# What is the CRAZIEST pet you ever owned?



## DeanS

Not a silly dog or a possessive cat...I wanna know what the most outrageous pet you guys ever had...you know animals that your family or friends or strangers would look at you like you were nuts!


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## jackrat

Armadillo


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## Kristina

Well, actually, my tortoises, lol. They just don't get it.

Or the skunk or raccoons or possums I raised when they were orphaned.

I have always wanted an armadillo!!!


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## Tom

Orangutan. I didn't own her, but she live with me and my room mates.

If that doesn't count then its my 16 species of roaches for sure. Look up Erycotis decipiens or Blaberus giganteus.


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## Kristina

Left turn, Clyde.


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## Tom

kyryah said:


> Left turn, Clyde.



No. I was "Right turn, Clyde". I know the guys who trained Clyde. He was a pretty good one.


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## Yvonne G

I had an emu for about 8 years. He died of old age (I got him as an adult). But I think this one is the most out there one:


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## chadk

I had a dwarf caiman in high school

I also used to catch various critters, keep them for a short while (a few days to a week tops) and let them go as a kid:
Armadillos, Possoms, giant texas bullfrogs, huge snapping turtles, various snakes, various birds, etc


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## South FL Katie

Is that a PIG?!? He looks mean! I'd still pet him though


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## ChiKat

South FL Katie said:


> Is that a PIG?!? He looks mean! I'd still pet him though



That's Mimi! (or has he since been renamed??)
http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-12368.html


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## Itort

Frank and Charlie, two miniture donkey geldings. Their favorite game was following me around when doing fence and stealing tools out my back pocket and then running across the pasture with this pathetic human with bum knees chasing after laughing the whole way. Boy I miss those jokers.


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## DeanS

I figure since I started this thing...I should put my LIST out there...photos down the road

2.2 wolves (not hybrids) 1986-1996

2.2 emerald tree boas 2000-2005

1.5 burmese pythons 1984-1996...largest >18 ft 220 lbs

1.2 Nile crocs 1978 - 1982

1.1 mugger crocs 1978 -1982

1.1 cuban crocs 1978 - 1982


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## Jenilyn

I would have to say it is my dog. haha. however, he is an American Hairless Terrier, so very strange looking. My husband and I get all kinds of looks and comments. "is he sick?" "what did you do to your dog" haha.






hubby and i also have two hedgehogs, some people thinks thats odd. haha.


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## N2TORTS

Ummm... A " FLEA" ...... I kept him in a mayo jar ! 


Thought ...I would have my own " Circus" ... one day~ .
...umm yea ... a long time ok ...
JD~ 

MY PET FLEA ~~~~~~> [ ' ]

(old pic) ,,,, he is much bigger now!


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## Maggie Cummings

I have 2 Sugar Gliders now and I think those are kind of unusual maybe not crazy tho...


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## Angi

My Mom raised earth worms. I don't really know why. Well she bought each of us kids our very own Night Crawler. We thought they were very cool.


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## terryo

I guess mine would have to be my Squirrel Monkey..Abby Girl. 
My son dressed as Aladdin for our Christmas card.


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## Tom

Squirrel Monkeys will NEVER look at the lens.


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## DeanS

maggie3fan said:


> I have 2 Sugar Gliders now and I think those are kind of unusual maybe not crazy tho...



Yeah! Crazy and Unusual are equally as welcome


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## Madortoise

If my friend D were responding, it would be his Tokay gecko. He says it's meaner than his cayman.


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## Tom

I've been chased around a room by a Tokay. Those things are serious. Green Iguanas too. People would give them to me half dead. I'd fix 'em up get them in the sun and healthy, next thing you know they are meaner than a crocodile. (or a cayman)


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## Stephanie Logan

DeanS said:


> Not a silly dog or a possessive cat...I wanna know what the most outrageous pet you guys ever had...you know animals that your family or friends or strangers would look at you like you were nuts!



I'll have you know my cats are most upset that they were excluded from the competition...cats are crazy (neurotic, psychotic) by definition, aren't they? 

And we all know Tom is going to win this contest, hands down. Make him resurrect the camel photos!


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## Kristina

My husband was at the beach on Friday with the kids and snapped pictures of a woman with a coatamundi on a leash. I'll post them when I get my laptop working again *grumbles*

I've always wanted a pygmy marmoset or a pygmy possum.


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## Tom

Stephanie Logan said:


> And we all know Tom is going to win this contest, hands down. Make him resurrect the camel photos!



Lily.


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## Stephanie Logan

Now that's a crazy pet!

Is that a saddle I see in the background?


