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Acquiring a Small Mammal
Manic205
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I live in an apartment with a few roommates, and I've been thinking I'd like to get a pet. Cats and dogs are out of the question, however, so I've been considering: ferret? guinea pig? rabbit?
Something cuddly that you can really interact with. I don't want a room ornament that happens to be an organism you have to take care of(fish, mice). For example, my sister once had a rabbit for a short period of time, and that rabbit was pretty darn cool. It'd mess around with the cat to everyone's amusement(except maybe the cat), and it would often climb its way up my leg and sit in my lap while I played StarCraft.
Besides being cuddly and fun, my other major concern is that it shouldn't stink up my room too much, and certainly not the rest of the apartment.
I'd be grateful for any ideas and advice.
Something cuddly that you can really interact with. I don't want a room ornament that happens to be an organism you have to take care of(fish, mice). For example, my sister once had a rabbit for a short period of time, and that rabbit was pretty darn cool. It'd mess around with the cat to everyone's amusement(except maybe the cat), and it would often climb its way up my leg and sit in my lap while I played StarCraft.
Besides being cuddly and fun, my other major concern is that it shouldn't stink up my room too much, and certainly not the rest of the apartment.
I'd be grateful for any ideas and advice.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinchilla#Chinchillas_as_pets
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Some are nice and cuddly, while others are cold and mean.
A pet that you should look into is something that is called a Sugar Glider. My friend has one, and it sleeps in his pocket as he walks around lol.
It also glides around his room all the time and is really friendly.
I think you should get that.
rats are actually pretty cool too, but they will piss and shit every where
looks like i pretty much repeated the same stuff you guys said lol
If you get a sugar glider, get a baby. They apparently bond with their owner/owners when they are babies and won't rebond to someone else when they're an adult.
I work a ~9-5 job on weekdays, and I imagine coming home, opening up the cage, doing a little upkeep, and messing around with the little guy in the evenings and weekends.
Another criterion is: how are they playful? Do they need an apparatus(hamster ball, etc) to have fun? Will a laser pointer keep their attention? The other side to this is, are they cuddly? Will it like to sit in my lap/on my shoulder/etc? Would sleeping on my bed be viable, or is that strictly a cat and dog thing?
As far as waste goes, if it's a bead of compacted hay, like a rabbit's, I'd be fine with it doody-ing on the carpet(if training is not an option, of course), as there are no tricky places for it to make a mess in my room, and I can easily clean up with a handheld vacuum.
And yeah, I think ferrets are out of the picture. A friend of mine had a couple, and while fun and adorable, they stunk up a fairly large room quite easily.
Oh, another thing to keep in mind, the pet will largely be restricted to my room, which isn't too large(around 15' by 15').
Edit: And I was thinking I'd likely get a pair, depending on the animal.
also i was looking on a site about sugar gliders (ohgodsocute) and they require quite a large cage. if you have room, and the money to spend that is cool, but otherwise it might be a bad choice
Now, it was a class guinea pig, not a personal one, but still. Little guy was awesometastic.
I'd stay away from the sugar glider, though, personally speaking. I mean, it looks awesome, but it's also small enough that you could step on the little guy or something and BAM!, dead sugar glider.
I had a few over the years. They're tough to tame. If you wake him up a few times or startle him badly, he'll never trust you again.
Domestic rat and moues breeds are very sociable animals. Rats can be liter trained to an extent, some pet stores even carry tiny litter boxes you can put in their cage.
My biggest advice with any pet, don't ask questions at the pet store. The effect is most pronounced with fish and birds, but even dogs and cats get it to some extent: The stores are almost universally just trying to make a sale, with little regard for you or your pets. They may be uninformed and dishing out manager-approved answers, or they may be knowingly trying to foist off an otherwise unsellable pangasius catfish that will be four feet long and hyperaggressive within three years provided you can even keep up with it's requirements. Sometimes, worst of all, they're giving otherwise passable information but trying to sell additional products that are unnecessary or even harmful for your pet, and believe me, there's a lot of these. Many of them (salt for freshwater fish, salt licks for most small mammals, skin treatments for amphibians) went out of use decades ago, but are still sold because they're cheap and profitable.
Find specialist websites or forums with lots of long-time owners for your information - try to find several and find differences in information they give, and ask questions to sort out who's giving the best information.
Your roomates probrably don't want another small, smelly roomate that they have to take care of. You should really tell them your idea first. Realize that unless they are super excited about it too, they will not like your pet and can create bad blood.
The best idea is to slowly build them up into wanting a pet, unless they already do. Even if they do not want a pet right now, you may be able to slowly get them excited about having one.
One of my chinchillas got into the "no chinchilla room" and chewed his last wire
TIP: Chin-proof the entire house, not just the chin room/area, because they will escape.
Now my other chin is lonely and depressed and I hate myself
Another thing with chinchillas: you have to maintain a temperature below 75/80 F. They do not handle heat well, what with fried brains and such.
Are Chinchillas playful? What do you do with them? Are their droppings pellets, or wet goo? Are rabbits playful?
And I used to own a couple of rats when I was a kid, they're... alright. They do kinda pee everywhere.
