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To go along with the ever growing, and awesome, "official crazy, awesome, annoying and amazing" stuff my cat does thread, I introduce the "Odd Pet" thread.
As one might guess, I like animals, and, as it happens, I have a number of strange and or exotic pets. So, the call is going out, tell us all about you weird, rare, and exotic pets (bonus points if your pet inspired a PF monster)
My pet list:
5.5 gallon planted fish tank containing a pair of orange australe killifish, male and female, a panda gara, two otocinclus catfish, and zebra nerite snails.
5.5 gallon planted fish tank containing a pair of chocolate australe killifish, male and female, a HUGE (for the species) red mystery snail, and two otocinclus catfish.
10 gallon cold water planted tank containing 6 celestial pearl danios, 6 white cloud minnows, 4 blue bar rasboras, a mated pair of orange throated darters (super neat fish, sort of lizard like), and a pair of otocinclus catfish.
10 gallon cold water planted tank containing my axolotl, his name is Fleck.
three 1.25 gallon planted tanks, each with a unique and hard to find beta types, their names being Danilo, Elaith, and Sun Zu.
5 gallon planted tank (at my desk at work none the less) containing four Okefenokee pygmy sunfish, two tiger nerite snails, and a pair of otocinclus cats.
5.5 Gallon non-planted tank containing a pair of desert gobies (fish that live in the desert, look em up!)
A tarantula, her name is Doubloon, because of her golden color.
A central American wood turtle, his name is Panzer (yep, like the tank)
And am currently taking care of a friends pair of poison dart frogs.
So, those are my current odd pets, I have had others in the past, but, let the thread commence!
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Oww, almost forgot my awesome assassin snails (black and yellow banded cone snails that kill and eat other snails), I have them in all my tanks to keep pond snail explosions from happening (little buggers come in on the plants, hard to get rid of).
This thread is made of awesome.
I can only hope houstonderek sees it and tells about his scale-sized dragon that would rampage across the game table overrunning our miniatures.
Thanks Kirth! Oww, I bet I know what sort of pet that might be, now he must tell the story, STORY TIME!
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My last pets were a pair of Crested Geckos and three leopard geckos. One crested escaped when I still lived in San Diego and was sadly found dead months later in the closet. The other was given to a friend on my movie to Laramie, where I feared I wouldn't be able to keep him alive due to the stress of driving and a cold basement apartment. Unfortunately my leopard geckos all passed away within a year of moving to Wyoming. My apartment had piss poor heating plus the super low humidity I think did them in...they had huge troubles shedding and even with regular misting I couldn't keep their hidey hole moist enough and they developed shedding problems leading to blindness :(
While living in San Diego with the geckos, one of my other roommates gradually acquired a large menagerie, including 4 Russian Tortoises that lived on the balcony year round, a red-footed Tortoise, and a captive born and permitted Desert Tortoise. I pretty much woke up every morning to the sound of a randy male Russian tortoise named Little Mac trying to get it on with the lady tortoises he lived with. Which pretty much always ended in failure, since they had zero interest and were pretty good about backing up during the attempt and causing Little Mac to land on his back in futility.
That was just the tortoises (he worked on fossil tortoises for his masters). He also owned a ball python, rosy boa, and California kingsnake, as well as a bearded dragon, uromastyx, and a Pacman Frog.
Back in high school I had a Fish of various sorts, as well as newts and a albino clawed frog that managed to eat anything that I foolishly introduced into his tank. With the exception of a badass giant freshwater shrimp that somehow evaded getting shoved into his mouth.
I love herps and exotics, but not sure I would get another at this phase of my life.
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It wasn't really a pet, but when I was about 15 I rescued a screech owl that had been caught in a fur trap. It's leg was broken, but I made a splint out of a large drinking straw and electrical tape and kept it in a cage, feeding it birds that I shot daily. After about 2 weeks it seemed to regain the use of its claws on the broken leg, so I cut off the splint and let it go. It hung out in one of our barns for several weeks before it disappeared forever.
And if you've never heard a screech owl, it's a eerie sound. And try sleeping with that going on next to your bed.
You'll have to put "screech owl" in the search bar, evidently, and look for the Eastern Screech Owl in the list that comes up. Click on the link called "B Song".
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Oww, almost forgot my awesome assassin snails (black and yellow banded cone snails that kill and eat other snails), I have them in all my tanks to keep pond snail explosions from happening (little buggers come in on the plants, hard to get rid of).
What do they eat when are no snails around if I may ask?
Also to contribute, I currently have no odd pets except for my 2 rescued dogs that are just not right in the head. The one (Irish setter/Golden Retriever mix)has horrible separation anxiety and the other (Cockapoo) has a bum leg and seizures about every other month.
