Strangest pet you've owned

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I fostered a solomon island skink and owned mousebirds.

The skink was captive bred. (They propagate sloooooooooooow, sadly.) They're having a lot of trouble in the wild with deforestation and collecting (locals even eat them, which is terrible considering how amazing they are) and I always say to myself if I make millions of dollars I'm going to support their conservation in some way. They face a lot of problems but they're amazing animals.

Mousebirds are the sweetest birds. They just want to cuddle, even when paired. The downside is their digestive system is really fast. They eat fruit and shit fruit everywhere often. The shit is, however, just fruit mush... so it's not super gross. Everything else is amazing though. They're so sweet and loving.

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my pictus geckos are probably the least common of my reptiles. They're cute. More cat-like in behaviour than other reptiles I have experience with. This is the only gecko species I have seen that self grooms even when not during shedding phase. They're always fastidiously cleaning their little toes especially.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend as first and/or only reptile pet. They can be pretty shy and will semi-brumate during winter even if the temperature in their tank hasn't changed. They still get up to eat from Octobrer to March but it's pretty much straight back to sleep after doing so.

Pic related is Sprite. She was gravid when this was taken, that's why the chubby belly.

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I'd like one of these cuties!

I used to have a pet stick bug

>>2271625
you know they basically do fuckall all day, right? it's like a pet rock that lives for only a few years

>>2272074
>few years

10-15 years.

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My mum and I used to look after animals through Wires (Australian wildlife rescue organisation) for a long time and occasionally you get animals that can't be released back into the wild so they just get put down. Some are sort of allowed to be kept but generally it's frowned upon especially if they have a disease and weren't very young when they came into care.

We had this large brushtail possum that had very limited eyesight who was super sweet. She obviously couldn't be released so we kept her for ages in the house as a pet. She was fine with the cat and everything but the cat would give her a clawless slap when she'd try and take it's food.

She'd often come up and sleep on your lap or head, super gentle and lovely little thing never bit or did anything bad.

Can't remember what happened with her I think we went on holidays and someone looked after her and she caught some disease and passed? Don't remember the details but it was sad as she was super sweet and was like having a second (much nicer) cat wandering around the house.

Also I used to love when we looked after ringtail juveniles as they are the cutest little buttons you'll ever meet.

Always got heaps of possums and they are one of my favourite animals, so chill.

We also once had a kookaburra that got lost from it's parents so we just had him in a smaller aviary outside for a couple days. Kooka's from our area started hanging out with him and later that day they busted him out and took him in. No idea how they got him out it was locked and everything, smart creatures. It was the perfect thing to happen though since all we would have done is had him in good health for a little while and tried to release him with a group of kooka's anyway, so this was just awesome.

Would post photos but don't have any on this PC so this is a google found photo of a little ringtail.

>>2272326
I want your life

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>>2271625

I bought one when I was a kid from some pet store that had it labeled as a mudpuppy.
It wound up transforming into a really cool big tiger salamander I had for years.
At the time I had a fire belly newt, two gray salamanders (can't remember what they were) and a California newt.
The fire belly newt was one of the most resilient animals I've ever had. Some friend of mine had it for years and barely changed it's tank water and never used any chlorine remover when he did, it would get so bad the newt could walk around on the layer of surface scum.
I wound up talking him into giving it too me and I had it for like another 10 years.
He was in a big squat bowl on a book shelf for awhile and I came home from school one day and noticed something odd in the corner of my eye as I walked by.
My pink toed tarantula had escaped and was hanging from the edge of the newt's bowl drinking. The stupid plastic clip had broken on his little feeding hatch door.
Was one of those "what the hell am I looking at?" moments.
The tiger salamander was the most active and "friendly", it would come scurrying out of the water when it saw me to beg for food. He wound up being about 8 or 9 inches long and pretty fat and could have easily eaten all my other amphibians had they ever been in the same tank.
I came home and found him dead with a big katydid stuck in his mouth which my mom had caught and given him because he was so fun to feed with his happy Kermit face and it was before we had any close neighbors to really have to worry about pesticides.
She still feels bad about it.

>>2269829
My family does wildlife rehab/rescue for the government (in a country in South America). I usually deal with insects and arachnids but have helped various species.

Swallow-tailed hummingbird
>Cute as fuck, would chill with me, follow people all day long and hover all over the place. Went nuts when presented with coconut water, but tried to sneak-lick soda out of people's glasses

Blind Snake (Typhlops brongersmianus)
>Quite entertaining to watch as it burrowed and slithered around inside the mud terrarium. They're vicious little fuckers if handled, they either throw a fit by squirming around or try to bite with their turtle-like mouths.

A variety of longhorn beetles including the Titan beetle
>Do not ever stand near them unless you're up to having a beetle brooch for a while. They hold onto clothing for hours on end. Their bite is also pretty damaging and can actually remove chunks of skin. Fun fact is that they make a very high and annoying sound if held.

Silver Orb Weaver (Argiope Argentata)
>They're just gorgeous to own and care, they shine like actual metal in the afternoon sun. They're very calm, they don't bite if handled slowly. Also pretty amusing to watch them build their huge webs.

Brown Widow (Latrodectus Geometricus)
>Pretty scaredy for a spider that has flesh-eating venom. They're more likely to curl up into a ball or run than bite. They also reproduce at an insane speed and have taken over half my yard but I love them.

