What’s the most unusual pet you or your family has ever had? Cats and dogs are fairly usual pets in the average household, but I was wondering about some of the more unusual pets that my friends online have had in their lives, so I asked them!
I posted: “I want to hear from you about the UNUSUAL pets you’ve had or have now! have a lot of questions for you!
“What was the pet? Where did the pet come from? How did you find the pet and why did you decide to adopt it? Tell us the pet’s story!
“What were the problems, if any, with the pet? What were the joys of having this pet?
“Would you recommend this kind of pet to a friend?
“How long did you have the pet? How long does this kind of pet live? Was veterinary care for this kind of pet easy to find or not? Were there health issues? Was health care for the pet expensive?
“What do these pets eat? How are they housed?
“Would this kind of pet be appropriate for a family with children?”
I asked: “Please tell us what we should know about this particular pet!”
Here are some more of the very interesting answers that I got. Enjoy!
Jamie Robinson (California) I’ve had a few pets that weren’t the norm. Tarantula, huge five-pound toad, parrots of all sorts, rats, and in some cases the food the unusual pet needed (crickets). But my favorite was a Blue and Gold Macaw named Gordie. Macaws are native to South America. Blue-and-gold macaws are native to the forests of South America, from Panama in the north to Argentina in the south. They prefer tropical and subtropical forests, where they can find food, water, and shelter. They are also found in open savannas and grasslands. My husband and I adopted Gordie from a friend. She was nine months old and, according to the friend, just too much for them to handle. They thought she was a he, hence the name “Gordon.” We got her blood-tested for sex and she came up female. But she already came to her name, so we just changed it to Gordie. [The problems with this pet were] avoiding her bite and handling the screaming. She loved to call the dog, “Shanelle, come here!” and when the dog would go into the bird room, the bird would scream “Get off the couch!” We had her for 7 years until we got divorced and he took custody of her. Blue and Gold Macaws have a lifespan of around 40 years, but under human care, they can live up to 80 to 100 years. There was a vet here (Florida at the time, where there are lots of breeders for parrots) who was strictly an avian vet. We never had any health issues with her, but two of the other parrots we had got injured and the care was definitely expensive. We fed all our parrots (17 total) raw fruits, vegetables, and seed. We chopped up everything in the mornings while they all watched. [They were housed] in cages which were all oversized. Gordie’s was 5 feet high, 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep. She also had “her” tree—a magnolia in the backyard. She was free to fly away if she wanted, but she never did. Parrots are very intelligent and learn very fast. Gordie knew at least 30 tricks—recall, stay, climb, go potty, and a few others that made life easy. This kind of pet would not be appropriate for a family with children. They bite and that bite can break bone. Would I recommend this kind of pet to a friend? Mostly no. It would have to be someone willing to learn about parrots.
Melissa McCue-McGrath (Maine) I had a hermit crab when I was 13. I currently have pet chickens. Yes, they lay eggs, but they are bougie chickens—this one looks like she is twice divorced. Her name is Sargent Pom Pom.
Photo by Melissa McCue-McGrath
Carol Duncan (Texas) When I was a child, I “rescued” a number of wild animals; e.g., an injured baby armadillo, an injured cottontail rabbit, and a little garden snake. Unfortunately, none of them had good outcomes, as I didn’t know what I was doing and there was no one to guide me. I cannot remember how long I had them. I had the garden snake the longest. It hibernated during the winter, as I kept it in the garage, which was unheated. It eventually escaped from its enclosure. Surprised the heck out of my mother when she found it loose on her laundry shelf. I also had some mice that I got for a 7th grade science project. I had two black and two white mice. I wanted them to breed so I could do a project on color genetics. However, they never bred. I think they were all males. I didn’t know how to sex them. They lived in my sister’s and my bedroom until my mother decided they smelled too bad and evicted them to the garage. I remember one night waking up when one of them escaped its cage and it ran across my face. No vet care was ever provided. This was in the 1950s.
