who has the most unique pet????

[atcrider1]

im trying to persuade my parents to let me buy an emperor scorpion for $20 or a jacksons chameleon

[Thorpe]

I got a dog... This is Dingo...

[code200k]

just got a black lab although my uncles freind had a pet skunk an another one had crocigators and snappers and bunch of exotic snakes

[dcreel]

I've got a rat.

[Mosh]

I dont have them anymore, but I used to own a Ecuadorian purple tarantula (About 8 inches in diameter)
http://www.swiftinverts.com/species/purp2.jpg

And We also owned a Ball Python and Red Tail Boa. Both snakes were Domesticated and we kept them below 5 ft in length.

[code200k]

I dont have them anymore, but I used to own a Ecuadorian purple tarantula (About 8 inches in diameter)
http://www.swiftinverts.com/species/purp2.jpg

And We also owned a Ball Python and Red Tail Boa. Both snakes were Domesticated and we kept them below 5 ft in length.

how do you 'keep' a snake under 5 ft?? just a small cage or what

[harryredtrike]

i got these

[Mosh]

how do you 'keep' a snake under 5 ft?? just a small cage or what

You can regulate their feeding habits, and cage temperatures, and their activity, to keep them small.
The downside is they loose life expectancy.
Some Boas can live to be 20-30 years old.
Keeping them small will cut down quite a bit.
That is one of the reasons I got rid of them , while they were still young.
So they could grow their normal life, in the care of a professional handler.

They are quite attention oriented. They reqiure extra care, that normal pets dont, which can take more time to raise vs. a normal mammal.
We always fed them live mice, however, handlers say dead or frozen food is the way to go.

[Thorpe]

i got these

That gives new meaning to the pick up line, "wanna see the weasel in my pants...?"

[inv3ctiv3]

I've owned all kinds of different snakes, lizards, frogs, turtles, toads, etc etc etc.

My favorite that I have owned was a Desert Horned Lizard aka a Horny Toad.

[cox]

You CANNOT regulate a red tail to be small. i have been keeping snakes for years. The only thing you can do is starve it, and i hope to god you never did that. If you power feed it then it will grow fast and lose life expectancy. you can regulate it so it does not grow as fast, buddy of mine has a 9 foot red tail and its got lots left to go. I have had some seriously exotic pets. At one point i had 24 Tarantula's, 1 emperor scorpion with babies, 1 green forest scorpion, 1 Vietnam death centipede (very poisonious) A 5 foot Mangrove monitior ( closest relative to a komodo dragon that is legally obtainable here). 2 Ball pythons, 1 Black mexican kingsnake, and 1 cali king. wait here is some pics........

My son, my wife and bodar the Black mexican kingsnake

My new Ball python Zepher, very very young.


SPIDERS!!! lol
Ornamentals, these spiders can move faster than you can blink! for real...


Zebra Knee

Frank striking a pose, one of my G. Rosea's

Cobalt Blue

i also had a Goliath Bird eater, the worlds largest spider. About the size of a dinner plate, lol. used to feed him anole lizards. cant find any pics though. i know i got some......
Otis the Mangrove Monitor, just little in this pic


Scorpion are so easy to take care of, emps are so nice. They will never strike you unless you back them in a corner or they are trapped. i used to put mine in my mouth all the time, and let him just run around. Also if it ever got out, so easy to find. just look in the closest dark location from his hide and there he/she will be. People just fear them, its instinctual. Same with spiders, im sure some of you think im crazy for keeping some of these. But spiders are the most predictable animals, after you keep them for a while you know what they are going to do before you stick your hand in there, lol. Except the centipede, do not ever ever ever get one of those, they are evil and vile little creatures. Not predictable at all, and VERY poisonous. Mine used to hollow out mice when i fed him........ NOT COOL

[Mosh]

You CANNOT regulate a red tail to be small. i have been keeping snakes for years. The only thing you can do is starve it, and i hope to god you never did that.

You obvioulsy have more exoctic pet experience than I do.
But please dont imply I starved the snake to death.
I got rid of them early on, because, I realized raising them to their potential was not something I could handle at the time.
Our snakes were about 1 1/2 years old.
The Ball was about 42 inches,the red tail was about 50-52 inches


I fed them mice every 2-3 weeks vs. every 10 days to 2 weeks.And I stuck with smaller mice vs. rats and larger prey.


These were instructions I was given by experts at the time, some 16 years ago.
Maybe since then the advice is different.
It has been 16 years since I owned them.
At the time, experts said that keeping the cage on the cooler side, would make them less active and regulate their growth as well.I kept the cage at aout 82-85 degrees. Most of the info I find today, still follows these practices.
Our Red tail was a male, and their average size in captivity is 6-8 ft.
So keeping one around 5 ft, by food and habitat regulation, is not all that uncommon.

http://www.redtailboas.com/general_c...eral_care.html

"Red tail boas will generally grow to an average length of 7 or 8 feet and can live to ages of 25 to 30 years in captivity. Your actual size will be directly proportional to the amount of feeding. For example, you could feed your boa a smaller sized rodent every two weeks, and the boa may never grow larger than 4 1/2 to 5 feet. On the other hand, if you were to feed aggressively, then your boa may achieve a size of 10 feet or longer. There have been reports of 12 foot boas weighing 80 pounds!"

[cox]

i never meant to imply you starved them, sorry bout that. Ya with that diet it would be a slow grow and life expectancy would greatly improve. If it was that long ago, if your redtail is still around it would be VERY large. ive seen them 18 feet domesticated, not fully grown. it can eat large pets and unwanted/misbehaving children at that point. lol, a buddy of mine used to take in free cats from the local classifieds for food. I wish live rats were legal here they make excellent feeders. Till then i got my hamsters...... lol

[cox]

just like to add that is an excellent link. Lots of very good well thought out information. Bookmarked that one..... thank you :cheers:

[Mosh]

No worries, I just didnt want people to think I was a snake killer.LOL

Another reason we got rid of them, was because at the time, they told us snakes can be dangerous to young childeren becuase of salminila (sp) poisining..My wife became pregnant with our first kid, and we had to move to a house that did not allow pets.
Snakes are unique creatures, and are very cool to have around.
Now that I own my own home,when my kids get older, we may get another in the future.
Definatley would get another Red tail..It was a cool pet.
We handled it quite alot with out any problems.
Our ball Python was tame, but more finicky than the red Tail.

You definately have a unique collection though Cox.
What is the going price for a young Red Tail these days?