And after some YouTube research, I'm thinking Sugar Gliders are out of the question. Damn adorable though.
Edit: And we keep our apartment pretty cool, if that's an issue.
Why are supgar gliders out of the question?
They meet all of your criteria.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
They chew motherfucking wires like no ones business so buy wire guards. And protect your carpet, they like to dig.
I second the rabbit. I had one, and they do magically litter train themselves for #1. They drop pellets everywhere, but they are solid and don't smell.
Ours was a 3 pound dwarf that had run of the place when we were home. We kept it out of the bedrooms so he couldn't hide under a bed, but he ran our apartment and our house whenever we were home and not asleep. Quiet, adorable, fun to play with - a great pet. They aren't pack animals, so they don't act like dogs or cats, but I loved the heck out of our rabbit.
Ours wouldn't chew any thing that wasn't in his way. He'd gnaw on a PS2 controler cord until we taught him otherwise, and he bit a cord that was hanging off a desk. Other wires, as long as they were close to a wall, never got his attention.
Only down side - he didn't get past his third birthday.
A lot of people are talking about a "chinchilla room" because that's often what people do when they get one... They devote a whole room to the animal, along with shelves, boxes, and other things so they can jump and climb around (like they would in their natural habitat). They aren't hamsters or mice and they're not going to be happy at all if they're kept cooped up in a tiny cage.
You can let them "roam free", but they'll get under foot, in the actuators of recliners (Yeah... friend's dad decapitated one of his chinchillas when it got loose one night. His mom was so horrified they bought a new sofa set and new carpeting.), in drawers, in open cabinets, in clothes/dish washers/driers if the door's left opened (Another fun one... apparently it's hard on the wardrobe when one's bounced around and cooked in a drier. I'm convinced my friend's father was letting the animals loose just so they could have "accidents"... he hated them, and they hated him right back), and they'll chew up everything. They're not as bad about chewing things as a rabbit would be, but they do have a taste for wiring. Also, if you have dogs or cats, don't let them around the chinchilla. They will kill it.
I like them, but for an animal that only likes certain people, that requires a whole room of the house, and who you have to watch like a hawk lest it go all Bunny Suicides on you... I'm eh about owning one.
Then again, I'm a dog person.
If that's not a sig waiting to happen, I don't know what is.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p286/grinchebay/02-20-06_2155.jpg
Hamsters: Assholes. Don't get one.
Mice: Spastic and not much fun to interact with. Don't get any.
Gerbils: Better, but not so interactive, and prone to escaping.
Rats: Smart, sweet and sociable, especially if you get 'em early and/or well-socialized. My girls never pee anywhere they're not supposed to; the females are active and playful, while the males want to chill out on your lap or shoulder. Rarely live more than a few years, though.
Guinea pigs: Personalities vary widely; I've had one skittish, permanently scared boy, one mellow, equable boy who tolerates petting, and one sociable bonehead who I still miss.
Rabbits: More aloof and moody, for the most part, than people realize, though a friendly and well-trained one is beyond awesome. They do chew, though, and need room to run around, and most don't want lots of petting. Rabbit fur must be petted, so this can be problematic.
Chinchillas: Cute, but delicate, and need a shitton of room; also, good vets can be hard to find.
Sugar gliders: Adorable as fuck, but need lots of attention and a huge cage to keep them happy and not terrified of you. Vet care can also be $$
Hedgehogs: Funny little guys, not at all hurty to pet (feels like toothbrush or hairbrush bristles), but escape artists and not always really into human interaction.
Ferrets: Playful, fun and intelligent, they nonetheless fucking smell. Without changing the litter and bedding once or twice daily and monthly baths - more will make their coats go nuts and smell worse - your apartment will utterly reek.
What state are you in? A descented baby skunk apparently makes a great pet, but they're illegal in many places.
Rats are the best pets ever. My little ratty was like a little puppy, he was very sweet and cuddly and I could walk around the house with him on my shoulder while he snuffled my ear. Really you need more than one to keep them company, but i didn't know that at the time.
Probably best to get something that won't live too long if you don't want to be stuck with it for ages. Rats live about 3 years, guinea pigs can live 5-8.
Haha I read this as explosive.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
I'd love to have a couple for pets someday, but right now I live in an apartment with a cat who is very sweet but.. you know.. a cat.
My room, again, isn't huge. It /is/ sparse, though, so a big cage is not impossible, and there'd be a good amount of room for any adorable hijinks.
If I had to pick an inkling in my mind right now, I'd say "pair of rabbits." How big of a cage are we talking for that? ~3'x5'x2' or so? Preferable sexes? I plan on getting a shin- or knee-high door barrier, or would a rabbit be ambitious enough to bypass that?
I'm certainly not sold yet--is there anyone with some good experience with rabbits/chinchillas?
I'd like to find a couple young ones, neutered/spayed. Do their sexes matter? Is one more playful than the other, or more prone to petting, etc?
Is it hard to teach them not to gnaw on wires? Because, man, I've got a lot of wires. A friend of mine once told me he kept his rats away from his wires by spraying them with something? Any idea what that something could be?