Steve Duno (Washington) Possums.
Erika Deasy (Washington) I caught a tree frog at a friend’s house on Spangle Creek when I was about 12 years old. Naturally, I had to bring it home as a pet, much to the surprise of my parents, who gave me a small glass tank for it to live in. I named him Nick after my crush at the time: Duran Duran’s keyboardist Nick Rhodes. (It was the 1980s.) Nick required live food, or at least that’s what my parents told me, so every night I went outside to catch food for him. I stood directly beneath the porch light of our house and caught lacewings, moths, and other small insects that were drawn to the light. After two or three weeks, this became tedious and I ended up saying farewell to Nick and returned him to his home along the creek. My parents must have taught me some sort of a lesson about wild things belonging in the wild. The very next year, my sister caught a frog during a family outing and, when she wasn’t looking, I released it. I got in trouble for upsetting my sister instead of letting my mom sort it out with my sister before we left the forest, but I had no regrets. It was an important value instilled in me that I carry to this day about respect to wild things, leaving them to be wild and not disrupting an ecosystem.
Brenda Schultheis (Washington) I had a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach for about ten years. I got him from an insect class I took so I could bring insects into my classroom for science education. He was a friendly guy and I named him Harry. If he ever escaped his pen I could always find him on the stereo speakers—maybe for the vibration, or he liked my choice of music.
Miriam Fields-Babineau (Virginia) Monkeys.
Missy Masterson (Arkansas) Remembering a childhood pet I had back in Texas … a Horny Toad. When I was a little girl, my dad accidentally ran over one with the lawnmower and amputated one of its legs. He brought it to me to see if I could save him. I superglued the end of his little stump with a flap of his shredded flesh, and he lived in my bedroom with me for months while he recovered slowly over time. I released him into the backyard and he lived there for many years. His name was Tripod, nickname Bucko. He would come when I called him, which I always did before the lawnmower came out! Happy Trails, Bucko—I miss you. P.S. I gave him some of my dad’s beer for an “anesthetic.” He liked it so much, I continued to “treat” him with it forever. No wonder he always came when I called him!
Amy Fumetti (Washington) Wild jack rabbit the cat brought home.
Toni-Marie Hudson (United Kingdom) Stick insects. Got them from a teacher at school. Started with three, ended up with 3 million. Used to have to forage privet from overgrown hedges for them every Sunday to fill their tank.
Joan Weston (Ontario) Redleg Tarantula named Rebel. Cool fun fact? They shed. One morning you come down and there are two tarantulas. And the colors are vibrant after. Also, you can hold them and pet them (and call them George if you wish).
Marie Hammerling (Florida) I had an iguana named Clyde, and he was amazing, almost like a cat. He knew his name, walked around the house and was perfectly paper-trained, except for one memorable event. He was jealous of my ex-boyfriend, jumped on his head and pooped all over his head. That was a statement for sure!
Sodonnia Wolfrom (Arkansas) I don’t know if it counts, but I had a couple of brown recluses that lived in my bedroom. Their names were George and Alex. I found them in my room and let them live. George was slightly bigger. They were pretty friendly. I would hold them and gently pet them. They never bit me, despite my handling them daily. On occasion, they would find their way into my bed, and I would relocate them back to a window sill. George eventually got eaten by a dog, then one day I found Alex on the windowsill, dead. They would climb into my open hand willingly for their daily scritches. I adored them.
Leanne Barker (Alberta) In college, I had a little black bat, named “Acro”… I fed him fruits and tried crickets, but the crickets escaped and multiplied and then serenaded all the dorm residents for months! I wasn’t very popular.
Christina Rosa (Washington) Spiny mice and African soft furred rats!
