Buying a rad new pet
Skitchen
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I live in a small apartment by myself and it sometimes gets lonely. I'd like to buy a little companion to keep here, but I don't know what I'd like yet. I don't have a terribly large amount of space for the little critter, so I've basically narrowed the search to two choices.
1. Snake - I've had a pet snake before, and it was pretty cool. Taking care of them is easy, and you can sorta hold them sometimes I guess.
2. Little fuzzy creature - Hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, mice, etc. Something more exotic would be cool.
I mean, I'm looking for a pet, but I don't really want to spend an absolute ton of money on it. I know that cages, feed, and the pet will all be costly, but I'd rather not spend like $80 on a chinchilla. Something exotic would be cool. Any suggestions would be awesome, and I look forward to hearing them!
1. Snake - I've had a pet snake before, and it was pretty cool. Taking care of them is easy, and you can sorta hold them sometimes I guess.
2. Little fuzzy creature - Hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, mice, etc. Something more exotic would be cool.
I mean, I'm looking for a pet, but I don't really want to spend an absolute ton of money on it. I know that cages, feed, and the pet will all be costly, but I'd rather not spend like $80 on a chinchilla. Something exotic would be cool. Any suggestions would be awesome, and I look forward to hearing them!
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They're adorable, and I hear that they are pretty awesome.
And here's a picture of a sugar glider, in case you haven't seen one before:
Tons of personality, easy and cheap to take care of, and they really bond with you (many cockatiels love you to scratch their heads and want to play with your hair). You might be able to find a normal gray for $50 from a reputable breeder. (Make sure you get hand fed.)
The major downside, as with any bird, is the noise, but cockatiels aren't as bad as some, in my experience (they chatter a lot less than budgies, and they're not piercingly loud like big parrots). You can shut them up by covering their cage with a sheet, but this is best reserved for night time or unusual circumstances.
Rodents... I don't have any experience with those, all I know is that they smell and my cats wanna eat em.
A dog probably wouldn't be too bad, if you have the time to get them out for exercise.
So what if it needs a huge cage?
Anyway, since it can glide, when you're home the whole house would be like its cage.
Sugar gliders look both sweet and small enough, I am concerned that letting one roam free might lead to a foot-related injury or worse.
I saw a page on hedgehogs, though, and they seem to be relatively little upkeep and just so darn adorable! Has anybody had one before that might be able to share their thoughts?
The OP said he didn't have a lot of space, so a huge cage would probably be a problem. :P
They are cute little things though.
If you did go that route though I would recommend getting two (probably girls) so that they have company and somone to play with when you are not around.
From experience, hedgehogs aren't bad pets, but don't expect much out of them. Many of them don't like being held and do little more then sleep and eat. They aren't typically super active creatures. But I guess the same could be argued about any small cage animal.
I second rats. Awesome, awesome pets and amazing little creatures.
They can smell a little but there's ways of dealing with that... the worst part is that they don't really live much longer than about 3 years and it is utterly gutting when they snuff it.
hey're extremely personable and love to chill out on shoulders while you do ANYTHING. They also love getting scratched on the back of their neck/head and will beg for it in a way by putting their heads down to get it. They're easy to feed/water/maintain and they will surprise you with how friendly they are. The only downside is the poop. They poop whenever they want so you just have to be on the lookout for it. No biggie though since their poops are wet and easy to soak up with toilet paper. I've trained mine to poop before I let them out of the cage, so even that can be minimized.
Males will be noisier and learn to imitate, while females won't as much (I have 3 females and only one imitates).
Like Orem said, get it from a breeder and get a hand fed one and you're golden.
http://www.rfadventures.com/images/Animals/Reptiles/lizards/leopard-gecko-bg.jpg
You could look into getting a degu. They are cute, and kind of hamsterlike. My wife had one when she was still living on campus, because she and her roommate wanted a pet, and it was the only mammal in the store her roommate wasn't allergic to.
Reptiles are pretty awesome. Do a bit of research on the size of the critter you want, and what you're willing to handle food-wise, and you have, like, a billion species you could choose from.
Personal pros are they rarely poop, so you get that shit timed down and they can be let out to just chill around the house. And they really don't give a damn if you are sometimes too busy to play with them.
But they thrive on a pretty strict schedule. Lights on/off, when to be fed, etc.
If you're willing to go for a snake, it'll probably be worth it to check out some ambulatory species.
I have had three geckos, My first one was a $20 Golden Gecko I named Godzilla, Got him early 1999 and he is still among the living. $100 on cage and Litghts, $10 a month in crickets and wax worms $50 a year in cleanup, lights, and ground stuff. This is cheap, you can keep it at any small area in your apartment and if you clean up the cage enough the insect (cricket smell) never becomes an issue. Plus if you get a real hardy one that isn't to sensitive to your touch you can even handle him.
As far as sugar gliders go, I'm going to say definitely don't get one until you've read up on them quite a bit. I was really interested in getting a sugar glider after seeing some videos on youtube about them. Then I read about how, yes, they're nocturnal -- but not only are they nocturnal, they are VERY sociable little animals. You think that's a good thing, but sugar gliders will literally die if they don't get enough social time in their day.
I've read that if you buy one sugar glider you should be able to devote four to six hours to playing with it just to make sure it's okay. If you get two ore more the time drops, but still.
Plus, sugar gliders are pretty expensive from what I saw.