I used to have a beautiful iguana that REALLY disliked his reflection and busted 2 mirrors with his tail trying to attack the "other iguana". I would walk him on a leash and he went with me most places, usually perched on my shoulders.
Had several snakes but nothing really exotic...mostly garter or rat snakes that I had found and kept.
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@ Fake Healer, thankfully assassin snails will eat left over food and detritus if there are no snails of their size or smaller around to slay and eat.
I just realized I forgot into include my wifes ornate pacman frog, Pedro, in our list of exotics. He is as fat and lazy as one would expect for a walking mouth on legs, but we love him anyway LOL.
@ DMCal, that was a pretty awesome thing you did man, color me impressed. And screech owls are super cool!
Some of my past exotics that have passed on were:
A kenya sand boa
A Louisiana red crayfish (found her in the lawn of our old apartment of all places)
A white's dumpy tree frog, named Squintsy, we adopted him because he was born with a malformed left eye, and petco was going to use him as snake food, so instead, we took him in, he was an awesome frog and lived a long happy life eating night crawlers twice his body length with gusto!
A crested gecko, alas he had health issues from the get go, and I could not correct them
A pair of russian tortoises, again, alas because they were rescues health issues caught up to them from previous poor treatment that I could do nothing about.
I grew up on a farm, so I've got tons of stories.
They're all too long to type out on my phone, so hopefully later.
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Story Time!!!!!
and ack!, that should read Kenyan sand boa...
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Hmmm... I had a gerbil by accident... The rotten thing escaped from a neighbors place when I was renting and ended up in mine. Chewed everything and avoided every trap. But he finally committed suicide by trying to take a swim in a bottle of brandy I forgot to reseal in my drunken state. I mean I guess he died happy.
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Ok, that is a hell of a story Aranna, gerbil fatality via high proof alcohol, can't say I have ever heard that anywhere else.
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I also had a recluse spider move in to one of my places once too. Everyone knows I refuse to kill spiders, after all they are very cute and helpful. This one was intimidated by the host of other spiders and nested down into my duct work. I of course had to make sure everyone kept their shoes on when they were over because he was very poisonous. He did help me out too, every mouse that got into my place soon tried to hide in the ducts... And died by spider bite. I must have fished at least 6 mice bodies out of there. He did also die along with all my spiders when the heat failed in the middle of the the polar vortex
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Huzzah, another person that likes spiders!! (honestly, without them, we would all be very dead of insect born disease like malaria and sleeping sickness, etc). I felt bad, but I did have a black widow in our house that I could not save safely, had to do that thing I dislike doing.
Wife is terrified of spiders, thus I end up saving quite a few from her vengeance, I love her to death, but her killing of spiders irks me.
That is also why my tarantula doubloon lives in my office, where my wife does not have to see her all the time.
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I am so grateful to the clever spiders on my porch. A bunch of wasps had built a series of mud nests all over the walls. When I went out there to knock them down, I noticed that every nest had a web in front of the opening, and that all the previous nest residents were dried wasp husks.
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I have kids, and I've seen how terrible recluse spider's necrotic venom is, so I couldn't tolerate those guys mucking about. But a certain amount of spiders are very helpful at keeping the other bugs in check.
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Yeah, with young kids around, one does have to be careful, the venom is potent, and kids being small, suffer its effects harder than a larger person.
Luckily in the upper Midwest they aren't an issue.
Aww, need more talk of exotic pets, I can't be the only board poster with odd critters for friends!
But, to keep things going, I am currently starting plans to build a brackish water tank, likely a 20 gallon, with argentis monos and several types of brackish water gobies. Still researching plants, as brackish plants are true freaks (like mangroves, the only salt water growing tree that I know of)
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When my son was 2 we decided to get a freshwater fish tank and get gold fish. When we started looking into all the WORK that goes into properly keeping goldfish, we took everything back to the store and said "No thanks." That started our hunt for a proper apartment dwelling pet for a toddler.
We settled on Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. They are tough enough to survive toddler handling. They don't bite. They don't carry any transmissible diseases. They are educational. They are beautiful. They are self replicating, so if the toddler squashes one, you've got more. They are durable, so if you or your toddler forgets to feed them for a few days, they'll be okay. They are tropical, so they die if they escape (I live in New England. Winters are too harsh for tropical roaches). They don't fly. They are also edible. We have tried them, but it is difficult to get over our own cultural issues with entomophagy.
We bought 6 of them through mail order. When we lost count at 300 or so, we took them to a reptile shop, selected 13 adults to restart the population, and donated the rest to feed the reptiles. It's time to contact the pet shop again to reduce our population...
