent facility.
Oh no, what did the parrot do?
Cheated at cards.
My kids’ elementary biology teacher had a zoo in his classroom, all these snakes and lizards and spiders, all sorts of animals, so in the Christmas break he had to farm them out. We got the tarantula once, and once a boa.
Also twice raised abandoned baby squirrels we saw kids walking around with. Like my ex just said “dude, you know how to take care of that?” And the kid shook their head no. Yes, twice. One was Earl, one was Pearl. They were sweet, and very sharp.
One of my kids’ swim coaches had a friend with a pet crow, too. A sailor with a pet crow; in fact a creepy sailor with a pet crow
I am sure you can guess what state I live in.
Have known as couple dudes who had coyote cross bread canines. Or at least that’s what they said. Only really knew one of these dogs and its behavior never gave me any reason not to believe it wasn’t half coyote.
The dog stayed outside all year round including the winter. Not the by choice of owner but was where the dog prefered to be. It hated the indoors and would get too hot inside with its winter coat and fat. Roamed hundreds of acres of farm land and forest. Killed more Coons and rabbits than any other animals with aren’t the easiest animals to pin down.
Knew another dude when we were highschool aged who caught an orphaned white tail fawn. Raised it like a cow and it lived like 3 years. Spent its whole life, including the 2 years it was a mature adult doe, just chillan and ranging around my buddy’s property. Anyone reading this should know tho, don’t fucking adopt abandoned fawns. If you find one, contact your local DEC office and let them handle it.
Met a couple with a pet raccoon, on a leash and everything. I asked them how it was, since my wife had fantasized about a pet raccoon. They described it as a “little mischief goblin”.
We had one get into our trash once. I guess we had thrown out some yogurt that was starting to go bad and this little fucker got yogurty little foot prints all over our front porch. It almost looked intentional how many there were and how spread out it got them. Thankfully we just let our dogs out and they pretty much licked the porch clean lol.
Yuuup. Cute little destructive whirlwinds that can open things. I’ve known a few, “little mischief goblin” is apt.
I live in California. Pretty much all the cool pets are illegal here.
That being said I knew a guy who had a raccoon and several ferrets. Their house smelled awful but once you were there for awhile you kinda stopped smelling it and the raccoon and ferrets were adorable together.
I had a ferret in my 20s. Little dude bathed at least once a week and still smelled. Was (almost) litter trained and could bend in half, spastically hopping around like a little smelly crackhead
Yeah they stink no matter what. You can get their stinky gland removed but I’m still not sure if that’s good for them or not. Idk. I’m not a veterinarian and they are super illegal here so it’s not really something I am concerned about at this present moment haha.
Heard about the gland thing, and definitely not into it, but he had just an overall musky smell. Not like he sprayed or anything. We went to beach a lot and he’d hang out under umbrella shade and flirt with the girls.
Yeah the smell is strong and odd but it’s not outright bad. Just a bit weird until you get used it.
I once had a friend that had a defanged tarantula. It was an asshole. He had several spiders, actually, and they were all not very friendly creatures.
Some things should not be pets
Rule of thumb in my opinion, if you have to perform body modification on an animal, it doesn’t sound like it was ever worth keeping. Clipping bird wings, deforming monkey thumbs, declawing cats, etc. make me cringe bad.
Why the fuck would anyone declaw a cat??? Or the thing with a monkey?
But I don’t entirely agree with you - with some pets you need to cut their balls.
People sadly do all those things. People declaw cats because cat claws can get sharp enough to get into fabric, and the people who declaw their cats either don’t realize cat claws are a part of their fingers or don’t care. People dethumb monkeys because it hinders their ability to weaponize their surroundings, again because all they seem to care about is showing off their pet.
Personally, I would caution against pet castration/neutering/spaying even though it’s not up there with the other things. When it comes to this, you’re just trading some problems for other problems, and it still says a bit about the act of owning them.
I would caution against pet castration/neutering/spaying even though it’s not up there with the other things. When it comes to this, you’re just trading some problems for other problems, and it still says a bit about the act of owning them.
Castration is pretty much a necessity for some pets. Unless you want your house to stink like a crossover between a zoo and a public toilet.
I mean when it’s unnecessary. In many pets it is necessary, but many people do it just because it’s the norm.
When it comes to odor though? I’d cope.
Wtf … wy would you defang tarantulas ⁉️⁉️⁉️
Because they’re venomous.
The thing still bit him from time to time, though. But without the poison.
Yeah rip my fangs out id be an asshole as well
I knew someone who dealt in exotic animals and they came to work with a baby caiman alligator in a Tupperware because they were selling it after work
Was it well behaved?
I’m friends with one guy who’s got an axolotl and another who’s got one of those African grey parrots. Both really cool animals. Also knew a kid back in school that had a pet squirrel.
I’ve seen someone walking a pig in the forest. Yes, a large pink hairless pig. It was almost like walking a dog, but this animal was quite a bit larger than most dogs.
Pigs can ear humans if they get hungry enough
One of my neighbors has a pig that’s so beloved by the local community he has shirts. I have one. They have an African grey parrot too.
Maybe a truffle hunter?
That would make sense.
Once I saw a documentary about truffle hunting, and dogs were much better in this regard. Pigs tend to eat everything they find, whereas dogs will obediently restrain themselves and only point to the truffle instead of eating it.
I currently have a Tegu 4ft long and sorta harness trained so im that someone for the neighbors im sure 😅
I worked with some who lived in South Africa who nursed a couple wild finches back to health. The finches got better but never flew away, and lived in the house. They’d sit on her shoulders during zoom meetings.