I've got two rats right now and they make pretty awesome pets. Two boys, one's albino and the other your standard brown rat. They make an interesting pair.
It's all about getting them young and handling them a lot so they are sociable towards you. I had the standard brown by himself for a month or two, got him well adjusted, and then brought in the albino. They fought for a good week but now? They pile up for naps when it's colder. They've never bitten me or anyone else, they're "cage" trained and don't piss and shit all over the place, and they've got so much personality. Very low maintence as well. As long as you change the cage every week or so there's little odor. Keep their food dish and water tank filled and they're in heaven.
The only downside to rats is that they're called RATS and 99% of people freak when you tell them. They're really great though. They also don't live too long but that might be better than the other extreme you get with something like a chinchilla. Mine died at the age of 8 earlier this year, they usually make it longer but he had a heart murmur from birth that I just found out about last year. Usually you've got 15-20 years and that's not just a huge commitment but it's pretty heartbreaking when they die. If they're shorter lived, something like a rat, it's a little easier. A little.
Gender in rabbits is something that is really behaviorally distinct in unaltered animals, but much less so once they've been neutered. Your best bet if you're thinking of getting a pair is getting one male and one female and neutering them both. Two bucks (male rabbits) will sometimes fight even if they're neutered, this is also true of two does (female rabbits) but less so. Neutering is especially important for rabbits as females are very prone to uterine cancer and males spray their urine if they're not fixed. Try contacting a local shelter and see if they have any new litters of rabbits. Adopting a brother and sister (make sure you neuter them at the appropriate age as they're not shy about incest AT ALL) and raising them together with plenty of handling and positive human interaction will ensure you have a happy and rewarding couple of pets. Make sure they're at least 10 weeks of age before you adopt them.
As far as teaching them not to gnaw on wires, gnawing is an instinctive desire in rabbits that would be pretty tough to overcome with training. I wouldn't rely on a spray if you have expensive electronics that could potentially harm the animals. Their front teeth grow continuously throughout their life and they have to gnaw on something daily in order to prevent them from growing over. Your best bet is to provide them with good things to gnaw on (any pet store will have a wide variety of bunny-friendly chew toys) and make sure that dangerous wires are out of their reach. The one majorly destructive act I've ever seen my rabbit do was when she chewed a hunk out of a corner of my wall near the floor. I was not pleased. Providing her with plenty of chew toys and tasty foods has cured her of her desire to chew on walls.
As small as they are, rabbits have a vertical life as much as they do a horizontal one. By that I mean they jump. They jump to places you would swear they wouldn't be able to jump. I frequently come home to find my rabbit nesting in my comforter although my bed is at least a foot and a half off the ground. Keep that in mind if you're going to let them roam free.
Hope this is helpful. I've had rabbits my entire life and I've seen the good and the bad. Don't make the same mistake my parents did, make sure you keep the males and females separate until you neuter them, even if you think they're too young to breed. They have a reputation for a reason.
It sounds weird to anybody who frequents 99% of the communities on the internet, but when it comes to pets, it's 100% true. Pet stores range from mediocre to malicious in the information they give out. The rare good store giving solid advice rarely lasts, because PetCo is overjoyed to tell people how much less work they need to do to keep their new pet healthy. There's one excellent pet store in my area, but they've been barely scraping by on a small dedicated base of hardcore collectors. Most new owners, especially ones that kept a guinea pig in a tiny cage or a goldfish in a bowl as children, don't like to hear that their new choice of pet will require an inconveniently sized room to itself. As a result, many experienced pet owners (such as myself in regards to fish) put time on the internet into helping and teaching new owners who are willing to learn, so there are a great many resources for good information on pets.
In the context of acquiring a small mammal. Pet stores all want to bash any previous information you've been given to make them look like the only ones that know anything about (insert animal here). People on the net have no stake in your monies so why should we care what animal you get?
But yes, I realize the immense humor in that statement. And thus, it is my sig.
They don't smell, and they're pretty low-maintenance. The only big annoyance is that, like most birds, they make noise. Not an unbearable amount of chattering like some budgies or incredibly loud shrieks like larger parrots, but yeah, they want to talk to you during the day.
My personal bias is toward birds over small mammals (e.g. not cats or dogs), in any case. They just generally seem much cleaner and more amiable.
EDIT: If you do happen to go for a cockatiel, make sure it's handfed, preferably direct from a breeder (not a pet store).
Better idea - one bunny and something else, like a gennie pigs. As non-pack animals, apparently they get along pretty well with other small animals.
Not so. (Who is "they"?) A mixed pair of neutered/spayed bunnies, so long as their personalities don't clash, is ideal. Rabbits are like people: if they're not individuals who absolutely fucking hate other rabbits, they do better with a buddy.
And rabbits and guinea pigs should not be housed together. Even a dwarf bunny is too strong--one misplaced startle-response kick can and has killed guinea pigs. Rabbits have different body language, dietary needs, and immunities that make them not-so-great buddies for other animals. (Guinea pigs are the skittering pussies of the small-animal kingdom, except for the one chasing the rabbit in that one YouTube video. A hamster can whip a guinea pig's ass.)