Worst type of pet?

[Kyriakos]

Just a poll about worst (for whatever reason; just the answer should be honest) type of pet.
Options are:

1. The normie pets (cats & dogs)
2. Small fish (like goldfish)
3. Rodents (basically the lab/"lab" animals, including mouse, rat, guinea pig, hamster)
4. Wild small mammals (fox, raccoon, that kind of stuff)
5. Wild large mammals (eg bear)
5. Normie insects (this just means Ant-Colony; I will probably name the option "Ant-Colony")
6. Freak insects (anything from Praying Mantis to Beetles to other weird stuff, carefull though: NOT SPIDERS)
7. Spiders/Arachnids
8. Weird fish (including piranha and large fish -But you can also vote here for things like Crabs or Octopodes)
9. Reptiles (Crododiles etc)

And I forgot the stupid birds - will pm some mod to include them.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I voted arachnids, because screw spiders.

But rodents are dumb pets too. And wild animals aren't suited to be "pets", so I think it's a bit cruel to force them to be.

And birds are stupid, because they just fly around pooping on everything.

 

[Kyriakos]

I dislike a number of the categories, but I never saw why people would have a praying mantis or a beetle as a pet. Those beings clearly have no notion of a relationship to their owner...

 

[Phrossack]

By all accounts, many wild animals like foxes and skunks can be pains to keep because of things like nocturnal schedules or habits of spraying pungent urine everywhere. Exotic pets need exotic vets and aren't easy to care for.

Of course something large like a bear magnifies all of this. And you can only forget to feed a bear once.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The poll should have been multiple choice. I voted reptiles, but only because those are the most likely to kill and eat Maddy and me.

I would also not want a rodent or arachnid for a pet.

 

[Hrothbern]

The only pets I or my children never had on this list were ants and wild mammals big or small.
I miss BTW birds in the list up. And yes I also had birds.


My dearest pet was a chip munk squirrel who became 10 years old.
I can recommend anyone chickens as pet. You have to raise them from the egg and you will find out that they are very social towards you and like to sit on your lap, groom you, etc. Highly social animals.
From the wild department.
I also had wild fish for a while (eel) and wild lizards.
Should shrimps be added on the list ? There are really nice shrimps for nano aquariums.
And if you do not want to have the feeling that you lock pets up in captivity... go small and nano.
The nano Amazon frogs are the best example. They live in a territory of something a cubic meter dense tropical forest and you can put in your terrarium insects as food that eat the dung of your frogs. My daughter is considering this.

 

[AmazonQueen]

No all of the above option?

 

[Janskey]

The worst type of pet is something that we humans have created to look cute or something but that actually suffers a lot because of it, like:

Spoiler :

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, King Charles Spaniel, Griffon Bruxellois, Yorkshire Terrier, Maltese Terrier, Chihuahua, Miniature Dachshund, Miniature and Toy Poodle, Bichon Frise, Pug, Shih Tzu, Pomeranian, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Boston Terrier, Pekingese, Miniature Pinscher, and French Bulldog.

from https://chihuahuaclubofamerica.org/health-committee-mission/syringomyelia-and-chiari-malformation/

When any business grows large enough, something always seems to go wrong

Spoiler :

image from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05771-0

I grow Capsicums myself, and sometimes forget to give them enough water, so it's not like I'm totally innocent, either.

 

[Synobun]

I don't truly think cats are the "worst" type of pet, but every cat owner I know tends to regale me with stories about how their cat(s) destroys something or doesn't follow rules and they expect me to think it's cute or funny. I could not stand taking in an animal and then having them screw with my things and just generally be an agent of chaos. Like having a roommate except this time I chose for it to happen to me for some reason.

That isn't to say I'd be opposed to having a cat, but I'd do everything in my power to ensure they aren't a dick. They don't need to be a dog, but messing with my things and my process is a one-way ticket to resentment.

I voted for wild large mammals. Having them as pets is pretty much unforgivable and universally stupid. If you've rehabbed them and they can't survive in the wild anymore, fine, but as a general idea I look down upon people who buy tigers and such.