Edit: Nevermind about the iguanas, I just went to read about them and apparently they are way more work than I remember. Also, they get huge.
My roommate has a pet corn snake, he's adorable. Although, I never really thought about geckos... They seem cool, too. I'm thinking you should either get a reptile or the cockatiel, like someone suggested. I love birds, but I hate their poop.. so.. I will never have another bird in my life. Hah!
Thirded for rats, for all the reasons above. They're short lived, but very smart.
Edit: nevermind on the ferret if you can't have cats or dogs.
Bunny needs a cage. Most landlords are fine with caged animals. if you decide that your bunny will go "free range" just keep the cage on the floor. I only shut the cage door on my rabbit when I was at work or in bed.
Well obviously they require a cage. But what happens for the hours the bunny is out running around? I dunno, I just think it wouldn't be much different to the landlord than a cat lazing around and getting into mischief, than a bunny running around and chewing.. electrical wires.. And also, they need a good sized cage too, and he has small apartment.
Feel free not to mention to the landlord that the bunny is allowed out of its cage.
They chew things hanging in their way - cords close to walls get left along. Mine never even looked at a lamp cord running on the floor - which is mre than I can say for my dog. Also, bunnies can be trained.
Dust Bunny used to chew my PS2 controler cord if I left it on the table (cord suspended in his path). If I caught him chewing, I'd clap loudly, which he hated. After I caught him maybe 2 times, I saw him sniffing the cord again. I got ready to clap at him as soon as he chomped it. He opened his mouth, then, mouth still open, looked right at me, looking at him and preparing to clap. He shut his mouth and hopped along his way. Only had one other cord issue, and that was from letting a cord hang right in front of him while he was sitting next to me after we moved into our house.
People tell me great things about rats too. My friends really get attached to theirs. The difficulty is that the breeding populations are prone to tumors. : \
Ferrets are fun, but if you don't clean the bedding often, they can get a bit...pungent.
Cockatiels are awesome. Cats are good. Rats are good too, though as said, short lived.
I am currently rocking an apartment with 2 cats. If my younger cat didn't have standard crazy cat personality, I would probally get another cockatiel. My old one used to keep me company during long nights of vanilla WoW chilling on my shoulder.
Fancy goldfish (looking at 15-20 gallons, cycled and heavily filtered, to house one long term - not a bowl by any measure) are big, live 20-30 years when properly housed, and aside from cichlids and big puffers, some of the smartest fish in the hobby.
Puffers are among the most intelligent fish, and all species have an perpetual, absurd grin on their face, but they are difficult to care for and can get expensive to feed. The most commonly sold species are brackish, not fresh or saltwater, but there are freshwater species. All require some degree of specialized care, so experience keeping fish is advised, but not necessary.
The mean crayfish species, like red swamp crayfish, are easy to feed, will interact with you through the glass (in a claw your eyes out sort of way), and make an unusual ugly pet. Again, since you mention snakes, I'm assuming cute and cuddly aren't requisites here. And if you go really big, like a murray crayfish, everybody who walks in will say, "Holy shit, what the fuck is that thing?" or "I thought you wanted a puppy, did it eat the puppy?"
Sugar gliders require huuuge amounts of attention and need their diet hand-made; you can't just buy them kibble.
Any sort of parrot-ish bird lives a very long time. Cockatiels are lovely, but they can easily live for 30 years if you take care of them properly. Budgies aren't quite as long-lived but can easily make it to 15 or 20. Don't get a bird if you're not willing to make a decades-long commitment to an intelligent animal that bonds with you and will frequently self-mutilate if you're not paying it enough attention.
Fish might be a good idea, as might rats if you're willing to sink large amounts of money into their vet costs. Hamsters are cute but not very interesting; gerbils are a bit more active. Ferrets take about the same amount of time as a dog or a cat, plus they require lots of vet care and need an exotic vet (again, $$$).
If you go for fish, I suggest bettas as a good starter. They live about 3 years at max. Don't keep them in those ridiculous tiny bowls petstores advertise; they need at least a gallon and will be happier with larger tanks. They actually breathe air via what's called a labyrinth organ so you don't have to worry about oxygenating the water so much, but they either need a cycled tank or water changes on a schedule of once per x weeks where x is the number of gallons in the tank. Give them lots of plants and things to hide in. Silk plants are okay, but don't get plastic as they'll shred their fins. They do have interesting personalities for fish and will grow to recognize their food-giver and do little dances before you feed them, which is quite cute.
Corn snakes are about the easiest pet to care for I've ever had and doesn't need a lot of attention. You can also leave them for long periods of time without any harm coming to them (Say, if you go for a week long vacation, your snake won't care and won't need someone to come in to feed them). They're also adorable.
I hate to be that guy but actually, ferret allergies are considered really rare. Most people are allergic to animal dander not the animal in general, and the same oil ferrets secrete that makes them "stink" traps all those flakes of skin and makes the ferret "hypoallergenic."
I don't think this word means what you think it means.
Also ferrets don't really smell all that bad if you wash them regularly. As a kid we had 3 of them and gave them all a bath on Saturdays, there wasn't a smell at all really except for near their cage.(The ferrets had the run of the house while we were home).
Rats, however, are awesome and fun and friendly and nice. My old rattie would sit on my shoulder and rub against my neck while I wrote papers and surfed the web.