A few years ago, my wife took some to the "petting zoo" at our church's Harvest Festival. They were a big hit! The kids loved them! She also brought a bunch of frozen then seasoned and baked sub-adults. They were all eaten and some folks came back for more. :)
If anyone in the Central Massachusetts area wants to get some Hissers, send me a message and we can work something out. If you don't want a breeding population, I can give you adult males. They'll live a couple years before you need to come back for more.
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When I was a kid my brother wanted a talking bird for his birthday. But the bird didn't like him. The bird adored me however and I was able to teach it some words like "bolt wants a cracker" (yes my brother gave it that silly name) , "pretty bird", and "brothers are dumb". It would only come to me so no one else was allowed to let it out of its cage. It alsolutely loved to sit in the branches of my mom's potted trees. It was a bit of a crazy bird, dive bombing the family dog and exploring the whole house.
When I was a kid my brother wanted a talking bird for his birthday. But the bird didn't like him. The bird adored me however and I was able to teach it some words like "bolt wants a cracker" (yes my brother gave it that silly name) , "pretty bird", and "brothers are dumb". It would only come to me so no one else was allowed to let it out of its cage. It alsolutely loved to sit in the branches of my mom's potted trees. It was a bit of a crazy bird, dive bombing the family dog and exploring the whole house.
What kind of bird was it? A parakeet? A conure?
parakeet.
Seriously impressed Itchy, and I must admit, cockroaches are the one creature I am a bit uneasy around. Will have to work on that (my pet tarantula will be upgrading to Island roaches as feeder insects soon).
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Seriously impressed Itchy, and I must admit, cockroaches are the one creature I am a bit uneasy around. Will have to work on that (my pet tarantula will be upgrading to Island roaches as feeder insects soon).
If you've got a Tarantula, roaches should be nothing!
I've not heard of Island Roaches. If you are looking for feeder roaches, I've heard that you want to look for a non-glass climbing species (such as Dubia or Discoid roaches).
Hissers are glass climbers, and we have had escapees from our tank. If you want to raise hissers, look online for plans to build a hisser enclosure in a 5 gallon bucket. It's the most secure way to raise them.
I'd encourage you to research roach species. They are misunderstood and maligned in our culture, but they are relatively harmless. Essentially the only way to get sick from one is to let them walk over your food or to put a live one in your mouth (I don't recommend doing either of those). There are feeder species that you can raise that don't survive well in cold climates and that can't climb glass. Once you pay for a few breeders and get a population going, you'll never need to buy crickets again.
I believe they are officially known as spotted roaches, and do not appear to be able to climb glass. Still researching them.
Thinking I need to take a trip to the bait store, as my central American wood turle (Panzer) has been turning his nose up at the Kale and squash I have offered him, time from some night crawls, to hopefully perk up his diet, I would use meal worms, but I feel like they are low on the scale of good protein sources, and those available in store are usually poorly feed and maintained.
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I had a parakeet that lived to be nearly 15. There, that and the screech owl wraps up my exotic pets.. lol
Unless you count the hatchling snapping turtles I caught once as a kid and took to school to sell to other kids.
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Ahhh, snapping turtles, so amusing yet ornery.
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I believe they are officially known as spotted roaches, and do not appear to be able to climb glass. Still researching them.
Probably Blaptica dubia, a popular feeder species that cannot climb glass. Hmm... Maybe I'll see if I can pick some up. They sound like they would be fun to raise.
I briefly considered getting a Tarantula or a Scorpion to help control my Hisser population, but they seem like they would be a lot more work than the roaches are. I haven't done much in the way of research, though.
Emperor scorpions are very hearty and easy to take care of, some of the other species are more delicate, and can be dangerous (such as the bark scorpion)
Tarantulas vary greatly as well, though the good old rose hair tarantula is generally a pretty easy house guest.
I think you are correct Itchy, considering changing to those for a while for Doubloon, she does not seem as interested in feeder crickets lately, afraid she may have become to used to their presence in her enclosure. I removed all uneaten insects after a day or so, but still, such things happen.
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My mother used to work for the Gorilla Foundation, and we inherited one of Koko's pets: a greenwing macaw whom Koko had named "Devil Tooth" (because Koko will use the word "devil" to refer to something red, and "tooth" for his big white beak), modified to "Devil Beak," or "DB," as we knew him.
It was a unique honor, and he lived with us for several years, but sadly, we learned we are not a parrot family. He needed more attention than we could give him, and to be among his own kind (the Gorilla Foundation initially found him feral, and living off their loquat trees - where he came from initially, nobody knows), so we gave him to a bird foundation in Colorado, where he's evidently lived ever since.
