Particularly interested in hearing from mice and tarantula owners. I don’t really know what there is to like about those specific pets, and it would be nice to hear it from an owner of those pets.
We have two guinea pigs:
Daisy:
Rose:
A couple things:
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Guinea pigs are probably one of the most fragile pets you can have. They are instinctively afraid of just about everything for good reason (just about everything they might encounter could eat them, including people). Despite that they have no qualms about yelling at the two giants they live with whenever they feel they aren’t getting enough treats.
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They are smarter than I knew. I taught them a simple trick. They turn in a circle whenever they get a treat. It took them about 1 week to get the idea, and then they immediately turned the tables on me by making circles whenever they wanted more treats. It is almost painfully adorable.
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They are litter trained. They have trays they go into to pee, and when you are holding them, they will let you know when they need to go back to pee.
Daisy will sit with you for up to an hour and won’t pee on you, despite the fact that guinea pigs are said to have to go about every 15 minutes. When she needs to go, she’ll start to quietly wheek to let you know.
When you hold Rose, she will immediately lay down and go to sleep as shown above. She can’t hold it as long as Daisy, so when she wakes from her nap, she’ll need to go right back. She’ll take your shirt in her mouth and tug on it to let you know she needs to go.
- When they are happy, guinea pigs do something called “popcorning”. They literally jump for joy almost uncontrollably when they are delighted by something. It’s one of the most amazing things to see. Such an immediate and rewarding confirmation that you’ve done something right. They will literally jump up on the air with all four feet off the floor. When we put them in their playpen, they’ll run around doing zoomies and jumping in the air as they go.
This is definitely the most adorable thing I’ve read in a while.
Your girls are so adorable!
I haven’t really grokked the fact they can be litter trained, but I suppose the fact that my fiancée’s little potatoes have never pooped or peed on me should have tipped me off that it was a possibility lol
My favorite piggy behavior is rumble strutting. When we got our newest pig (Coffeecake) it was hilarious to see our older pig (Oreo) attempting to assert dominance with his awkward rumble strutting. I could practically see them talking to each other:
Oreo: “Hey, um, I’m the big boy around here. Um. So. You’d better get out of our, I mean my food bowl. Please?”
Coffeecake: “Starve, grampa!”
Poor oreo has bottomed for every cage mate he’s ever had. When my Fiancée first picked him out, he had been separated from the rest of the herd at the pet store because they were worried they others wouldn’t let him get to the food bowl at all. But after 3 years of hard work to become the biggest, fattest piggy (and after Coffecake got neutered and settled down) Oreo has finally become the dominant piggy as of a month ago. I think he deserves it.
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My dog is incredibly sweet and cuddly. She always makes me feel happy, even when I’m feeling down.
Speaking for myself, I have two sets of pets.
My fiancée entered our relationship with two male guinea pigs. I love the chubby little vacuums to bits. They are very polite pets IMHO. They never bite humans (and I mean never, no matter how terrified they are) and they are very calming little cuddle buddies. They are very easy to keep happy and content, and I would absolutely reccomend a pair of males as a little kids first pet. The real fun starts when you have a herd of girls, and you start to see the more complex social behaviors like following each other in a line and actual dominance hierarchies.
My pet is a syrian hamster, and he is a creative and curious little bastard who loves to tunnel and explore. He has a very big cage, so cleaning it out can be a hassle, but that only needs to be done once a month if you keep up with the spot-cleaning and make sure none of the little bastard’s seed stashes start to sprout. I do put him in a hamster ball to let him explore which is considered abuse by some people, but excuse me for living in an apartment full of cables and things he should never be nibbling on. I’ll let him explore in the ball while my friends are over, and they all think he’s adorable. I love watching him do his thing, and I handle him regularly to keep him from being bitey. I would never reccomend a hamster for a first-time pet, since the cuter they are, the less fucks they give about removing your fingers if you dare to try and touch them. (Have you ever tried to convince a four-year-old that their pet does not want to be touched? They just don’t get it! It seriously pisses me off that hamsters are the stereotypical pet for little children.) What most people like about hamsters is making crafty things for them to explore, but I just love watching him eat and explore
We have two dogs, both of them excel at the whole uncondtional love thing. Even when we don’t deserve it they do.
