What's the strangest animal you've seen someone have as a pet?

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   Melissa A Smithposted 12 years ago

   What's the strangest animal you've seen someone have as a pet?
   
   Powerful animal welfare organizations tell us that exotic pet ownership is on the rise. Do you know of anyone with a pet tiger or any other unusual pet? What's the strangest animal you've seen someone have as a pet? A wolfdog? A sugar glider? Ducks?
   
   

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   Dubuquedogtrainerposted 12 years ago

   I had a pet clam when I was a kid.

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      Melissa A Smithposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Really? Where did you get it? I've had clams before and they are extremely hard to care for because of their special feeding requirements (plankton, rotifers, copepods).

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      Dubuquedogtrainerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I brought it home from Lake Erie and kept it in a bucket of water until curiosity got the better of me and I dissected it - not something I am proud of....a budding scientist, I guess.

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      Petfriendsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      OMG I just spit out my water! Did you name it?

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      Dubuquedogtrainerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      No, as I recall I did not give it a name.....would have been even more inhumane to dissect a clam with a name, don't you think?

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      Rochelle Frankposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Are clams harder to train than dogs? Can they be housebroken?

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      Shaddieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think this really qualifies as a pet if you killed and dissected it...

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   FatFreddysCatposted 12 years ago

   The only thing I can think of is a guy I knew in college who had a ferret. They're not so "exotic" now -- you can get them in just about any pet shop - but 20 years ago they were rather odd. He used to walk around campus with the ferret in his inside jacket pocket, so its head would be sticking out, or with it riding on his shoulders. He got a ton of chicks with that thing.

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      Melissa A Smithposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I had no idea they were considered odd at that time, although I was 4. I had one briefly.

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   Danieljohnstonposted 12 years ago

   I knew someone with a fox. It was really friendly.

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      Melissa A Smithposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      What kind of fox?

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      Danieljohnstonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not sure, it was silver - so maybe a silver fox.

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   Victoria Anneposted 12 years ago

   My friend in high school had a pot bellied pig that lived inside the house. A couple I know also has sugar gliders.

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   JThomp42posted 12 years ago

   Hello Melissa, The strangest that iv'e seen is A Groundhog.

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      Melissa A Smithposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      An actual groundhog or a prairie dog? Although I know some places keep groundhogs for the holiday.

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      JThomp42posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      No. An actual groundhog they raised from a baby.

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   RoxiMposted 12 years ago

   When I was a kid, my best friends had a pet skunk. It was really cute, but even though it had been descented, it was still pretty smelly. It liked to get into things -- bags, laundry baskets, etc. -- but it couldn't climb stairs or get up onto the furniture, so we learned to put things up out of reach.

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      Melissa A Smithposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Victoria Anne, I replied to you and erased it for a spelling error, and now it won't let me re-post. Glitches I suppose. Pet skunks are certainly unique pets, and indeed they do still smell without their projectile urine.

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      Rochelle Frankposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      one of my great-nephews has an albino skunk-- totally white furred with pink eyes-- really kind of cute.

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   Kalmiyaposted 12 years ago

   Elly May Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies (well, didn't know her but knew of her!) I remember having all kinds of strange pets but the one I think was the oddest is the opossum. We have one or two wild ones down our alley way and I guess because it's a marsupial they look really out of place in North America!

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      Melissa A Smithposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, I've seen living ones about 2x living here. All the others were hit by cars.

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      RoxiMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      We have plenty of opossums here, and I can't imagine wanting one as a pet. When I was a kid, we had them living under our house, and they're just plain weird. They'd lie in the driveway,and wouldn't leave till my dad shut off the headlights.

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   Rochelle Frankposted 12 years ago

   Ducks aren't odd.
   I had a ground squirrel that I caught in the mountains when I was ten... I wrote a hub about it.

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      Melissa A Smithposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Well, it would be in the suburbs I suppose. I was just looking for more answers Ground squirrels can also be captive bred.

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    Djaakposted 12 years ago

    A meerkat, I'm from South Africa so meerkats are common here but having one as a pet was a weird thing to me. But they make awesome pets.

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       Melissa A Smithposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Wow, I would think they would make bad pets because of their social needs and their urge to dig.

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    Shaddieposted 12 years ago

    It's extremely difficult for me to answer this question seeing as how "strange animal" is a little derogatory in my opinion, and also for the fact that I see "strange animals" (that is, animals that are unconventional) every day at the clinic I work at. When you work with wallabees, alligator snapping turtles, raccoons and prairie dogs you kind of get jaded to what other people might consider "strange."
    
    However...some of the more unique animals I have seen as pets have been coatimundis, kinkajous, and binturongs. Personally I think monkeys make the absolute weirdest pets, but I have not run into one of those yet.

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    1. 99

       Melissa A Smithposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       By strange, I meant uncommon, as those animals you listed certainly are (this is a good thing). Primates might be illegal where you live.  I'd love to have a kink or a wallaby. Monkeys are a little harder to defend as pets.

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       Shaddieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       The legality of owning certain pets certainly hasn't stopped the droves of squirrel owners who bring in to us their vicious little biting monsters. Binturongs make surprisingly decent pets though!

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