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## Yvonne G

I forgot all about the possum I used to have. Several years ago there was a guy running for president (it was a joke) who's name was Pat Paulson. We named our opossum Pat 'Possum, after him. He was a great pet! I kept him in one of those cat cages...the real tall ones with several shelves inside. And he had an enclosed cat bed made out of plush cloth. He would eat out of my hand. His mother had been hit by a car and he was the only baby left by her body. I picked him up and brought him home.


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## Tom

Stephanie Logan said:


> Now that's a crazy pet!
> 
> Is that a saddle I see in the background?



No. Here's her saddle. You sit behind the hump. I usually put a cushion there, if its gonna be a long ride.


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## dmmj

I once owned a purple people eater, sadly he died from lack of food  ,also a snipe I caught him on a boy scout camping trip.


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## Kristina

Silky Anteater! That is the other one I want, I couldn't think of it earlier.


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## Yvonne G

kyryah said:


> Silky Anteater! That is the other one I want, I couldn't think of it earlier.



You could get an Afghan hound and pretend!


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## South FL Katie

Oh my gosh, I want to touch Lily's bottom lip.


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## Tom

South FL Katie said:


> Oh my gosh, I want to touch Lily's bottom lip.



You are welcome to, but that's an awfully long flight for some camel bottom lip touching action.


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## RandomWiktor

I have a large number of exotic cockroaches & millipedes. I suppose that's fairly weird?


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## DeanS

I think were gonna have to add millipedes and roaches to the OTHER PET sub forum


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## rsross1970

North american alligator...yearling. But I only had him a short while. His name was Elvis.


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## toribird

Oh gosh that bug...I saw that picture in the "what do you look like" thread.
The camel picture on the other hand, that one gave me a serious case of the "awwwww!"s

The weirdest pet I've had was a shrimp, named Lugosi. I didn't think it was all that strange to have one, since they were right there for sale at the fish pet store, but a lot of my friends thought it was strange. I really loved watching him swim. At the bottom of the tank, the way he walked reminded me of a spider and I didn't like that too much, but once he got swimming he looked really elegant.


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## GBtortoises

I grew up on a farm with a lot of animals, most were typical farm animals but along with rabbits, pigs, turkeys, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats I also had a racoon, a bat and several native reptiles and amphibians. One of the farms down the road had a White tail deer that used to live amongst their cows!


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## Jenilyn

lily! OMG!!!!


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## Tom

You've got to be kidding! I had a yearling named Elvis too. He was the mascot on that show Invasion back in 2006, I think. They tried to stick him in every episode.



rsross1970 said:


> North american alligator...yearling. But I only had him a short while. His name was Elvis.






RandomWiktor said:


> I have a large number of exotic cockroaches & millipedes. I suppose that's fairly weird?



Were going to have to talk roaches sometime soon. I've got 16 species. Love 'em.


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## ChiKat

Lily is AMAZING!!!

I guess the weirdest pet I've ever had is a crayfish  I got him from school in 6th grade. His name was Bozwelle. 
My friends think it's weird that I had pet rats, and that I currently have a tortoise.


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## Tom

Crayfish, rats and tortoises are all fantastic pets. I think Jackrat will have a crawfish comment for us when he sees this.


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## South FL Katie

Tom, do you have any rats? Have you trained any for movies? I love my ratties!



ChiKat said:


> His name was Bozwelle.



Hahaha best name ever!


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## Tom

We've got a whole rat room. I get jobs for them occasionally. I've had them as pets since I was around 10 years old.


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## South FL Katie

You get cooler and cooler every day


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## Stephanie Logan

Now, now, don't go overboard. 

Remember who does the poop-scooping and cage cleaning at Tom's Hollywood Animal Ranch.


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## Laura

I had a tarantula. boyfriend gave her to me for valentines day...
and I have llamas now... some people think that is weird.. and the torts, and goats, and ....


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## Jenilyn

Tom said:


> We've got a whole rat room. I get jobs for them occasionally. I've had them as pets since I was around 10 years old.



husband and i too. we have a rat room. LOVE LOVE them. well its the animal room but there are more rat cages then anything. haha.


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## TortoisesRock!

Honestly, I've never really had any unusual pets, except my tortoise lol! I say, "I have a tortoise," and other people say, "What would you want that for!?" When my mom was a kid she had a skunk! She got it from the humane society-the destunked (i know thats not the proper terminology) em. I know thats not too crazy but in the big city-it's unheard of!


