Who here has exotic pets?
I have 9 so far. Here are my 5 snakes:
Butter Stripe Palmetto Corn snake Mexican Black King Snake Toffee Hognose Clown Het. Ball python West African File Snake
My other exotic pets
Bearded Dragon
2 Hedgehogs
Russian Tortoise 🐢
I have quite a few exotic pets. I always adopt the no-maintenance varieties. No regrets!!
~ Sunset Snuggles
🦄 Enthusiast 🏞 Travel Fiend 🐘 Animal Lover
@SunsetSnuggles Definitely no-maintenance there! lol.
My snakes are the lowest maintenance I have. It's a chore to take care of everyone (and I had a cat!) in my mini zoo.
@LadyVel I'm addicted to hedgehog baby videos! They're so cute! Are hedgehogs really as cuddly as the videos?
@LadyVel I can't imagine! Do you ever travel? I've spent a fortune boarding my dog, depending on where we go. He's been to Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado with us, too, though! 🚙
I would love love love to have something like a prairie dog, a tiger, a squirrel, a fox...so many things...but maybe I can open a wildlife sanctuary someday, that gives injured/unreleasable animals a forever home. 🥰
How big is your tortoise? He's adorable!
This is Daisy, our Guinea Pig. 🐹
Petting zoo!
@CuddleHugs01234 Precious!! What's the care level? Do you actually have to clean their scent glands? (Also, doesn't she need a buddy?)
Hedgehogs are awesome.
https://youtube.com/shorts/vQY1L-oUREU?si=f1kjt2NEEqE_2fYa
@Minestrone101 Some will cuddle and fall asleep on you or in pouches. You have to work with them to get them used to being handled a lot. Warning: I have been pooped and peed on so many times.
@SunsetSnuggles I do travel a little but it's hard to board / find sitters for Exotics. If both me and my roommate are out... I have 2 friends (one morning shift and one evening shift) that stop by and turn off and on lights and make sure everyone but the snakes have their stuff daily. Most my snakes are only fed every 7+ days depending on size and age.
My tortoise is about as big round as my hand I guess?
@LadyVel I have a sitter for your exotics! She's a bit nerdy, but she sits all the time...
@LadyVel It's worth it ! I think lol so adorable.
A: Look! A flock of zebras! B: It's herd of zebras A: Yeah, I've heard of zebras -- there's a whole flock right there!
Apparently a herd of zebras can also be called a dazzle or a zeal
@LadyVel Thanks! love your little friends .
@Minestrone101 to better answer your question from the other thread of "are any of them venomous..."
For all extents and purposes, all of my snakes are considered non-venomous. However, Hognose Snakes, while they are not dangerous to people or pets, they do, however, produce a mild venom in their rear fangs that is used for subduing prey.
Actual venomous snakes require a special permit, training, and housing in order to own them. Even more laws and requirements surround creating anti-venom if someone wanted to do that.
@LadyVel Wow, you're an expert. That's good. It's sad about how some snake owners abandon their snakes. I think that's how pythons in Florida got every where .
@GreyingBear 😂 You made me and my boyfriend's night. 🦓
@Minestrone101 Nah, not an expert.
All it took was one male and female since female Burmese pythons can lay 50-100 eggs per year. With no natural predators down there, they can quickly multiply. Apparently hunters can kill Burmese pythons and other invasive reptiles on private lands all year, without a permit or hunting license in Florida.
@LadyVel Yeah that's awesome! I was watching some show where these guys catch them with their bare hands in the swamps. Pretty exciting. 50-100 eggs are a lot. Wow. Those things are so dominant in the habitat. I forgot there's an invasive fish species on east coast of the US that can be eaten. I think this one: Northern Snakehead.
Thanks for the lesson!
@SunsetSnuggles Thanks! She is a cutie! I clean her cage weekly, feed her twice a day, no gland cleaning needed that I know of, and I clip her nails monthly. We rub her throughout the day. They do like buddies, but we spend time with her daily, and our schedule works out where we see her a lot. She’s in our main room, she has two birds near her, and our cat lays near her. The cat has actually gotten in her cage twice, because she likes hanging out with her. Here’s a pic of yesterday. Yes, a cat would normally be a predator to her, but if the Guinea Pig walks toward the cat while both are outside of the cage, the cat runs! And I believe the cat knows not to eat her, as she sees she is a pet, and I believe the cat loves her Guinea Pig friend. We do remove her from the cage when she gets in it. The cat sleeps on the dog bed in front of the cage on a regular basis. We used to have a hamster, and while the cat would paw at her a little, she also knew our hamster was a pet, and never tried to eat her.