Trillium Schlosser (Washington) I had a menagerie of quail, pea hens, tortoises, turtles, and guinea pigs. All the little ones lived with me in the garage. The pea hens lived with the ducks because the chickens hated them. I think tortoises, land turtles, and guinea pigs would be good for children. Red-eared sliders or any of the water turtles are really hard to maintain and keep healthy. Tortoises and turtles are easy to keep even for younger children. They live a looooong time, though. Tortoises can live 30+ years with solid care. I eventually donated mine to the elementary school for their classroom. The quail were awesome! I had a small covey of 20, give or take. They would follow me when I took them out, like ducklings follow their mom. Any “vet” care they got I did, dusting for mites, getting egg bound, figuring out genetics for breeding pairs, incubating eggs, etc. They were normal upkeep if you had chickens or ducks, but they also needed room to get out and run around.
Jean Lehman (Pennsylvania) Not sure how unusual this is, especially for farm kids, but I had a pet pig. He was the runt of the litter and the mother had stepped on him. His side was gaping open. I asked if I saved him, could I keep him, snuck into the pen and snatched him up. Nursed him to health with constant care, sleeping on a rug beside his box for those 2am feedings. He grew up healthy, and played with us all the time.
Elisha McCallum (British Columbia) Sea cucumbers. They were a lower-key vibe.
Nichola Walker (Ireland) A centipede along with various tarantulas. She was great, actually. Never handled, of course—no species is dangerous to humans, but that particular species has a very painful bite. She was kept in a bioactive enclosure and any feeding or cleaning was done with tongs. Pretty easy pet to keep. Mostly I just dropped some food in every few days, meal worms and dubia roaches.
Glenda Lee (Maine) A disabled duck! Corky came to us from the stock room of a Tractor Supply where I was repping for Blue Buffalo back in the day. Poultry are hatched one day, shipped out the next and wait at the post office to be picked up. I don’t know if she was born with neurological damage, was damaged in shipping, or was dropped by an obnoxious kid. This is before Tractor started completely fencing them in. So she was in the back under a heat lamp with a bunch of chickens, waiting to have her neck wrung. I’m a sucker, so she came home with me! She couldn’t walk properly on the left side. She lived inside and we’d take her out for a swim in a little kiddie pool a couple times each day. In colder weather she got the bathtub in the extra bathroom. She didn’t truly know if she was a duck, a cat, or a dog! If one of the GSDs got too close to her crate, she’d shoot a poop ball out at them!! She loved swimming, though, and when she’d have to get out we’d wrap her in a towel. She loved being held and would stretch her neck up to put her head on a shoulder. She lived just two years and I like to think they were very happy years, knowing she was loved.
Ann Dupuis (Massachusetts) Snapping turtle.
Stine Theede (Idaho) For a while I was a member of a herpetology society and another member was looking to rehome her blue-tongued skink. The skink had an easy, docile temperament and was great fun to do public education with. They are a ‘hunter predator,’ an opportunistic omnivore eating a wide variety of plants, fruits, insects, snails, and beetles. I loved that it was easy to get proper food for her: I made her salads, bought her crickets, and gave her the occasional piece of fruit. She wasn’t social but didn’t mind being handled and there was something calming about watching her slow movement and holding her on your arm. I made her a harness so she could get down and walk on the grass/ground and use her senses, or I would have her in a small animal pen outside. It is, however, important to make sure a cat or a dog can’t grab the skink—or even an uneducated human who mistakes it for a snake, which is how the previous owner lost her other blue-tongue in a public park. She grew while I had her and at some point I felt like I couldn’t provide the terrarium size and care she needed and I let her go to another reptile person. As a typical reptile, her needs for correct temperature, hours of light, humidity, etc., were more stringent than a warm-blooded pet’s. They typically live 15–20 years. As reptiles go, skinks are generally pretty easy pets as long as you can meet their physical needs. But I wouldn’t solely trust the pet stores regarding recommendations for terrarium size, etc., but instead check with fanciers and specialists.
NEXT WEEK: Even more “unusual pets” that folks around the world have had!