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## JenniferinFL

We used to volunteer with a local rehabber. For some lunatic reason, our area only allows 6 licensed wildlife rehab people at any given time, so they can barely handle the 'important' wildlife. You know, the owls and raptors and other fancy protected critters. 
So, we pretty much had baby possums, squirrels and wild rabbits every spring.. A couple local dove babies and blue jays too some years. The licensed rehabber would send the common critters home with volunteers because she had so many others to care for that weren't legally allowed to leave the premises. Though, one time I did get a gopher tortoise that had been hit by a mower. It took about a year for it's shell to heal and then he went back to the rehabber to be released I guess. I still don't know why she sent that one home with me, it seems that one shouldn't have been passed along to me at all. BUT, I was sure thrilled at the time.
Wild rabbits were definitely my thing, for some odd reason I never lost one of them while usually most die when found orphaned even with experienced rehabbers. The trick to it I think was syringe feeding them every three hours, but housing them outdoors away from people because they spooked and went into shock so easily. BUT, I dunno, maybe it was just really weird luck year after year. 
The local shelter used to let us have any 'exotics' that came in because their policy was to euthanize instead of adopting them out. But, I guess sneaking them out the back door to a volunteer was okay for whatever reason. 
Though, unfortunately people usually turn over exotics when there's no longer really any hope for recovery, at least that was the case at our local shelter. Probably my favorite though was a hedgehog that was brought in because he was a pretty bad biter. He never tamed down at all, but, he lived happily enough in an outdoor enclosure in warm weather and then back in for cool weather. We only had him about 8 years, but he'd had so many owners we had no idea of his age. Mostly though we just got really sick iguanas that would only last another month or so. I've always wondered what it would be like to have a healthy iguana. You know, one that started out with a sunny Florida outdoor enclosure in good weather and appropriate diet. One day I may have to adopt a healthier one. The last iguana we took in was back when I was a teenager ten years or so ago. Back then the local vet was recommending romaine lettuce and tomatoes for a healthy diet, the internet wasn't available at our house, and the shelter was taking in ones raised on iceberg lettuce in a 10 gallon aquarium with an incandescent bulb for lighting. Fortunately iguanas don't seem to be that popular here anymore and leopard geckos are much more popular. Which is lovely since almost anyone can keep a leopard gecko. 
I do keep tarantulas, though I don't consider those to be that exotic really. BUT, they seem to get a lot more reaction from people then my tortoise. 
I'd love to keep rats someday, I just find their short lifespans rather heartbreaking. My pet gerbil used to live in a large cage right in the kitchen and made it to the very decent age of 7. I really think that's because he never ate commercial gerbil food. He ate real food, not necessarily precise nutritionally speaking, but at least it was real food.


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## turtletania

I had a sheep that roamed in and out of our house. We were too busy to mow the lawn, so we got her to do it. But she loved coming into the house for the warmth.


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## Fireluv007

I have a roach colony too! Though I use them as feeders for my geckos and skinks rather than pets...
Weirdest pet we have is probably the alpacas...

Tom, I'm having camel-envy. They're amazing animals!


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## alfiethetortoise

When i was a child, my brother and I used to have stick insects. Started off with three adults and ended up with a whole load of them! They used to escape from thier tank and hang off the kitchen ceiling. My mum always hated them. One summer she persuaded us to set them free on the vine for a nicer life. For years we kept looking for them when we were in the garden....  Not that exotic, but we only had dogs, hamsters the ususal. Here in the LD hardly anyone keeps a tortoise


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## Cameron

i guess the "weirdest" thing/things i have are my inverts. apx 40 tarantulas, 20 scorps and some centipedes. oh, and the roaches. my favorite tarantula that i have at the moment is definitely my T. blondi (goliath birdeater). she is only about 6 7 inches long, and not mature yet. i can't wait until she gets big!






my favorite scorps are ALL OF THEM! scorpions are my favorite inverts. i have some pretty rare ones (at least to the US)..
H. judaicus, R.junceus, H.caboverdensis, H.trilineatus, and my favorite; Androctonus mauritanicus. The word "androctonus" means "man killer"...OH YEAH!


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## DoctorCosmonaut

A really fat Woodpecker we named Buddha.

Crazier is that my dad had three skunks growing up!


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## DeanS

Right now...I'm kinda stoked about the Birdeater...


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## Madortoise

Tom said:


> I've been chased around a room by a Tokay. Those things are serious. Green Iguanas too. People would give them to me half dead. I'd fix 'em up get them in the sun and healthy, next thing you know they are meaner than a crocodile. (or a cayman)



I am laughing so hard imagining you being chased around by mean tokay!


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## fgately

There are some crazy (in the good way) animal lovers here! Wow! A camel? An armadillo? Other than various snakes, lizards, tarantulas, tropical fish, dogs, cats, a ferret, and birds, I only had a couple of unusual pets. 