My dogs are the best because they’re dogs. 'Nuff said.
My cat is great because she keeps to herself, and you’ll only even see her if she wants some love. Very low maintenance.
My chickens are great because… well eggs. That and they go apeshit whenever I bring them worms.
As a kid I had pretty much every rodent you can think of. Not a ton of mice, but the few I had I found to be very fascinating. They’re incredibly intelligent, and you’ll have fun just trying to figure out ways to prevent their escape (which they will. If you have cats, be aware of that). If you want to be able to handle them though, you need to do it right from the beginning so they get used to it. Otherwise they’re likely to bite. Other than Guinea Pigs and Rabbits, mice are probably the most docile rodents I had. Rats and Hamsters were incredibly aggressive I found.
they go apeshit whenever I bring them worms
everybody needs some of that in their life
I have 3 gerbils.
It’s quite a lot of entertainment for such a low maintenance pet and if I’m staying away from home for few days I just need to make sure their bowl is filled with food and I put few extra water bottles and they’ll be just fine. Downside is that they only live 2 to 3 years but then again you then get to choose wether to get new ones or something else. Something like a cat or dog is a much longer commitement.
Gerbils are surprisingly social animals and super curious about everything. I love when I’m doing stuff and notice one of them just observing me thru the glass and clearly thinking hard in her little head about what’s going on.
A protip for anyone thinking about getting gerbils: get three. It’s highly probable one is going to die much sooner than the others and they get depressed when alone. Introducing new gerbils to adult one can be difficult so by having three there’s a greater chance the last two are going to live about equally long.
Cats are super loving if you raise them with lots of affection. Mine follow me everywhere and snuggle me at night. Best companions ever.
One of mine curls up under the covers in the crook of my wife’s legs. Very cute. Swats me with claws out if I get too close. Less cute.
Not a tarantula but jumping spider. They are very fun to create little enclosures for and even more fun to feed. They can live for a couple of years and are super easy to maintain.
I totally get the appeal of jumping spiders, and I would totally be keeping one as a pet if my Fiancée was willing to have a Horrid Beast of Flying Terror within our apartment lol.
She will never let me down like a hooman would.
That sums up most pets lol. What kind of pet do you have?
A trash panda doggo
Tarantulas may seem like they get used to you being around them. Always remember that anything that isn’t that spider is seen as a potential threat to that spider.
Not the best creature to keep as a pet tbh
Litter training is actually pretty easy. You just put the pan where their water and food is, and provide them some cover so they don’t have to worry about some hawk (inside the house? Whatever…) while they do their business.
They’ll still poop pretty much everywhere, but they only pee in their litter pan.
We had to strap the pans down with Velcro or they’ll flip them over. We also use small bedding pads in the pans rather than the other litter options. When it needs to be changed, you put the pad in the wash, wipe out the pan, and put a fresh pad in.
The rumble strutting is, like many guinea pig things, adorably ridiculous. It couldn’t possibly impress anyone but a guinea pig.
Our girls don’t argue too much, but they take turns being in a mood. For a few days one will rumble strut and chase the other one away any time they get close, then it will quiet down. Then some time later it will switch and it will be the other girl’s turn to be the mean girl.
My daughter has an emotional support guinea pig. He’s the one who introduced us to how amazing guinea pigs could be. When he went with my daughter to college, we needed to fill the void so we got the girls.
He was surrendered from a house with 30 guinea pigs, and adopted out specifically as a solitary pig. He was so abused by his brothers that he didn’t tolerate the presence of other guinea pigs. His ears are torn and he has scars on his belly from the abuse. Because he doesn’t want to be around other guinea pigs, my daughter is his herd. I guess he’s hers too.
I love the fact that was my cat that chooses me to be her friend, and she decided to live with me, it was a great feeling, because since I was a child I always wanted to have a cat, and now she loves to cuddle and speak with me.
Very little
Guinea Pigs.
I have a place for vegetable scraps.
She is the embodiment of unconditional love. No matter what kind of mood I’m in, all she wants is to be near me.
