What Do You Want One of Those for?
If you keep exotic or unusual pets how many times have you been asked that question? People can’t seem to understand why anyone would want to keep a snake or a spider. As someone who is fascinated by animals, especially the less commonly kept animals, it is hard to explain to people the pleasure you get from keeping such animals. People assume that you are a little bit weird to want to keep a snake or a hedgehog. From a personal point of view I get a lot of pleasure from just watching my animals and get satisfaction from keeping them.
If people didn’t keep unusual animals how would we ever establish new pets, less than a hundred years ago the Golden Hamster was unknown to the pet-keeping world, and now it is considered common and is freely available in pet shops. Also animals that are common in other countries are unheard of in this country. The African Pygmy Hedgehog is so common in America it is no longer considered an unusual pet, and like the Hamster it is being bred in many different colour varieties.
So what makes certain animals become popular? The main reason has to be the ease of which they can be fed, species of snakes that only eat frogs are unlikely to become popular because of the trouble of obtaining a supply of frogs for food. The Golden Hamster became popular because the food it eats is easy to obtain, and make commercially, this is one reason why a lot of rodents are common as pets.
One other important reason is how easy they are to house and how much space they require. Animals such as the large boas and pythons make good pets but are too large to house in the average semi (unfortunately many people don’t realise this when they the cute little snake. The corn snake is a popular pet because it can be housed in a relatively small tank.
Another reason why animals become popular as pets is the ‘cute factor’, Pygmy Hedgehogs are popular in America because they are cute and people want cute pets. Look at the chinchilla this was an animal bred for its fur and now it is a common pet because it is cute to look at. Children are good at spotting cute pets, which is why Hamsters, Chinchillas and such like are popular children’s pets (No disrespect to the thousands of adult owner of these animals)
The initial cost of the animal and the cost of its upkeep is also a big factor in whether or not an animal becomes popular. Macaws and other large parrots are not likely to become very common because despite be relatively freely available and cheap to keep, the cost of these birds puts them out of the range of many people.
There are many other reasons why animals become or don’t become popular as pets, the smell of some animals is objectionable. The Americans have got round this problem by having pets such as skunks and ferrets descented. This practice is frowned upon in this country and you would be lucky to find a vet in this country willing to carry out this procedure. Some animals have loud voices, which prevent them being kept as pets, peacocks are commonly kept on large country estates where the neighbours can’t hear them.
Pets and exotic animals will as always suffer the same fads and crazes as anything else will, one moment the American Pit Bull Terrier was the dog to have (and they are popular again in some quarters.) This led to them being bred in large numbers to supply the demand, consequently this led to poor quality dogs being bred with questionable temperaments. The fact that were so popular also led to them being kept by owners who were unsuitable, with no knowledge of large dogs with guarding tendencies. Thus the American Pit Bull became a victim of its own popularity, when there was attacks on young children the government acted and banned the dogs
The same sort of fad occurred with the German Shepherd Dog and Rotteweiler will people calling for them too to be banned. The same happens with exotic pets. The Burmese Python is an easy to care for snake with a docile temperament but as it became popular it was kept by unsuitable keepers. The large size of this snake means it should be handled with care. Because of a few incidents with large snakes all of sudden the public wanted snakes banned. Other exotic animals suffer neglect because the owners are unaware of how to care for them properly. This leads to the general public and animal welfare organisations protesting that exotic animals should be banned.
It is for these reasons that owners of all pets, not just exotics should be well informed on how to care for their chargers. Owners of exotic pets have to ensure that they are above reproach on all aspects of ownership, because if someone mistreats a dog or cat then nobody calls for dogs or cats to be banned. If someone is found to be mistreating a snake or a lizard then the general public and RSPCA want the keeping of exotic animals banned. The general public can’t understand the reasons why people want to keep exotic pets, so it is important for us to educate people and show them that we are not weird and that we can keep our animal healthy and well cared for. That way we should be able to keep the anti-pet brigade off our backs and carry on keeping our pets.