Once, my family and I went to the Arboretum in Arcadia, CA. They had just stocked this giant pond with young catfish. If you threw food in the water, they would act like piranha, and eat it in a swarm. I decided to see if i could catch one by hand, and I did. We brought it home in a ziplock bag, and put it in our 100 gallon aquarium at home. This fish was a voracious monster! It killed and ate every single other fish in the aquarium. I remember it lying on the bottom of the tank, with a hugely distended belly full of tropical fish it had eaten. We gave it to a guy at a pet shop, and it proceeded to eat all of his fish too! 

I have also been feeding the fence lizards in my backyard for years. I have had up to five waiting at the back door for me in the morning. I just toss out mealworms to them. Sometimes they get so excited, they would run up my pant leg to eat. They would even eat them right out of my fingers.

My mom made friends with a wild scrub jay in pasadena, that would fly in the front door every morning for a few peanuts. We named him Jaws. He was so cool.


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## pugsandkids

Frank, my grandmother lived in Sepluveda (Northridge) and there are pictures of me 4 years old feeding a blue jay she named Charlie peanuts!


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## Madortoise

Wow...my memory is coming back to me...we didn't own them but we used to have a lot of wild birds including flocks of ducks or wild parakeets, egrets and peacocks come to our yard growing up. Ducks would swim in our pool, egrets would try to eat our kois from our koi pond, and peacocks ate my mom's flower buds and would be chased out by her. The slow ones would often get attacked by racoons or something...it was a lot of drama in suburban No. Orange County. Oh yeah, we did have horse stables that we rented to neighbors but eventually we stopped b/c we couldn't BBQ w/out the huge horse flies attacking food. Lucy from the next door had a new turkey every year (she ate it for txsgiving and would raise a new one) who would occasionally fly over the fence and leave a big mess. I wished I had a sulcata or aldabra then--horse stable could have been converted to house a big tort or two. As for the craziest pet, I liked my spotted puffer fish that ate sea monkeys and followed my finger trying to chomp on it.


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## DeanS

fgately said:


> There are some crazy (in the good way) animal lovers here! Wow! A camel? An armadillo? Other than various snakes, lizards, tarantulas, tropical fish, dogs, cats, a ferret, and birds, I only had a couple of unusual pets.
> 
> Once, my family and I went to the Arboretum in Arcadia, CA. They had just stocked this giant pond with young catfish. If you threw food in the water, they would act like piranha, and eat it in a swarm. I decided to see if i could catch one by hand, and I did. We brought it home in a ziplock bag, and put it in our 100 gallon aquarium at home. This fish was a voracious monster! It killed and ate every single other fish in the aquarium. I remember it lying on the bottom of the tank, with a hugely distended belly full of tropical fish it had eaten. We gave it to a guy at a pet shop, and it proceeded to eat all of his fish too!
> 
> I have also been feeding the fence lizards in my backyard for years. I have had up to five waiting at the back door for me in the morning. I just toss out mealworms to them. Sometimes they get so excited, they would run up my pant leg to eat. They would even eat them right out of my fingers.
> 
> My mom made friends with a wild scrub jay in pasadena, that would fly in the front door every morning for a few peanuts. We named him Jaws. He was so cool.



Where are you? I grew up about a mile from the Arboretum...and someone actually threw their piranhas in one of the goldfish ponds once...late 70s...NO! It wasn't me!


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## terryo

We bought a school of piranha babies once. We had them in a 150 gal. tank. One by one they ate each other....is that the right way to say that?....until only one was left. We fed them really well, so we couldn't figure out why they did that. The remaining one grew very large and was very beautiful. We donated him to our local zoo.


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## Lilithlee

For awhile my family had a cow when I was younger. It was kinda a odd cow, and it would even let my little sister ride it like a horse. I believe it thought it was a horse since we keep it with horse's.


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## RV's mom

When I was growing up the neighbor down the street was a tree trimmer. One day he killed a racoon that attacked him.. and then later found the nest in the tree with 2 babies. We named them bonnie and clyde and raised them to sub adult and then donated them to the local nature center. Crayfish were cool. and Mudpuppies. I have worms in the fridge now, in a 'worm farm', but I don't get attached as they're for fishing. 

teri


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## 85hardy

Everyone i know thinks i am crazy with my turtles, tortoises, dogs, chinchillas, rabbit, fish, but i think they all think i am truly crazy for owning a snapping turtle. Raised since a hatchling, Dominic is my baby. He will be 9 Sept 10th.


