When most of us think of pets, our minds usually go straight for the classic cat or dog options, maybe even a guinea pig if you’re feeling a little bit ~exotic~. Outside of the usual options, there’s a whole world of pets that people like to keep, and not all of them are exactly safe for the home environment.
Below are some of the weirdest pets people have, and while some of them may seem desirable to you, we in no way recommend or endorse getting one unless it’s absolutely legal, and most importantly, it’s the best thing for the animal itself.
Let’s jump in, shall we?
1. Lizards
Look, lizards as pets aren’t all that wild, but they’re certainly a departure from your everyday domesticated animals.
There are so many different types of lizards, but according to the Australian Museum, the most popular ones kept as pets in Australia are the Blue-tongue Lizard and the Central Bearded Dragon, both of which are fairly easy to care for, apparently.
2. Spiders
As someone who’s terrified of spiders, you could not pay me enough to keep one as a pet. I’m not saying they all need to die or anything like that – I respect their position in the world of insects – I just don’t want anything to do with them.
People keep all sorts of gnarly spiders as pets, but tarantulas seem to be a popular option. According to MyPets, there are many which require permits to have, including the Bird Eating Spider.
If you’d like to see what it’s like to own something called a Goliath Birdeater Tarantula, you can see that in the video below. I’m not going anywhere near the play button on this one because I’m liable to throw my entire goddamn computer out the door if I do.
3. Snakes
People think I’m weird for saying this, but I don’t mind snakes. If I were to see one in the wild it’d probably be a different story, but my experiences with pet snakes have been fairly chill, as limited as those encounters have been.
There’s a decent bit of care that goes into having a snake, and folks who keep them often have to feed them live animals like mice, which is pretty rough. You can even adopt them from the RSPCA in some states.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jETaGralXg4
4. Capybara
A capybara is essentially an enormous guinea pig. They’re native to South America and are the largest rodent in existence, which is actually pretty cool. While they are known to be kept as pets in some areas, Animal Planet says they can never really be totally domesticated.
They require a lot of room to roam around and some kind of pool to take a dip in, so they’re certainly not something everyone could have, even if they wanted to. A full-grown capybara is, on average, about 1.2 metres long and weighs around 45kgs. They’re generally pretty chill, but need a fair bit of attention.
Please watch a capybara playing with its doggy pals below. It will make you whole.
5. Cockroaches
I live in Sydney‘s Inner West, so in a lot of ways, cockroaches are already my pets because they’re fucking everywhere. According to Animal Planet, many people like to keep something called a Madagascar hissing cockroach as a pet, which is… Well, it’s a bit much.
Listen to this thing go off below, it’s horrifying.
I’m sorry, but if a cockroach hisses at me, even a little bit, I’m stepping on it.
I am not at all a bug person, so a Madagascar hissing cockroach is definitely not something I’d consider letting into my home voluntarily. In fact, there’s only one kind of bug I’d be happy to see crawling around my house, and that’s a ladybug. Non-threatening and kinda cute is my vibe here, folks.
6. Sea Monkeys
Not that uncommon considering you can buy these almost anywhere, I just wanted to point out how weird of a concept it is. Sea Monkeys are just brine shrimp, which are tiny crustaceans.
It’s odd, to me, that we keep pets we can barely see, to the point where we need magnified bits on the plastic tank you don’t need for any other pet. You can’t even pet them.
7. Goddamn alligators
Alligators are not pets. It’s pretty much as simple as that, folks, but it seems as though a lot of people really don’t care. You only have to punch “pet alligator” into YouTube to see how many actually keep these beasties as pets.
Sadly, many exotic pets such as alligators are kept in conditions that just aren’t suitable for them. An example of this is Rex the alligator, who had an owner who loved him but simply could not provide adequate care for the reptile, ultimately giving him away to someone who could.
You can hear more about Rex in the video below. I gotta say, he seems pretty chill.
If you wanna see an alligator you definitely won’t wanna keep as a pet, you can do just that on July 11 when ‘CRAWL‘ hits cinemas. It stars the wonderful Kaya Scodelario and is sure to give you the heebie-jeebies in a big way.
Once again, a pet is a huge responsibility, no matter the species or breed, so think long and hard before you take the plunge and make sure what you decide on is above board.