His vocabulary never got very big; he might have said "hello" (I forget), he asked often enough about "nut," and then there was his mysterious phrase: "Lalar?" What, or who, "Lalar" is, we may never know.
Emperor scorpions are very hearty and easy to take care of, some of the other species are more delicate, and can be dangerous (such as the bark scorpion)
Tarantulas vary greatly as well, though the good old rose hair tarantula is generally a pretty easy house guest.
I think you are correct Itchy, considering changing to those for a while for Doubloon, she does not seem as interested in feeder crickets lately, afraid she may have become to used to their presence in her enclosure. I removed all uneaten insects after a day or so, but still, such things happen.
Part of my rationale is that the Hissers are great pets for the kids to interact with, a scorpion or tarantula would not be. My children are still young (first grade and younger), so I'm nervous about them interacting with any venomous animals, even an "even tempered" arthropod. I know that tarantula bites and emperor scorpion stings are essentially no worse than a wasp sting (unless you have an allergy), but, my kids are young.
I would be interested to see how an emperor scorpion handled an adult Hisser though. That would be neat to see!
@Hiding in Closet: That's awesome! I remember reading Koko's Kitten in elementary school. Very cool that your mom got to work with her (even indirectly).
@ Itchy, Actually the giant millipede may interest you and the kids then, being neat and odd, but quite harmless (unless you eat it).
And that is why Kilrex, we keep those in our pan...I mean securely closed tanks...
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not a story about a pet I own(ed), but when I lived in San Diego the local exotic animal/bird rescue would often have a table with animals in balboa park if the weather was nice. They usually had a bunch of fairly well behaved birds, but the bird that most stands out in my mind was a Cockatoo (sulphur-crested I think) they had out one day. Bird loved people, but evidently wasn't a fan of kids
Of course...while we were there talking with the folks and seeing the birds, some small child come and starts trying to pet the cockatoo, much to its annoyance. The rescue folks took the Cockatoo away for some quiet time, and as he was hauled away he craned his neck around the keeper, stared at the kid, and intoned a rather angry sounding "$%@hole". One of the most hilarious things I have heard or witnessed.
LMAO!
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It sounds like I would love that bird MMCJawa.
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My mother loved exotic birds. She's scarred from the "loving kisses" her Amazon parrot gave her.
At one point when I was still in high school she had a cockatoo that would disassemble its cage and go hunting in the house. That bird hated me for unknown reasons (or more likely no reason at all), and would give up other interests in favor of chasing me whenever possible; I referred to it as the "vicious attack duck," which Mother Gersen did not find amusing.
She also had a dwarf conure who would act really cute, poke out his head and say "peekaboo!", and otherwise try to entice people to approach. Then he would savagely try to bite their finger off, and would actually laugh while doing it.
I knew that birds were dinosaurs long before that became scientific consensus.
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New monster, Attack Duck Swarm, and GO!
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True story, I once kissed a banana slug (while on vacation in Redwood National forest in CA). Doing so makes your lips and mouth go numb. As it where, the park rangers encourage this behavior as a fun challenge to visitors. If you have never seen a banana slug, then you need to, as they grow over 6 inches long. I sort of wish I had one as a pet now, hmmm, excuse to head out west again, huzzah!
Almost forgot to mention, my assassin snails have made baby assassins. I have nearly 50 + baby and juvenile assassin snails, so if anyone wants some, I am happy to give them away, willing to ship them wherever they need to go, though a reimbursement for shipping over 10 bucks would be great. If anyone wants an odd tiny pet, or happens to have a fish tank that is suffering from pond snail plague, these little bad girls and boys can help.
(snails actually make really good first aquatic pets for kids too, as they are generally quite tough, and do not need fancy setups or lots of care, just a little food now and then, and some stuff to hang out on. Can be as simple as a deli cup with a secure lid and a rock, maybe some duck weed or frog bit for color and texture. In fact, I have lots of extra deli cups and per-perforated lids along with lots of extra snails.)
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Mrs Gersen would murder me without any compunction if I ever acquired anything called an "assassin snail."
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What about Eco-friendly population control snail?
Nice Krensky!
@ Itchy, Actually the giant millipede may interest you and the kids then, being neat and odd, but quite harmless (unless you eat it).
And that is why Kilrex, we keep those in our pan...I mean securely closed tanks...
We considered getting a giant millipede when we were looking at the cockroaches too. We went with the more economic Hissers. That's an option that I haven't thought of recently. Perhaps I'll bring that up to the family during the new year. :)
I'd love a Goliath Beetle too. The world's heaviest insect! Ack! I just looked them up, the adults only live about a year.
@Hiding in the Closet: That's even more awesome!