Crayfish, rats and tortoises are all fantastic pets. I think Jackrat will have a crawfish comment for us when he sees this.
What is the CRAZIEST pet you ever owned?
- Thread starter DeanS
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Tom, do you have any rats? Have you trained any for movies? I love my ratties!
Hahaha best name ever!
ChiKat said:
Hahaha best name ever!
We've got a whole rat room. I get jobs for them occasionally. I've had them as pets since I was around 10 years old.
You get cooler and cooler every day 
Now, now, don't go overboard.
Remember who does the poop-scooping and cage cleaning at Tom's Hollywood Animal Ranch.
Remember who does the poop-scooping and cage cleaning at Tom's Hollywood Animal Ranch.
I had a tarantula. boyfriend gave her to me for valentines day...
and I have llamas now... some people think that is weird.. and the torts, and goats, and ....
and I have llamas now... some people think that is weird.. and the torts, and goats, and ....
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Honestly, I've never really had any unusual pets, except my tortoise lol! I say, "I have a tortoise," and other people say, "What would you want that for!?" When my mom was a kid she had a skunk! She got it from the humane society-the destunked (i know thats not the proper terminology) em. I know thats not too crazy but in the big city-it's unheard of!
We used to volunteer with a local rehabber. For some lunatic reason, our area only allows 6 licensed wildlife rehab people at any given time, so they can barely handle the 'important' wildlife. You know, the owls and raptors and other fancy protected critters.
So, we pretty much had baby possums, squirrels and wild rabbits every spring.. A couple local dove babies and blue jays too some years. The licensed rehabber would send the common critters home with volunteers because she had so many others to care for that weren't legally allowed to leave the premises. Though, one time I did get a gopher tortoise that had been hit by a mower. It took about a year for it's shell to heal and then he went back to the rehabber to be released I guess. I still don't know why she sent that one home with me, it seems that one shouldn't have been passed along to me at all. BUT, I was sure thrilled at the time.
Wild rabbits were definitely my thing, for some odd reason I never lost one of them while usually most die when found orphaned even with experienced rehabbers. The trick to it I think was syringe feeding them every three hours, but housing them outdoors away from people because they spooked and went into shock so easily. BUT, I dunno, maybe it was just really weird luck year after year.
The local shelter used to let us have any 'exotics' that came in because their policy was to euthanize instead of adopting them out. But, I guess sneaking them out the back door to a volunteer was okay for whatever reason.
Though, unfortunately people usually turn over exotics when there's no longer really any hope for recovery, at least that was the case at our local shelter. Probably my favorite though was a hedgehog that was brought in because he was a pretty bad biter. He never tamed down at all, but, he lived happily enough in an outdoor enclosure in warm weather and then back in for cool weather. We only had him about 8 years, but he'd had so many owners we had no idea of his age. Mostly though we just got really sick iguanas that would only last another month or so. I've always wondered what it would be like to have a healthy iguana. You know, one that started out with a sunny Florida outdoor enclosure in good weather and appropriate diet. One day I may have to adopt a healthier one. The last iguana we took in was back when I was a teenager ten years or so ago. Back then the local vet was recommending romaine lettuce and tomatoes for a healthy diet, the internet wasn't available at our house, and the shelter was taking in ones raised on iceberg lettuce in a 10 gallon aquarium with an incandescent bulb for lighting. Fortunately iguanas don't seem to be that popular here anymore and leopard geckos are much more popular. Which is lovely since almost anyone can keep a leopard gecko.
I do keep tarantulas, though I don't consider those to be that exotic really. BUT, they seem to get a lot more reaction from people then my tortoise.
I'd love to keep rats someday, I just find their short lifespans rather heartbreaking. My pet gerbil used to live in a large cage right in the kitchen and made it to the very decent age of 7. I really think that's because he never ate commercial gerbil food. He ate real food, not necessarily precise nutritionally speaking, but at least it was real food.
So, we pretty much had baby possums, squirrels and wild rabbits every spring.. A couple local dove babies and blue jays too some years. The licensed rehabber would send the common critters home with volunteers because she had so many others to care for that weren't legally allowed to leave the premises. Though, one time I did get a gopher tortoise that had been hit by a mower. It took about a year for it's shell to heal and then he went back to the rehabber to be released I guess. I still don't know why she sent that one home with me, it seems that one shouldn't have been passed along to me at all. BUT, I was sure thrilled at the time.
Wild rabbits were definitely my thing, for some odd reason I never lost one of them while usually most die when found orphaned even with experienced rehabbers. The trick to it I think was syringe feeding them every three hours, but housing them outdoors away from people because they spooked and went into shock so easily. BUT, I dunno, maybe it was just really weird luck year after year.
The local shelter used to let us have any 'exotics' that came in because their policy was to euthanize instead of adopting them out. But, I guess sneaking them out the back door to a volunteer was okay for whatever reason.
Though, unfortunately people usually turn over exotics when there's no longer really any hope for recovery, at least that was the case at our local shelter. Probably my favorite though was a hedgehog that was brought in because he was a pretty bad biter. He never tamed down at all, but, he lived happily enough in an outdoor enclosure in warm weather and then back in for cool weather. We only had him about 8 years, but he'd had so many owners we had no idea of his age. Mostly though we just got really sick iguanas that would only last another month or so. I've always wondered what it would be like to have a healthy iguana. You know, one that started out with a sunny Florida outdoor enclosure in good weather and appropriate diet. One day I may have to adopt a healthier one. The last iguana we took in was back when I was a teenager ten years or so ago. Back then the local vet was recommending romaine lettuce and tomatoes for a healthy diet, the internet wasn't available at our house, and the shelter was taking in ones raised on iceberg lettuce in a 10 gallon aquarium with an incandescent bulb for lighting. Fortunately iguanas don't seem to be that popular here anymore and leopard geckos are much more popular. Which is lovely since almost anyone can keep a leopard gecko.
