I cannot even express how much I love this ask! Bugs are highly underrated as pets and I think they have great potential as a source of engagement/stress-relief for people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to have a pet.
You’ve actually got quite a lot of options. Here are my top recommendations:
1) Madagascar hissing cockroach
Large, can’t fly, slow moving and very gentle. They live 2-5 years with proper care. You can have a whole colony or just a couple. They’ll eat dog and cat food, vegetable scraps, fish flakes, pretty much anything (it’s so cute to watch them eat). They can learn to recognize individual humans and won’t hiss when someone they know and like picks them up.
2) Bess beetles.
Gentle, slow moving, and make adorable noises. They have the most varied vocalizations of any insect; adults live in pairs and raise offspring together (though it’s very rare for them to breed in captivity). They live around 1-2 years and eat rotting wood (if you can’t find a local source there are companies you can buy it from).
3) Tarantulas
Not an insect, but since you mentioned you like spiders I thought I would throw this out there. Tarantulas are very low maintenance pets; just misting (for humid species), refilling the water dish, and feeding every 1-2 weeks. Most species could go for 2 weeks or more without any care and be totally fine. Some of the mellower species will tolerate gentle (and very careful) handling. Tarantulas are a bit more of a long term commitment though as females can live 15-20+ years.
4) Praying mantis
These guys can be a bit more delicate as nymphs, but they are some of my favorite insects to work with. They are gorgeous and so attentive and cute (fun fact: they groom themselves like cats). Exotic species are in a legal gray area so I recommend buying a well-started nymph of a hardy native species from an actual mantis breeder (not from educational websites selling egg cases). These guys need a bit more care as they need live insects 2-3x times a week as nymphs and fairly regular misting (though I’ve never found feeding a chore since it’s so fun to watch them eat). They are a joy to handle when they get larger and adults of most species can live in an enclosure the size of a large mason jar. Downside is they only live a year maximum.
Hopefully that gives you a good starting place from which to do more research. I would be happy to answer more questions if you have any!
I just finished writing 6 sympathy cards. Yesterday I wrote two. Most weeks I end up making at least three. The majority of them are sad but also a relief, the pets were euthanized because we could no longer help them and they aren’t suffering anymore.
Lately though, I am writing cards for pets (especially exotics) that died due to apathy. Looking back through charts I see all the recommendations I made that weren’t followed. “Advised owner to purchase UV light. Advised owner to get thermostat. Recommend not feeding hamburger and switching to crickets. Advised owner that the temperature is too cold in the enclosure. Gave owner handouts on husbandry. Gave owner shopping list.” I don’t understand if the disconnect is because I am not doing a good job explaining why I make the recommendations or if people truly don’t care enough.
I explain my exam findings and what they mean. I show owners changes they can make and why we should make them. I send home husbandry guides and shopping lists with websites and stores to purchase items. I do follow up calls and keep in touch via email. And yet people will not do anything. I have some patients that come in every 3-4 months for the same problem. “You know, if you just buy that light and increase the humidity, you won’t have to see me anymore. You spend more on visits than on the supplies.” I’ll keep seeing them until the pet dies or has to be euthanized.
This isn’t just exotics either. I’ve had cats die of obesity. Dogs die from infected teeth. All things that we discuss ad nauseum and I practically beg people to change.
I can’t write “I’m so sorry to hear Chico passed away because you wouldn’t buy a heater.”
So I’ll keep writing them, and I’ll keep making my recommendations. But I wish I didn’t have to spend so much on stamps every week.
Due to the hazy smoke-filled air and raging fires around here I’ve begun replenishing my emergency fire kit just in case the fires start heading closer to home. In the instance of evacuation we need to be ready to move fast not only for our own safety but also for our pets. It doesn’t take long for smoke to kill a bird, even if you think you’ll be safe it’s best to plan ahead.
Primary things to grab:
pellets/ seed
water bottle
low thread count pillow cases and elastic bands
a mask for yourself
Secondary things to grab (if you have extra time/ can prepare ahead of time):
canned fresh foods
travel cage(s), dishes for the cage(s)
cage covers to filter smoke
medical records, vet numbers
confirm arrangements to go to a friend/ relatives house or locate pet friendly hotels in the area, bring a list of them and their addresses
toys
treats
flashlight
a drawstring bag or backpack to keep everything in
If you’re in a rush out the door grab the essentials, food and water, a pillow case can act as a lightweight carrying device for parrots.
