Have you owned any nontraditional pets?

Mr. Ed

Mr. Ed

Life does not deserve my gratitude.
Location
Central NY
Nontraditional meaning unusual or exotic pets?

For a short I owned a 8 ft boa constrictor, a friend gave me the huge reptile because his wife recently had a baby. The boa was huge, I fed her rabbits, after her first feeding she pooped in the relativity small place for her size place she was kept so I tried to bath her in the bathtub. She coiled herself around the faucet, hot & cold water fixtures forcing hot water onto her massive body.

I do not recall the details but somehow I was able to pry Moriah (who was clean now) back to her living space. I realized if Moriah had turned on me, for whatever reason, I wasn't prepared to care for a snack as large as she. I returned Moriah to her original owner.

Another short-lived pet I owned was an albino skunk I bought from the pet store. Lucky was adorable, unfortunately he didn't live long enough for us to know one another.

I had a HogNosed snake who flared his nostrils and fiercely hissed to ward off potential predators.

Any turtle owners? Birds? Spiders? Squirrels? Ferrets? Hedge Hogs? Share your story about your magnificent pet(s)
 

ronaldj said:
does a milk cow count or a few goats
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I grew up on a large dairy farm .... all the animals seemed like family when I was a kid. 😀 ... I enjoyed them, especially the pigs ..lol ..they were a fun lively group! Goats were fun too.
I loved them all, well except for the mean bull that was in the pasture. He scared me to death!

Neighbor girl had a pet skunk .... of course it had the 'perfume' sack removed
 
Had an alligator lizard we caught in the yard when I was little. Fed him flies.
In the islands somebody caught a baby sea turtle and gave it to me. I finally set it free.
Then, as a parent, my son had a hamster (nasty little bugger). He got loose once and I had to crawl under the house to retrieve him. Then we had a series of rats (no not chewing the walls, although there have been those). They make great pets and are very sweet but do not live long.
 
When first married, we lived in a 3rd floor walkup and were good friends with the landlord James, and his wife, who lived on the 1st floor. It may be hard to understand but James and I were both creative types who egged each other on to do some strange things. James could be characterized as someone who relished a challenge that few others would undertake (e.g., jacking his big old house by himself and adding a another floor, making his own boiler for heat and power, etc.). Somehow we got talking about tropical fish and alligators, which set in motion the construction of a huge aquarium tank and acquisition of a small alligator, procured from the local pet store. Well, the one aquarium grew into hundreds and the alligator got so big tenents were afraid to go down to use the washer and dryer in the basement. Once the gator got past 6 ft. in length, we wrestled it into his station wagon and took it to the local zoo. You could say it was a shared project pet, of sorts. We learned some about the care and feeding of alligators, which was of no earthly use after that except for being a shared, humorous experience.
 
I had a great variety when I was very young. I guess the most unusual were tortoises I rescued as eggs when floods hit, buried in the backyard and waited until they hatched; a beautiful Australian sugar glider which visited the food I left on the rose trellis each day; an Australian water rat down by the creek and a very large freshwater crayfish I kept/fed in a cut-down drum in the backyard for many years. Also had quite a number of the more traditional kind pictured below.

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RnR said:
Apparently, the world's oldest land animal is Jonathan the tortoise, due to turn 189 years old in 2021. In his lifetime, Jonathan has lived through two world wars, the Russian Revolution, seven monarchs on the British throne and 39 US presidents.
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I know tortoises have long lives. I didn't know just an average turtle could live for 20 yrs. I don't know much about turtles anyway.
 
I had a boa constrictor at one time. My friend (I use that term loosely) was a topless dancer and she danced with her snakes. One of them was really long. I managed and bartended at the bar she danced at and the owner would leave as soon as she came out of the dressing room with the snake. Funny how many men were terrified of them. They would bring their drinks up to the bar when she danced instead of sitting by the stage.

I also had pet. Rhode Island Red. She was the only chicken I had so I kept her in a dog kennel in the kitchen and let her outside during the day with my dog and cats. I still miss her.

I had a Pygmy billy goat and he caused a bunch of trouble for me. I ended up giving him to someone who had a herd of them but no billy.

Now my house rabbit is considered an exotic pet, at least at the vet's. But just like having a dog or a cat.
 
When I was in the 4th grade our class had a school trip to the circus. During intermission many venders came out and walked through the rows selling peanuts, popcorn and various circus related items. One man had little boxes attached to a large piece of cardboard. Each box contained a chameleon and a few dried up flies.
I bought one and had him in a fish tank for quite a long time. He wouldn't eat the dried flies so the whole family swatted flies during the summer. My mom froze them to get him through the winter.
I also had turtles, hamsters and Guinea pigs.
When I think about it now, how heartless it was to stick those lizards in a tiny box. At least one had a happy home.
 
When living up at our cabin, I acquired my little buddy

Golden Mantled are in the squirrel family, but look more like chippies

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This guy was my bud
Followed me everywhere

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He'd let me know if I was late in setting up dinner

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I used him as my model when marketing my chipnic tables

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Kind of a sad parting when we moved to town

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