I do keep tarantulas, though I don't consider those to be that exotic really. BUT, they seem to get a lot more reaction from people then my tortoise.
I'd love to keep rats someday, I just find their short lifespans rather heartbreaking. My pet gerbil used to live in a large cage right in the kitchen and made it to the very decent age of 7. I really think that's because he never ate commercial gerbil food. He ate real food, not necessarily precise nutritionally speaking, but at least it was real food.
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I had a sheep that roamed in and out of our house. We were too busy to mow the lawn, so we got her to do it. But she loved coming into the house for the warmth.
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I have a roach colony too! Though I use them as feeders for my geckos and skinks rather than pets...
Weirdest pet we have is probably the alpacas...
Tom, I'm having camel-envy. They're amazing animals!
Weirdest pet we have is probably the alpacas...
Tom, I'm having camel-envy. They're amazing animals!
When i was a child, my brother and I used to have stick insects. Started off with three adults and ended up with a whole load of them! They used to escape from thier tank and hang off the kitchen ceiling. My mum always hated them. One summer she persuaded us to set them free on the vine for a nicer life. For years we kept looking for them when we were in the garden.... Not that exotic, but we only had dogs, hamsters the ususal. Here in the LD hardly anyone keeps a tortoise
Not that exotic, but we only had dogs, hamsters the ususal. Here in the LD hardly anyone keeps a tortoise 
i guess the "weirdest" thing/things i have are my inverts. apx 40 tarantulas, 20 scorps and some centipedes. oh, and the roaches. my favorite tarantula that i have at the moment is definitely my T. blondi (goliath birdeater). she is only about 6 7 inches long, and not mature yet. i can't wait until she gets big!
my favorite scorps are ALL OF THEM! scorpions are my favorite inverts. i have some pretty rare ones (at least to the US)..
H. judaicus, R.junceus, H.caboverdensis, H.trilineatus, and my favorite; Androctonus mauritanicus. The word "androctonus" means "man killer"...OH YEAH!
my favorite scorps are ALL OF THEM! scorpions are my favorite inverts. i have some pretty rare ones (at least to the US)..
H. judaicus, R.junceus, H.caboverdensis, H.trilineatus, and my favorite; Androctonus mauritanicus. The word "androctonus" means "man killer"...OH YEAH!
A really fat Woodpecker we named Buddha.
Crazier is that my dad had three skunks growing up!
Crazier is that my dad had three skunks growing up!
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Tom said:
I am laughing so hard imagining you being chased around by mean tokay!
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There are some crazy (in the good way) animal lovers here! Wow! A camel? An armadillo? Other than various snakes, lizards, tarantulas, tropical fish, dogs, cats, a ferret, and birds, I only had a couple of unusual pets.
Once, my family and I went to the Arboretum in Arcadia, CA. They had just stocked this giant pond with young catfish. If you threw food in the water, they would act like piranha, and eat it in a swarm. I decided to see if i could catch one by hand, and I did. We brought it home in a ziplock bag, and put it in our 100 gallon aquarium at home. This fish was a voracious monster! It killed and ate every single other fish in the aquarium. I remember it lying on the bottom of the tank, with a hugely distended belly full of tropical fish it had eaten. We gave it to a guy at a pet shop, and it proceeded to eat all of his fish too!
I have also been feeding the fence lizards in my backyard for years. I have had up to five waiting at the back door for me in the morning. I just toss out mealworms to them. Sometimes they get so excited, they would run up my pant leg to eat. They would even eat them right out of my fingers.
My mom made friends with a wild scrub jay in pasadena, that would fly in the front door every morning for a few peanuts. We named him Jaws. He was so cool.
Once, my family and I went to the Arboretum in Arcadia, CA. They had just stocked this giant pond with young catfish. If you threw food in the water, they would act like piranha, and eat it in a swarm. I decided to see if i could catch one by hand, and I did. We brought it home in a ziplock bag, and put it in our 100 gallon aquarium at home. This fish was a voracious monster! It killed and ate every single other fish in the aquarium. I remember it lying on the bottom of the tank, with a hugely distended belly full of tropical fish it had eaten. We gave it to a guy at a pet shop, and it proceeded to eat all of his fish too!
I have also been feeding the fence lizards in my backyard for years. I have had up to five waiting at the back door for me in the morning. I just toss out mealworms to them. Sometimes they get so excited, they would run up my pant leg to eat. They would even eat them right out of my fingers.
My mom made friends with a wild scrub jay in pasadena, that would fly in the front door every morning for a few peanuts. We named him Jaws. He was so cool.
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Frank, my grandmother lived in Sepluveda (Northridge) and there are pictures of me 4 years old feeding a blue jay she named Charlie peanuts!
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Wow...my memory is coming back to me...we didn't own them but we used to have a lot of wild birds including flocks of ducks or wild parakeets, egrets and peacocks come to our yard growing up. Ducks would swim in our pool, egrets would try to eat our kois from our koi pond, and peacocks ate my mom's flower buds and would be chased out by her. The slow ones would often get attacked by racoons or something...it was a lot of drama in suburban No. Orange County. Oh yeah, we did have horse stables that we rented to neighbors but eventually we stopped b/c we couldn't BBQ w/out the huge horse flies attacking food. Lucy from the next door had a new turkey every year (she ate it for txsgiving and would raise a new one) who would occasionally fly over the fence and leave a big mess. I wished I had a sulcata or aldabra then--horse stable could have been converted to house a big tort or two. As for the craziest pet, I liked my spotted puffer fish that ate sea monkeys and followed my finger trying to chomp on it.
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