Ideas for a pet

[Animal]

Get a Chia Pet.

[lethoso]

If you have the time for them, budgies make great little pets, and don't require a massive cage so long as you take em out a lot. I have a budgie in my house and he is a hyperactive little guy, he is also relatively quiet, except when he is talking to the lorikeets outside, or when everyone is eating dinner while he is inside his cage, he is at his quietest at dawn. Only trouble we have with him is he is highly territorial about his cage, so it makes bringing him out a little bit of a hassle, but working on training him out of that. He does shed a lot of dust though, but as far as maintanence is concerned it is relatively low compared to a cat or dog.

Out of curiosity epona, what sort of parrot do you own? I'm looking at getting a larger parrot soon (tossing up between an alexandrine, a quaker or a king parrot) and your parrot sounds like a lovely critter.

[The Ornery One]

Pets: my specialty! There aren't to many pet species that I haven't taken care of at one time or another. For a quiet, low-maintenance apartment pet, the best choices are reptiles, tarantulas, and non-exotic rodents.
The best types of lizards to get (that are relatively low cost and don't grow more than a foot or two) are geckos, skinks (check about the species first), and anoles. If they are insect eaters, you can get their food free for most of the year (but no mealworms for anoles). Drive along most country roads or go on a fishing trip to find box turtles (mud turtles have bad smells).
Tarantulas have no smell and their container won't either as long as you pick out the empties (insect husks) after a few hours. Just make sure you have a container that has a lid that leaves NO gaps for escaping. They can get through smaller spaces than they look like they can.
Mice and rats have life spans of only about 3 or 4 years and will eat just about anything, so if you run low on their food, they can get by with low salt crackers, chips or bread. Also, they love fox tail weeds. EDIT: And yes I still have Edmond contained. He loves teasing the cats.
Fish aren't as boring as I used to think, but there is high cost and maintenance for anything other than goldfish (which my experience shows them to be having qualities of the inbred).

[ 06-12-2003, 01:15 AM: Message edited by: The Ornery One ]

[Epona]

johnny & lethoso (and also Gangrell if you read this!) - there's a great parrot forum here if you're interested - a nice bunch of people who like to talk about their parrots. There are a few breeders there, and a student avian vet, so it's also a good source of advice on all aspects of parrot keeping.

lethoso - I have a Senegal parrot. He is wonderful, but typical of the species - feisty, aggressive, nervous, and hates everyone but me. I don't know anything about King Parrots because they're not common in the UK, but I know that both Alexandrines and Quakers make excellent pets.

King Parrots - what I've heard is that they don't make such good pets because they have a tendency to become untame when they reach maturity. I don't know how true that is, there is little experience of keeping them in captivity in the UK, but they tend to be viewed as aviary birds rather than pets.

Alexandrines - don't tend to bond too strongly to one person because in the wild they take a new mate each year, so are less jealous than other parrots. Can be noisy, but are generally quieter than other ringnecks. Need handling every day or they will become untame.

Quakers - absolutely adorable little birds, when I was after a parrot it was a toss up between a Quaker or a Sennie. They are highly intelligent and good talkers - they need to be kept entertained, and some of them even start talking before they are weaned. They make strange noises which some people (even parrot people) find unpleasant, so it would be a good idea to go and listen to some before taking the plunge - personally the noises they make don't bother me, but it's a personal thing. Don't get one if you're ever considering moving to the US because they're banned in many states. They can become cage territorial, but training can minimise this, and you should train them to step up onto a dowel perch just in case. Most of them like to sleep lying down in a cardboard box on the floor of the cage rather than on the perch - but avoid those happy hut things or fabric nests because I've heard horror stories about birds chewing them and hanging themselves in the holes they've made.

Personally out of those 3, I would go for the Quaker, but I suggest you go to the forum I posted a link to and ask for advice there - there are bound to be people on that site who have personal experience of all three species.

About your territorial budgie - if you move his toys and perches around regularly, he won't view it as 'his' cage so much, and that may help. My mum's budgie is like that - bites the hell out of you if you put your hand in his cage, but is sweet as anything outside it.

[johnny]

Thanks for the link Epona, i bookmarked it, and i'll check it out later.

[Lovisa]

A tip don't ever buy a hamster, they are just annoying...

[lethoso]

yup, i bookmarked that forum as well, will check it out when i have a little more time (damn end semester exams).

Thanks for your opinion of those birds epona, especially of the quaker. I've not yet had a chance to see a quaker except in photos, so i'm at a bit of a loss as to what they are like, but from the stories i have heard of them they are nice little birds [img]smile.gif[/img] Hopefully i'll be able to get a look at a quaker at a bird show near me that is coming up soon, went to one last weekend, but alas, no quakers.

[Melusine]

I happen to like hamsters, Lovisa. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
The can be left alone for a couple of days because they don't use a lot of food/water, so if you fill their drinking bottle fully, they are fine for at least three days. They can be tamed quite easily and usually are active at night, just like students. They *can* be kept in small rooms, I live in a student's flat and I keep one no problems. And they're also pretty damn cute.
But like some other people said, you do need to think carefully about whether you could take care of a pet. Even fish, small reptiles and rodents need to be cleaned regularly. My hamster doesn't cost much food-wise, but you do need to keep your finances in mind as well. If all else fails though, you could always get a Neopet [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[ 06-12-2003, 12:25 PM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

[B_part]

Originally posted by johnny: quote: Originally posted by StigTC: I'd say you need a tarantula. They don't take up much space, they don't eat much, they're pretty and they're great for scaring the living daylights out of girls . As for the snake suggestion. I'd advice against that, they take up more room than you'd think, unless you get a really small one and let's face, what's the fun in that.

You rather scare girls away instead of luring them into your dorm ??? I don't see the logic in that. [/QUOTE]It's logic if the pet pops up after the girls have entered, blocking the door to all but the bravest...