Step 1: Flip pillow case inside out, stick your hand inside and grab the bird
Step 2: remove the bird from perch and pull them in to the bag
Step 3: Once the bird is safely in the bottom of the bag fold the top over and wrap an elastic band around the top to secure it
Using a pillow case allows you to easily carry multiple birds at once, if you have a belt loop they can be strung on to your hip while you grab necessities. The pillow case will help to filter out some smoke while still allowing air to come through making it safer than running out the door with a cage, breathing straight smoke in to their lungs. Quick and convenient for emergency evacuations.
If you have time to plan ahead then prepare travel cages ahead of time and get some sheets to put on top to filter out the smoke, have food and water dishes packed away but not full, don’t want it splashing around making it harder to carry on your way out. Keep seed/ pellets in tupperware containers and a water bottle filled up regularly with cool water to fill the dishes later on when you’re safe. Pack some canned veggies to suffice during your evacuation in case you don’t have friends or relatives near you and have to stay at a shelter, if you have the means try to locate a pet-friendly hotel to stay at. Practice retraining your bird with the pillow case ahead of time if you can, it’s a lot better to have them used to the concept than end up with a bird frantically flying around the room during an emergency situation. Practice emergency evacuation, where will cages go in the car, where is everything kept, run the birds through the routine.
Be prepared and stay safe.
I don’t know about you guys but we just had the wonderful experience of an earthquake. While this post is relative to fire a lot of it is still relevant, earthquakes can cause gas lines to break or electrical things to go awry which may cause fires. The bagging technique above and kit are still great things to have to quickly get birds to a safe location. To add on, if you’ve got a bird and have an earthquake do be certain to move them somewhere with strong cover, pop them in travel cages if you can and get them under something to protect them from any potential falling debris. If necessary getting everyone outside may also be the safest open to take.
A lot of this information is helpful for small animals too, not just birds.
I think its really important to be prepared for a natural disaster, especially if you have as many pets as I do. Since my entire state is basically in flames right now, this is as relevent as ever.
Be very, very careful of people who lament that desexing/spaying/neutering pets “depriving them of sex which is a joy of life”. At best they are uninformed and projecting. At worst they are… well, we’ll get to that.
Desexing animals is not abuse. It is done both for population control and preventing suffering of such pets without homes, but also for the individual benefit as it reduces disease, violence and misadventure. Pros and cons of desexing have been discussed at length on this blog, and generally have more in favor for it that anything else, even if you only consider the benefits to the individual.
Animals do not have a concept of what they’re ‘meant to be’, nor that they are ‘missing out’ on something. Animals are not human. They do not have a human psychology, they do not have emotional attachments to their gonads, and they don’t engage in sexual activity as any sort of social bonding.
As for people who think that “desexing an animal is abuse because then they can’t have sex which is one of the joys of life,” be very careful.
Firstly, an animal is capable of sex after neutering. We just don’t want this and don’t encourage it. Generally the animal has no interest in it either.
Most people, especially most pet owners, consider pets to be something closer to children than to sexual beings. People who are seeming to fixate on the sexuality of their pets concern me because they will potentially be seeing intent in that animal, and it’s usually a dog, which isn’t there. And there’s often not a huge difference between how they perceive pets and how they perceive children.
Adult humans have a distinct power differential over both animals and children, and perceiving either of these groups as somehow innately sexual is profoundly wrong, and I am uneasy around and have concerns about anyone who would express these opinions.
I am not saying that such people are definitely pedophiles or bestialists, but that’s what’s waiting down that rabbit hole if you follow that line of thinking.
So be very, very careful of people saying animals should have sex, would enjoy sex, and want sex, when it is really an instinctual reproductive behavior and not something they do for pleasure. These thoughts are wrong, as are the behaviors which result from them.
Because their next lines will be “But you can see in their eyes they want it” and “they totally consented non-verbally” when they just can’t.
Just be very wary of anyone who’s particularly into the idea of their pets in particular enjoying sex.
