Reccomend Any Pets?

[OohFeeshy]

After recently loosing both the hamsters in my room (old age, I'm pretty sure one had a heart attack ), theres the non-fishy void left slightly ajar. Thing is, I don't want another hamster, or tbh any other rodents. So I thought I'd see what you reccomended as good pet for me.

My lifestyle/requirements-
~ Doen't require huge living quarters, although I can accomodate a cage about 2ft long, 1 ft wide and 1 1/2 foot high under my bed and something shorter but taller and wider on my desk.
~ Isn't massively expensive, although I can save up/earn money to a certain extent.
~ I'd like something that can fairly easily be tamed (and preferably won't bite too much in the process)
~ I'm home from about 4:15 in the afternoon, so I can't have something that needs round the clock care
~ I don't mind daily maitenance but I don't like complicated maitenence, ie, one of the hamster cages put me off cleaning it becasue it was ridiculously hard to take apart to clean.

Any ideas, or do you need more details?

 

[timmystood]

That's a difficult one.
I would suggest ferrets but you aren't probably home enough for them and don't have enough room.
I know you don't want the smaller animals anymore but how about cinchillas? They are cool little things!

 

[OohFeeshy]

Not really, I've never liked chinchillas other than to look at.

 

[Pixie25]

a budgie! i have 2 budgies they live happily in my bedroom with my 126L tank right next door to them. i let them out for a fly for a few hours a day. if you get one budgie they are VERY easy to tame (if you get them young). obviously open fish tanks would be a problem if you have a lot of those though.

budgies are loud so if you like to watch tv undisturbed this will also be a problem. they need somewhere very dark and quiet to sleep. i usually cover them over with a black bed sheet and put their cage in the spare room. the cage has a slide out bottom to clean.

if not then perhaps some kind of reptile? some geckos perhaps? they dont do much - but then you dont have to do much to look after them... lol.

 

[timmystood]

Good idea! Birds are great too! They live a long time too which is always good! Yeah, get a budgie - good idea pixie!

 

[livelife]

Do you like snakes? A kingsnake, a cornsnake or a milksnake stay a manageable size and usually don't graduate past eating mice. Kings tend to be especially laid back. You can buy mice frozen in bulk and just thaw and feed. Basically, you need a tank with a good tight fitting lid, substrate, somewhere for your snake to hide, water and heat. As adults, they only eat about every other week and only mess about that often too. Their cages only require spot cleaning, so all you have to do is scoop the mess out when it happens and give the tank a thorough cleaning every few months. You could probably find a local herp club and get one from a local breeder for much less than the local pet store would have.

What about hermit crabs? A few people here have them and might be a good source of first-hand information, and from what I understand, they're pretty easy care. They also have a long life-span.

Birds are good, but budgies are noisy. If you want one that you can handle, try a hand-raised lovebird. If you don't necessarily want one you can handle, try a finch.

Lizard might be a good option also, such as a bearded dragon or a leopard gecko. I can't give you first hand info on the care required, but again, many here have them, so you can easily research that. I would stay away from Iguanas as they get extremely large.

HTH!

Nat

 

[Isis_Nebthet]

If you're looking at reptiles I would go with a snake. They don't need UVB lighting because they get whole foods.

With geckos....they may not need uvb depending on the species but the crickets and mealworms will need gutloaded or dusted to offer whole nutrition.

With dragons they need to have food dusted with repti-cal (with vitamin d3 in it) or have a UVB light. They et plants too.

 

[consp]

If you want something to go in your cage you might want to try mice, rats or other rodents. Rats are super intelligent and tame really well.

If you can find a bit more space a guinea pig would make a fab pet!

If you don't mind buying new equpiment and placing a cage up on your desk a bird might be nice... But if your desk has a computer on it i wouldn't reccommend it... Birds flap dust and feathers all over the place and this could damage your pc . Also if you spend lots of time at your desk with a bird you may find you gt the sniffles. Maybe if you wanted a budgie you could buy yourself a large shelve to put the cage on. Thats how I've got my budgie... Close enough to my desk to enjoy him but far away enough for me to not have to worry abotu my comptuers sucking in all his feathers. (Even though on occasions I've gone inside only to find there are some... feathers seem to get everywhere )

Yes some reptiles can fit into small spaces (snakes, small geckos and the likes) but I really wouldn't suggest them if you want a pet you can handle lots. The thing about reptiles is that they are very instinctive and although some can become tame, they are not domestic like certain small mammals you can keep. Bearded dragons should NOT be kept in small spaces. Leopard geckos are the reccommended first lizard as they can fit into small spaces and require minimal care (Just heat, food & water) although because a lot of herps require special heat requirements it is not ideal to hold them outside their enclosures for long periods of time. Plus with reptiles they are best to enjoy from watching as you shouldn't handle them as often as you can some small mammals. One easy to keep herp I would reccommend for your desk is a horned frog. You won't be able to tame these guys and they are very lazy but they are so so much fun to watch as they feed (As long as your fingers are well out of the way). They do end up growing quite large but don't require massive enclosures as they enjoy sit very very still (In the wild they sit in one place and wait for their prey to come to them... when it walks in front they catch it, eat it, and then sit back down and do it alllll again)

How about incect keeping. I know you wanted something you could handle but a praying mantis makes a great desk companion. You feed them on crix and all you really have to do is keep the humidity high enough for them. You could buy butterfly cages you could sit on your desk or hang from your ceiling and rear butterflies from eggs. When they are old enough you can release them to the wild and start again. Incects make great low maintainance pets (well most anyway)!

I was reading a thread on this forum the other day in the nonfish section (i think) about hermit crabs and they might be ideal. I know you can tame them but I'm sure they won't be as fun to play with and wont interact in the same way, say a rat will.

I vote rat!

 

[mr.dark-saint]

I'd vote for a Snake or a Hermit crab. But if you want to use the stuff you already have get another rodent. If I could I'd get a "Hedgehog".

 

[consp]

Oh yeah. African pygmy hedgehogs are supposed to make super great pets but you would need a bit more space for them.

 

[Angel Lady]

Sounds to me like the hermit crab is just what you need. If it were me I would buy another ferret...

 

[OohFeeshy]

Thanks for all the replies I'd like a reptile but they're expensive for all the equiptment etc, and for things like holidays I can't really be having anything that used to be alive, plus my parents (well, my mum and my nan) really hate reptiles. A bird would be nice, I've always liked lovebirds. Actually I got a copy of the Freeads the other day, I'll have a lookie to see how much I'd expect to pay for a hand raised lovebird. How big a cage would I need? I've looked before but haven't really found much practical info apart from 'get the biggest you can afford' which obviosly doesn't help much.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

i have to say, i've never met or seen a lovebird that was even close to friendly. however, a black-cap or dusky conure would probably be good for you ~ ultrafriendly and quite small.

i suggest that if you're thinking of a bird, you append the title of this thread to reflect that. off the top of my head, jessic13 and RandomWiktor are both great "bird advisors" but i'm sure there's several more members who'd love to help you figure this stuff out.

 

[prankster705]

Tropical cockroaches or a scorpion or a tarantula or a mantid or some other bugs, bugs are low maintenance, low space, lots fun animals. I wote BUGS>>>>.

 

[OohFeeshy]

OK, I'll edit the title a tad. How easy is it to get a handraised chick? Or failing that, how easy is it to tame a bird from a petshop? On the note of mantis's, I was thinking about one too but I might get one anyway