Moths (Pseudosphinx Tetrio, Lonomia obliqua, Automeris io, and many, many others)
>Nice as pets since all they do as caterpillars is eat all day and look cute. Some of these are very very dangerous so no handling until they're past that stage. Once they turn into moths they have to be released very fast, but there's a 2-3 hour window were you can hold a beautiful flightless fluffball (and get covered in moth blood/fluids that they pump out their butt when stretching wings).

I've got way more but comment too long.

The only "exotic" thing I own is a turtle, and not even an exotic one.

However, my grandma used to own a Collared Acari for years back in Central America. (Where it's expensive as fuck to own one here, it's easy as shit getting one over there, she knew a breeder. ) Was the sweetest bird I've ever seen when I went to visit her. My grandma literally brought her anywhere we went in a little carrying bag, from some parks, malls, hotel room, and even the goddamn airport. Got tons of onlookers when she took her out and had her sit on her arm casually. She was chill as fuck though, and grandma even let her slept in her bed with her and basically treated her as a grand daughter

Sadly both passed a way a couple years back, the bird a year before my grandma.

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I have quite a few rare and hard to find inverts and coral in my reef tank.. 90 species of coral in all.

>>2272588
That's cute anon but he posted a picture of an Axolotl which stays in its juvenile state it's entire life. Salamanders do look like that in the same life stage so I understand the confusion.

>>2272694
Awesome tank!

>>2272769
Thanks!

>>2272653
if you got more do tell!

>>2272694
So tell me, how hard is it to keep a marine setup with corals? Been doing freshwater for a while but always put corals in the "awesome but too hard for me" bucket.

>>2273331
Honestly, it's easy. Almost to easy. I've spent maybe 200 on the special lights, high quality tank (biocube), and that's basically all. Stocking is a different matter but that's up to you personally.
I've had planted freshwater tanks that required more work then my reef. I feel pretty comfortable leaving it for up to a month at a time with my automatic top off. Biggest thing you can do, have a refugium area growing chaeto with an Uber strong (can be cheap) light. And you'll be Golden.

>>2272664
Collared araçaris are tame? I thought toucans were usually dicks.

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>>2269829
im pretty drunk but here we go
> be a slav
> love animals
> go catch a snake and take it home
>a wild snake which i put into an aquarium, putting a wood board over it so it doesnt escape disappears l among the water in the
>didnt know snakes actually dont like water all that much if there isnt any land nearby
> fast forward few days later and all the little fishes are gone, and the coverings board is moved just enough so that the snake can escape
> it did, nowhere to be found, keep in mind i lived in a 2 room apartment
> whenever i opened a window, fucking pigeons would start to swarm it, for no apparent reason
>a week later something starts to smell and my moving the desk in front of the window we found a shit ton of feathers and a dead snake, pecked to death, everywhere
> i get beat the shit out of me by ma mom

mom fucking ass still hurts when i remember it 20 years later

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Skunk. Pic related

>>2273741
If you're going to make up stories, you might want them to not be -completely- nonsensical and retarded.

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>>2269829
Stand offish and tough, but really fun to have.

Coconut crab!

>>2273935
Is that a water monitor?

Halloween crabs, a ground squirrel, multiple opossum (from the same litter), prying mantid, and 3 wild house finches.

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Bump, this is a cool thread.

>>2271625
Atoxacotyl?

I owned/rehabilitated a 3 legged alligator snapping turtle. No clue how he lost his leg but I'm an amature field herpetologist and I was out doing my thing and found him. I picked him up so my brother could snap a picture and he started freaking out. Turns out the poor guy had his left back leg torn off (still fresh and gory) right at where it met the shell. He was fully grown and mean as fuck but I put him in my truck and took him home, loaded him up in an old 200 gallon tank and duly rehabilitated him. It took about a full year for him to heal up all the way but surprisingly he acted like it never happened. I lived on a farm with a huge lake and would see him all the time after I released him, and his lack of a back leg slowed him down but really didn't phase him otherwise.
Sorry for droning on and repeating myself I'm drunk. Good times though.
Oh and I named him Nubbs.

>>2273345
They're apparently considered far more sociable than some of the larger toucans and as such almost crave affection.
My grandma's almost seemed to welcome anyone, even strangers.

I used to have a petsitting business.

A guy dropped off a juvenile lion, once. He was some software developer who had raised it from a baby in his house. Somehow he had a legal permit for it.

I also had clients with fancy pigeons and carrier pigeons.

Probably my favorite pets to sit for were the giant tortoises, though. Those were rad. They had so much personality. Nothing was cuter than watching them eat tomatoes.

>>2272326
That sounds amazing

I've met someone with a pet deer. Apparently does make good pets, and bucks to, but they're more risky

>>2269829
living in central europe I havent seen much.
my mother had two hedgehogs over the years. both times she took in baby hedgehogs that likely were abandoned by their mother. sat for 2 days in our yard at the beginning of winter nearly dying. my mom nurtured them back.
they fucking loved my mom but hated everyone else. she was the only one where they'd relax and even cuddled. if I or anybody else came near them, they just put up their spikes.

the other time was in the very south of spain. a guy walking his black panther on a leash at the beach. villagers told me he was some kind of drug king pin. there i learned that spain isnt really europe