Thus far, only 5 non-human species are suspected to have sex for pleasure. Pigs are confirmed, bonobos are confirmed but not allowed to be kept as pets in the first place. Three other species are suspected of sex for pleasure, and dolphins are known to attempt to mate with creatures that do not slightly resemble their own kind so I’m
Cats, dogs, rabbits, and anything else that is kept as a household pet have shown no signs of mating for pleasure. Female cats, in particular, are often distressed after mating because male cats have spikes on it.
Also the fact that people who argue this point are completely ignoring that there are equivalent surgeries for people, who don’t have any trouble being sexually active and healthy! Humans who have surgeries that roughly parallel spaying and neutering – hysterectomies and orchidectomies respectively – still feel sexual arousal and desire. It’s been studied and surveyed and tested.
Castration is not the end of sexual desire in species that mate for pleasure. It simply prevents pregnancies that are unwanted or cannot be cared for.
Pigs is definitely a new one for me, but I can’t find the reference in WIkipedia. There’s no footnote about that point, and it would be very interesting to know how that was studied or whether it’s just assumed because pigs have quite a large clitoris. Has anyone actually observed non-reproductive sexual behavior or are they only inferring from anatomy?
Cane toads will also mate with things-that-are-not-toads and dead toads, but I would expect that to be just not being fussy rather than deriving any pleasure from it.
Not to add to the argument, but what about homosexuality in animals (found in about 95% of studied mammals if I recall, including domestic dogs, highly noted in domestic sheep, several species of feline (including lions), and also noticed in many large rodents kept as pets). Surely that’s not out of reproductive desire is it?
If you want to talk about homosexual behavior in animals, you have gotta look at rams. They are extremely active, to the point where sodomy is a major disease transmission route in rams, to the point where it was standard advice for a long period of time to keep your virgin rams separate from the experienced ones, lest they catch something.
But it’s still a stretch to say animals engage in homosexual behavior purely for pleasure, especially when that behavior occurs with all the same prerequisites as heterosexual behavior (season, oestrus, hormone surge, etc). It’s the same set up for heterosexual behavior, just the output or targeting is different.
In rams in particular, this behavior is most common when they are penned without ewes and have a very high drive, they’re easy to study because they perform so much sexual behavior all the time. We bred them that way.
I still would not say this behavior is for pleasure, it is still reproductive behavior, just an inefficient one.
I mean, yea lmao. I’m totally on board with both of these articles when it means ‘people who walk into petco or petsmart and want a lizard’ bc its absolutely accurate when you’re not looking at the niche communtiy of reptile keepers that actually do their research and care properly for the animals.
Yeah, my concerns with this only come with the broadness of it. Like should we ban pet stores from carrying reptiles and amphibians? Yeah, probably. I’ve never seen a good set up in a pet store. Ever.
Should we ban owning reptiles and amphibians? No, definitely not. We just need to safe guard these animals from irresponsible owners and making them go through a breeder can do that just fine. Especially breeders who vet their clients, but even just the relatively small hassle and increased price of going through a breeder will weed out irresponsible people real quick.
-Lizard Dad
Yep ^
My lottles are happy and you shouldn’t punish responsible owners for what the irresponsible ones do
I’m actually on the side of “if banning everyone from keeping reptiles as pets saves thousands of them from dying of neglect or abuse, and prevents people from releasing them unwanted into places where they might become invasive species, then it’s worth it”
The fact that there ARE people who take good care of their reptiles doesn’t change my mind about that.
Going to have to disagree here because this is such a broad opinion and can be used for several species. What about fish? Honestly, I’d argue that more people mistreat their fish than reptiles. Is this applicable for fish and other non-domesticated species as well? What about domesticated species? Dogs and cats are also mistreated by owners (obese animals, no enrichment, malnutrition, physical abuse, etc) though I will freely admit that it is not to the same extent as exotics.
That beings said, there are still species of CBB animals that CAN’T be released. They are a stable pet population and because they are specifically bred for their colors, they would not survive in the wild. Ball Pythons are a great example of this.
However, I am a huge advocate for stricter and educated reptile laws. There are some things that humans should not be able to own outside of specific purposes. Releasing ANY animals into a non native environment is harmful. This is not exclusive to reptiles. However, banning reptiles as pets will not help ANYONE and will only further the black market for imports.
