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Pets MEGA Cats VS Dogs - POLL!

The Big Question - Cat v's Dog


  • Total voters
    164
Simple and easy to care for- scorpions, or a cool spider, like a trapdoor.

Of course this depends on where you live, and whether you have access to bugs to use as feed- whether that's catching htem yourself or buying from a supplier. I had a less-than -water-tight aquarium, so I got (at most) 12 southern rock scorpions, maximum length about that of a cigarette, not all that aggressive as they are nocturnal- but a few would get all worked up if you try and pick them up by the base of the tail. Pretty cool and self sufficient set up with cactus and heating lamp in fish tank, just had to feed and check the water once a week or so. Never got stung, but I hear they are as venomous as a wasp- best hope you aren't allergic.. Eventually they began to die because of a mite infestation from too much decomposing food- crickets and beetles in the tank, so I let the survivors go in my garden.

I caught a trapdoor spider once and set him up in the same way with plenty of dirt from where I found him, leaves, sticks etc. I would buy crickets from a pet store nearby so he'd have plenty to eat, but he never settled in, i.e. never built his lair and just kind moped around all depressed, so I let him go after two weeks. I was quite looking forward to seeing a trapdoor spider in action, but it was not to be.

Insects and arachnids can make really interesting pets- cheap and easy to care for, and dispose of, if / when required.
 
Everyone knows I love all creatures great and small. The other week, on the evening news, they had a five minute segment devoted to this small pet bird that had escaped and was presumably carried away by the wind and lost. They showed the owner all in tears in their richy bitchy house, pleading into the camera for people to save their little birdie. What struck me most was the detailed, tearful description by the owner of this poor little bird, sitting all alone somewhere, in the cold, shivering, scared, lost, homeless. I immediately fired off an email to the news station with a request to devote half as much time to a segment about a poor little human, sitting all alone somewhere, in the cold, shivering, scared, lost, homeless. I even mentioned that they need not rush; this winter would be as good a time as any. I've yet to receive a reply. :\

Birds are nice though. Serene. I have two generations of pigeons and a falcon visiting me on the twenty somethingth floor. They come at different times - the falcon in the spring and autumn, the pigeons during summer - and I often wonder if they know of one another's time table. I remember documenting, briefly, the hatching of the second generation of the pigeons in the old journal here. Messy affair that was.
 
How about a couple of turtles? You could start them off at opposite ends of the house when you leave in the morning. They would meet up half way just as you were coming back home. Going to bed, repeat.

An ant aquarium/terrarium. I could watch one of those for hours!
 
SillyAlien said:
Shmoo!!!

shmoovy2.jpg
YES!!!!!!! OMG!!!! =D



And actually, you could potentially have a cat. Bengals (the kind someone mentioned earlier) and Siberian-Russians are considered relatively hypoallergenic. You can actually buy a real, completely hypoallergenic cat, but they cost 4000 dollars, lol.

Another cool pet to have would be an octopus. They're actually very similar to cats other than having to live in a tank. Or a cuttlefish or other similar aquatic creatures are good.
 
^^^^

Yeah geckos can break off their tail, but leopard geckos have pretty hefty tails. They don't break off like a common lizard or house gecko. I once found and caught a really cool looking house gecko (or at least i think it was). I've always wanted a gecko that could stick to the glass, which this one did, but 3 days after I had it all set up in the tank and shit the fucking tail broke off so I let him go. It took little to no force at all to break that little guys tail.
 
dude, sugar gliders can be somewhat ferocious!

i used to love it when my little empee would rear back on her hind legs and make her 'crabbing' sound! it scared away our lab/setter mix, and terrified my cats!

i like the hedgehog idea!

prairie dog?

also, yeah, ferrets aren't really stinky. their waste is kinda smelly, but that's usually b/c of their diet! they're so fun, too!!!!

ooh...get some roosters! COCKFIGHT! call him 'el diablo'! nah...not really.

darthmom- i am so jealous! i have always loved goats! i srsly want a pygmy goat! i could take him to the dog beach here! and he would go car for car rides and walks!
 
I have a ball python, over 100 fish, veiled chameleon, douglas squirrel, two rats, and a bat. Those are the more exotic pets I have, I also have a dog and two cats. We have goats and cows and chickens as well but I wouldn't call them pets.