@LadyVel would you bring any of your snakes over to join a cuddle session? Will there be an extra charge?
@CuddleHugs01234 Any chance of seeing the birds?
@GreyingBear Here are the sweetie birds. That’s what I call them, because they are sweet. Father and son finches.
This is Phoebe, my male budgerigar aka budgie/parakeet.
When I got him as a rescue they were sure he was female, thus the name, but he is very clearly male lol. But he had already learned his name and he doesn't know the difference, so who cares? 🤷🏻♀️
He's not super tame unfortunately as I haven't had the time/energy to work intensively with him and only more recently moved somewhere where I could securely lock the cats out. But he's a happy little guy who chatters all day and provides lots of comic relief 😁
(Sorry for the blurry pic, birb did not want to hold still for 2 seconds this morning 🤣 Birb gotta birb.)
@cuddlefaery 😃 Phoebe the boy birb! 🤭 I named a squirrel Mr. Paws once, only to find out many, many months later when the winter fluff fell off, that whoops, 'twas Mrs. Paws! But I couldn't bring myself to change the name. 🐿
@SunsetSnuggles yeah, in hindsight I should have left Phebes named "Quinn" as that's more gender-inclusive. "Phoebe" is about the only word Phoebe mimics consistently, other than telling the cats "no!" (You can tell what I have to yell at my middle child a lot 😅), and mimicing my laugh and sneezes lol. He'll also talk with the outside birds and randomly copy jingles he hears, but that's usually less recognizable. Though one time he very clearly busted out the McDonald's "bada ba ba ba" jingle and I just about died laughing 🤣
This is not my Guinea bird, his name is Dilbert and he is my friends. He can be psychotic nut sometimes, he chases the UPS driver
@Sooson 🤔🤔🤔 I'd have to think on it and discuss with my roommate too since they are our babies and we bought them together. I could possibly bring one to see and handle a bit. I know I would have to get a travel container and possibly bring a small heat pack (just in case) to make sure they don't get too cold. So yeah, probably have to charge extra if I did due to extra costs.
I know several people I have cuddled would nope right out if I brought them around.
How well does your cat get along with your snakes? I'd think you gotta keep them out of sight from one another.
Re: pets of different species interacting, especially predator/prey interactions
In my experience, they usually come to view any other animals they live with and interact with daily as part of the "pack", or just part of the scenery if they don't interact much. However it's important never to leave them unattended and exposed as sometimes that prey drive can kick in unexpectedly.
Case in point: twice I've had cats that otherwise completely ignored birds suddenly think they were a flying feather toy during accidental releases from the cage. One time resulted in a serious injury even though the cat barely grazed the bird and didn't even intend to hurt her - he just jumped and caught at her out of reflex. The rest of the time they were buds and would chill together, she'd even sit on him and groom him. It was a very expensive $700 vet bill, round of antibiotics, stressful healing process, and lesson for my then boyfriend to triple check if all the cats were accounted for before letting the bird out.
The other time, Phoebe managed to get through a temporary barrier I put up to keep the cats out shortly after I adopted him. While normally all 3 cats were used to living with birds and had been ignoring or just chilling with Phebes, the second they saw those flying feathers all 3 of my boys surrounded the bird. Poor Phebes still had clipped wings and couldn't fly properly, so I was yelling at the cats to keep them from pouncing. I had to chase Phoebe around trying to catch him while he panicked, the cats didn't know what to do and were torn between trying to chase the new "toy" and go hide. We all were scared and stressed out, and I still haven't fully regained Phoebe's trust - birds don't forget those sorts of traumatic experiences easily.
But 99.99% of the time I've owned cats and/or dogs with smaller animals like guinea pigs, rabbits, and birds with absolutely no problems and even had them treat each other like friends and mourn each other's loss. You just have to know how to prevent accidents and how to quickly respond when they do happen.