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## Jenilyn

how about my new baby? she is a richardson ground squirrell. her name is hadley.


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## 85hardy

She is so cute. 

She is so cute.


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## Jenilyn

thank you, we quite love her. she has more personality then almost all of my animals (well, not sheldon haha he takes the cake, odd ball.)


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## jensgotfaith

For a while we raised walking stick bugs. I started off with one and ended up with way more than I could count. We gave some away to friends and friends of friends, some to teachers for their classes and some to relatives. They were absolutely fascinating and I loved their faces. I would just sit and let the largest one crawl on my arms and watch her face. B-E-A-U-tiful. But, I must admit stick bugs have absolutely nothing on torts. When people find out that we have torts, some do look at me like I'm crazy and why would I want such a boring pet. They totally don't get it. Sometimes I'll invite them over and then usually they get it at least a little bit. We have crawfish too.


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## dolfanjack

I raised sea monkeys as a teen until i learned they were brine shrimp. I also had a baby red fox until the authorities took it a way. I also had a ring-necked pheasant rooster that was really cool.


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## Skyler Nell

I raised 3 baby squirrels after their mother was hit by a car.
Bottle feeding every 3 hours  they were so cute!
I'll try to dig up pictures


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## Motara's Mom

A black widow spider. We bought wood from Home Depot or Lowe's and she was on the wood. 

Dumbest question I would get asked: Do you get it out and play with it?


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## DeanS

After hanging with Tom yesterday, I thought I'd dig up some old photos...yes! photos! Pre-digital! Had to scan everything...what the hell would we do without digital...

This is Bart (one of my last wolves)...took this in 1990 in Angeles National Forest just north of Mt Wilson...if you look real close you can see his coke chain...actually, the only pet of mine represented here!





This is Caesar...a gorilla at the LA Zoo (named for being the first gorilla delivered by c-section)...died weeks after being loaned to Zoo Atlanta at 525 pounds





This is me pulling a bale wire from Jabba a 2+ ton white rhino at LCS in 1998 or 1999





...and these next 2 shots are of the Komodo dragon at San Diego Zoo...apparently Tom and I both have our eyes on this guy









Enjoy!


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## dmmj

scan pictures? I remember doing that before digital, lol I still do it for old family photos, my family and friends think I am crazy for owning turtles and tortoises (they are so boring, they don't do anything) But a long time ago I did own a crayfish he was pretty cool, he ate goldfishes and never ate the heads for some reason, so I always had to fish the heads out of his tank I don't recall how long he lived but I had him for a long time.


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## Tom

85hardy said:


> Everyone i know thinks i am crazy with my turtles, tortoises, dogs, chinchillas, rabbit, fish, but i think they all think i am truly crazy for owning a snapping turtle. Raised since a hatchling, Dominic is my baby. He will be 9 Sept 10th.



Snappers are great. I've been around a few and really like them.

Fantastic pics Dean. Ceaser was a handsome dude. Scary as hell up close, but definitely a looker. Your wolf was gorgeous too. I've only been around wolves a little bit. One thing I can say for sure: They are NOT like dogs. I will have me a Komodo one day.


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## terryo

Dean...your pictures were unbelievable!!! I don't know what kind of camera you own, but I want it. You say you took that picture in 1990 of your wolf? Wow. Beautiful!


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## DeanS

All of those shots were made with my Nikon F4...it could catch anything...never an out-of-focus shot. I think they stopped making it in the mid to late 90s. It is considered by many to bell the Rolls Royce of SLRs. Now it sits in the closet...I pull it out everythiing 6 months or so to clean it...but I doubt I'll ever use it again!


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## Marty333

Well I rehabilated an injured Wood Pecker "Woody". Once his bruised wing felt better we released him but I always consider him as one of my babies!! To me he counts!!


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## Sweetness_bug

Believe it or not My sulcata, There not common where i live and people think its crazy to have a 40 pound tortoise. Plus they get a kick when i call it and he comes. LOL


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## ALDABRAMAN

A skunk and a raccoon, both at seperate times. The skunk was great, the raccoon was challenging.



Jenilyn said:


> how about my new baby? she is a richardson ground squirrell. her name is hadley.



So cute!


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## zzzdanz

American alligator "Wally Gator"


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## Jessicap

As pets: A crow named Joe, pigeon named Bell and a squirrel named Hazel. Most people did not like my pet Rat (Ben) or my iguana (Sam). I have always nursed animals back to health - stray ducks, an owl, fawn, rabbits, and some squirrels. lol ... and the thing that I got the most harrassed about was trying to save some baby mice that fell out of their nest in the barn.


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