The squirrel was dragged into our house by the cat and I took it away and cleaned it's wounds with iodine, kept it covered with neosporin, gave it antibiotics. It's fully recovered now and is the most awesome pet I've had. I took it outside and let it go and it just followed me around so I'm keeping it.
 
awww, that is awesome kul. squirrels are so adorable. have you taken it to be checked for rabies though? isn't it a big worry with squirrels or is that a myth?
 
It's possible that any mammal can carry rabies but it's very rare that a squirrel would have rabies.
 
wesmdow said:
im moving out soon (hopefully) and id like to get a pet, as ive always lived with >10 cats in my house.

were moving into an apartment

i love animals--except dogs--and i dont want to give up my babies... BUT they technically belong to my parents, and my roomie is alergic to cats. this makes me pretty sad.

anyway, i want a pet that isnt a dog, and i cant have a cat.

ferrets smell terrible, so fuck that.

what other kinds of mammals make good pets?

i was thinking of maybe a raccoon?

and tazmanian devils are illegal, right? (i think itd be awsome to show up those big tough dealers with their pitbulls... "you got a 80lb pit, eh? come check out MY pet....;)"

A friend of mine had a squirrle as a pet growing up. Apparently they're just like cats but with a bushyertail and alot faster.

As a plus, they wont bring home dead animals and everyone will say "Aww its a squirrle!" when they come over.

He got his from the inside of a wall when they were renovating (just a little pink thing stuck to drywall that he took care of) so I guess youll have to find a nest and get it early in the spring.

Skunks also make pretty good pets too if you take their stink bag out, but I wouldnt want to be the one to catch it...
 
I've heard wallabies make good pets, but they probably need room to run around and stuff. I dunno how that would work out if you're gonna be in an apartment.
 
well i live in austin texas, so most of the aussie pet ideas are out.

ive had pet scorpions and i loved them--untill i put them in a tank together (the petstore guy said theyd mate) and they promptly locked claws and killed each other. it was pretty funny, save that they were my pets :(.

i like the squirrle, skunk, and octopus ideas-- although octopi are rather expensive arent they?

o and i HATE birds!! ....and they live as long as you do! (god... my girfriend's (whom im hoping to be with for a while) JUST got one of those grey parrot things darthmom was talking about, and my gf is set to inherit it... i hope her grandparents live a LONG time....)
 
Actually, a really amazing way to have fun with an African Grey is to feed it store brand pistachios. Plucks out all of its feathers in about two days. Stupid bitch of an ex-roommate did this to my other roommate. Note: Never room with two very masculine lesbians.

Do not, I repeat, do not, get a racoon. Racoons are all cute and fuzzy until they get pissed, latch on to your jaw, and claw out an eyeball. Yes, I have seen this happen.
 
it's not as if he's going to listen to any of the advice given.
 
^my friend and i are reading this thread together.

so far, we like octopi and hedgehogs.

id very much like a raccoon--i mean, people handle pitpulls just fine and they can EASY KILL you!
 
yes, but pit bulls are DOMESTICATED.

have you thought about finding a vet that will treat a pet raccoon?
 
wesmdow said:
o and i HATE birds!! ....and they live as long as you do! (god... my girfriend's (whom im hoping to be with for a while) JUST got one of those grey parrot things darthmom was talking about, and my gf is set to inherit it... i hope her grandparents live a LONG time....)

Why dont you get a pet ladybug- I think they live around 2 weeks...could you possibly handle that amount of responsibility?

Or maybe a pet rock, they dont need much looking after...you could paint a smily face on it and say its a icnericus peruni from Peru, a rare and strange amphibian, itll really impress your friends.
 
Ditto for birds living a long time; a friend's dove lived to be at least 20, and macaws and grey parrots may outlive you. Still, they've got nothing on tortoises. ;)

As for geckos, I've heard that the bigger ones can be aggressive. I'm a man of simple tastes; if I ever get a lizard, it will probably just be an anole (those lizards everybody calls "chameleons" even though they are completely unrelated). I love those things.

And of course, there's always the quiet beauty of fish...
 
my friend is boring and doesnt like the idea of reptiles.

finding a pet is gonna be hard. -_-
 
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