What needs to happen is a push for education, especially in pet stores. Provide the correct information, especially about cost, lifespan and husbandry. Working with people, such as pet store employees so they know what they are talking about and can help others with problems. Being able to obtain reliable information is key to keeping a happy, healthy pet and we should all strive to help others learn as much as they can.
PetSmart’s new leopard gecko caresheet is infuriating
For those who don’t know:
-Leopard geckos are solitary and territorial and cannot be cohabbitated as they are not social
-A 10g is too small for one leopard gecko let alone 3
Micro pigs aren’t real. If you buy one, be prepared for a potbelly pig size as an adult, or a full sized pig if you’re unlucky.
It will not stay tiny by any means.
All the pictures you see are BABIES
Also, many people give customers the incorrect diet information for these pigs. The amount “recommended” is actually way less than the amount the pigs actually need. Breeders are essentially tricking their customers into starving their pig so that malnourishment will keep them from growing bigger.
H O R R I F Y I N G
WTF i knew about the size inaccuracy thing, but not the malnourishment part wtf
People seriously underestimate the impact the media has on notions of pet ownership and what people can handle in animals.
Books, movies, TV, and internet videos from Youtube, Instagram, and The Dodo often show animals in their best moments, or even acting because they’ve been trained to do certain tasks (or are animated as humanlike characters). The fact is that the vast majority of people, even those who already have pets, have a very low or nonexistent level of animal literacy; what they take away from that kind of media oftens turns into “I want that animal as a pet.”
People who watched Finding Nemo created an explosion of demand for clownfish and blue tangs; Harry Potter, owls; 101 Dalmatians for dalmatians, etc etc etc. When the decision to get a pet modeled after the cute, photo-ready animals seen on a screen is made, there is zero consideration as to whether or not their needs can be met and if people can actually handle them.
Media featuring animals inevitably creates a boom of abandonment and huge environmental impact precisely because people who were in over their heads and acted purely on a whim got their dose of reality, and it’s incredibly heartbreaking to have to see the news detailing such cases. These are just some examples:
Yearly reminders have to be passed around telling people not to buy rabbits on Easter unless they’re committed to actually taking care of them
Thousands of dalmatians were abandoned when families discovered that they are very energy intensive, broody work dogs that are not suited to families with small children, unlike the cuddly Perdita and Pongo
Similarly, huskies and malamutes were surrendered to shelters when people realised they are not loyal Westeros direwolves
Entire ecosystems in Europe and southern Asia lost valuable apex predators when people began poaching them to sell to fans who wanted their own Hedwigs and Errols, and again abandoning them en masse when they discovered owls are highly aggressive, loud, messy, and nocturnal
Japan imported thousands of North American raccoons after the release of the Disney movie Rascal, people let them loose in the wild, and Japan now has a problem trying to figure out what to do with their enormous pest population that has no natural predator in place to control their numbers
Pacific Reefs suffered greatly when people demanded to have clownfish and blue tangs as pets, especially considering they were caught by being stunned with sodium cyanide, which, additionally, severely damages coral as well. NatGeo estimates that up to 90% of tropical fish imported by the US are caught by way of cyanide fishing; this often ends up for naught as these fish are often flushed down the toilet or released to the wild in other ways, which is also why the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are under threat by voracious invasive species like lionfish
The gist is that the media perpetuates this cycle of people reading about or seeing animal characters, demand is created, people impulse buy those animals, and then leave them for shelters to care for or release them to the wild when they get a rude awakening and find they’re actually unable to deal with those animals.
This isn’t even counting other animals like “mini” pigs, chihuahuas, snakes, foxes, etc etc etc. And we can’t exactly blame this on over enthusiastic children when it’s adults who have the purchasing power to buy a pet, and who choose to do zero research, and who choose to indulge said children or even themselves when that I Want the TV Animal as a Pet urge comes on.
Ignoring what is essentially weaponised cuteness used for online likes is hard, especially when faced with such palatable stuff like that gif of the owl riding the tablet stylus, or the plethora of cat videos. But it costs very little effort to not only educate yourself on the needs of animals and to also not encourage a rapacious pet trade industry, but to communicate that to others so that, hopefully, we won’t have to see things like Peter Dinklage and Jo Rowling having to make statements to the news because of this problem.
ifesbob 