 

[Berzerker]

wild scavengers will keep owners busy cleaning up messes, but the worst pet we've had was a goose

speaking of cleaning up messes

but they just have a nasty attitude

 

[Zkribbler]

Reptiles

Psst, you forgot to mention birds. --When I first moved in, we had a long wall which bad guys could have scaled to gain access to the property. I built a very long aviary there, in which we had ~40 parakeets. There were nice, but the wooden cage succumbed to the sun and rain and began to rot. So we sold the birds, tore down the aviary, and moved the dirty kitchen [barbecue] over there.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Humans are the worst pet.

 

[Hrothbern]

Humans are the worst pet.

Many people who love animals will agree with you

 

[El_Machinae]

The matrix I'd use is environmental footprint to unit affection they give you. But if someone is a true hobbyist, fascinated by something, then the matrix of fascination-to-cost is what I'd use.

 

[Kyriakos]

I never liked birds much, plus they have a beak so I suppose they have caused serious injury to either owners or people visiting.
I obviously don't mean having a canary in a cage - useful if you are a miner also. But those huge-beaked exotic birds that some people leave flying around in their house.

 

[Hrothbern]

The matrix I'd use is environmental footprint to unit affection they give you. But if someone is a true hobbyist, fascinated by something, then the matrix of fascination-to-cost is what I'd use.

My first pets were two goldfish.
My first lesson was that there is a limit to the sustainability of the closed habitat of an aquarium
I had a simple filter encouraging clean water and bacterial composing of the dung.
However, slowly over time mineral levels increase in your water and algae start to grow messing up everthing.
Then I learned to have more plant growth and throw away the surplus, but that did not help enough.
Then I finally learned that the habitat of the aquarium was only sustainable by taking out enough water (with minerals) and replace it with fresh water incl for the water evaporated away.
And you could see from the fish, their color their eyes their behavior that youd dida good job in taking care for them.

My first lesson was that there is a limit to the sustainability of the closed habitat of an aquarium... as eyeopener for the proxy that our human habitat, Mother Earth, needs to be ok as well to provide for happy animals incl ourselves.

 

[Kyriakos]

It is why I can't have fish - they need regular change to the water and a rather big space. I recall how a goldfish (not owned by me) died because the owner didn't know the water must be changed so often, and also kept it in a bowl.
It is just not a pleasant feeling, that the being is trapped and probably will eat itself to death, being so miserable

 

[Hrothbern]

I never liked birds much, plus they have a beak so I suppose they have caused serious injury to either owners or people visiting.
I obviously don't mean having a canary in a cage - useful if you are a miner also. But those huge-beaked exotic birds that some people leave flying around in their house.

When I walk the dog we pass all the time magpies, crows and jackdaws walking and hipping through the grass hunting small insects.
Everybody knows each other meanwhile and my dog is not interested in them. When I sit down they come at arms lenght seemingly not willing to give up their methodic hunting the grass area for the presence of me or my dog.

When you have a good relation with these jackdaws they will sit on your shoulder while you walk or sit and groom your face, up to your eyelids. But I never had a jackdaw as pet. An old dream.
But I cared for half a day for some young almost fullgrown falcons and they did groom my face, especially the hair of my eyebrows.

 

[IglooDame]

My scale is pretty much on the anthropomorphic line, so insects are the worst, and I figure ants are a learning experience because it's a colony.

This all assumes that one has an environment suitable to the species, so for the larger animals I'd think several very green acres at a minimum.

 

[Hrothbern]

It is why I can't have fish - they need regular change to the water and a rather big space. I recall how a goldfish (not owned by me) died because the owner didn't know the water must be changed so often, and also kept it in a bowl.
It is just not a pleasant feeling, that the being is trapped and probably will eat itself to death, being so miserable

I drew that conclusion of size as well.
I had a 70x30x30 cm aquarium for two 7-8 cm goldfish and it was already borderline.
I changed that aquarium when those goldfish were both dead in a terrarium when I caught three common wall lizards during a bicycle holiday in Germany. I made a beautiful labyrinth of stones for them and feeded them with insects.
No algae anymore.

With fish I would always go to a small school of small fish
More surface per volume is less sustainability burden per surface.