Here are the coolest pets that people actually have!
9 - Capybara People often go to great lengths to keep rodents
out of their house, out of sight, and out of mind.
I mean, there’s basically an entire industry that exists around the concept.
And when you consider the history of rats and the bubonic plague, it makes prefect sense!
However, when it comes to the largest rodent in the world, all that is somehow thrown out
the window.
Capybaras are relatives to the guinea pig, another cute rodent, but it’s much bigger.
Growing up to about 4 feet in length and 2 feet in height, the Capybara can easily weigh
more than 100 pounds!
Native to South America, you’ll often find wild Capybaras roaming around in groups of
anywhere between 10 to 100 individuals, as they’re highly social animals.
However, some people do like to keep capybaras around as pets.
While they may look like giant hamsters, they behave like anything but.
For starters, they have sharp teeth and can sometimes be aggressive.
Okay, bad combo.
And supposedly, these massive rodents require a ton of maintenance.
You’ll need to bathe them often, find non toxic grass for them to eat, and oh yeah,
good luck finding a vet who knows how to care for them.
In the event that you do adopt one, and know what you’re doing, they can make great pets
for those people willing to put in the time and care.
If given the care and attention they need, Capybara owners have claimed they make sweet,
adorable pets who eat so much of their grass that they rarely have to mow the lawn.
Hold up, these guys can take care of lawns?!
8 - Fennec Fox Given their small stature and unusually large
ears, these foxes almost look like an adorable stuffed animal or cartoon character.
But they’re actually a 100 percent real member of the animal kingdom.
The Fennec Fox is native to the Sahara desert in North Africa, as well as the Arabian Desert.
As nocturnal creatures, they roam the desert at night looking for plants, insects, rabbits,
rodents and bird eggs to eat.
They’ll also dig out little dens for themselves to sleep in during the day, and also to hide
from the eagle owl, who’s their main predator.
As it turns out, they also make good pets.
Supposedly they sort of behave like dogs which is a plus, and they’re not as regimented
about their nocturnal schedules as pets.
Their inclination to dig holes, however, is a different story.
They’ll dig around in the backyard, and are known to be curious and get into all of
your stuff.
So yeah, definitely kinda like having a new puppy!
7 - The Kinkajou The Kinkajou is a mammal that looks like a
ferret or a monkey, but it’s actually most related to racoons.
So really….who would essentially want a pet raccoon?
Wellllll the Kinkajou isn’t gonna be your typical raccoon.
First of all, they don’t raid campsites and garbage cans at night, and they don’t
seem to carry rabies like their North American relatives.
So they already have that going for them.
And as pets, they’re known to be quiet, docile, AND they don’t smell bad or anything,
so those are definitely plusses.
However, they’re still wild mammals.
And like raccoons, they’re nocturnal, which means they don’t like being awake during
the day.
Having said that, they also don’t like sudden movements, and they’ve been known to claw
and bite people!
Now just how bad can it get??
Well, for a point of reference, in parts of South America, these guys are known informally
known as Lion Monkeys.
Yeah, that part doesn’t exactly sound cute and cuddly.
At least in the wild, where they probably belong, Kinkajous are pretty cool.
They have primate like abilities when it comes to climbing trees, because they prefer to
spend most of their time up in trees.
They’re able to do this crazy thing where they rotate their ankle completely backwards.
This gives them the ability to run backwards across tree limbs.
What!!
If you actually decide you want a pet Kinkajou, it’s worth noting they do tend to live for
a while.
In captivity, they often live at least 23 years, and a few of them have lived beyond
40 years old!
6 - Bearded Dragon Conventional wisdom would tell you that keeping
anything with the word “Dragon” in its name might JUST be a poor choice for a pet.
Right?!
But bearded dragons are harmless and by pretty much all accounts, make great pets.
Also known as Pogona, Bearded Dragons are native to Australia.
As their name suggests, they have this pretty interesting looking feature that looks like
a beard, but the beard is actually just some spines that expand and change colors whenever
these guys feel threatened.
While Bearded Dragons in the wild are territorial and aggressive, they’re supposedly quite
friendly and gentle in captivity.
These guys have actually become popular exotic pets in the United States.
As pets, males pretty much only live alone, as they’ll either fight each other or mate
with females.
But other than that, they’ve garnered a reputation as a pretty low maintenance pet.
Give them some insects to munch on and a proper place to live and they’ll generally live
anywhere from 8-14 years.
5 - Hedgehog In 1991, Sega Genesis released a video game
called Sonic the Hedgehog.
How many of you guys out there remember that classic?!
The game centered around a hedgehog named sonic and his quest to defeat his sworn enemy,
Dr. Eggman.
The franchise went on to be one of the most popular in the world, rivaling Nintendo's
Super Mario, and just like that, an obscure but cute animal like the hedgehog became part
of our popular culture.
Found in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, Hedgehogs have a spiny exterior, kinda resembling
a porcupine, which if I’m gonna sound scientific, is a rodent.
In other words, you wouldn’t think they’d make great pets.
Buuuuut, some people do keep pet hedgehogs.
Apparently hedgehogs do form bonds with their owners over time and if treated with that
good ol’ TLC, they become rather adorable little companions.
However, they are by nature, nervous and shy.
Much like Sonic, hedgehogs will curl up into a ball and roll around when they feel threatened.
4 - Tarantula If you guys don’t like spiders, well…...just
look away from the screen for a couple minutes!
I’m sure it’s no surprise to you guys that some people keep tarantulas as pets,
but that doesn’t make tarantulas any less cool!
There’s somewhere around 900 documented tarantula species spread across the world.
To use a tired cliche, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
And some people find large, poisonous spiders to be beautiful.
While tarantulas are venomous, their venom has very low toxicity to humans.
Also, apparently it’s a good idea to not keep more than one tarantula in the same enclosure,
otherwise they’ll eat each other, which is pretty nuts if you ask me.
One reason they make popular pets is that they’re known for being pretty chill in
captivity.
They don’t really require a lot of space or attention, so they make for super low maintenance
pets.
3 - Serval If you ever walked into someone’s house
that owned a serval and you didn’t know about it, you’ll mostly likely freeze and
make a decision of whether or not to run out the front door!
That’s because the serval is a large wild cat that’s native to Africa!
Granted, they’re not nearly as big as say, a Lion or a Cheetah, but they still look like
something that belongs in the wild.Dating back to Ancient Egyptian times, Servals and
humans have always been associated.
Often they were given as gifts to people of prominence.
But for the most part, they never really took off as a common domestic pet.
Who knows why, but in any case, some people still keep them around as an exotic pet, although
special care and maintenance is required.
By 1986, a hybrid breed of a Serval and Domestic Cat was born.
Known as The Savannah Cat, they’re taller than other house cats, but don’t actually
weigh all that much.
The crazy thing is, they behave like dogs.
They tend to be very loyal and are known to follow their humans around.
They can even be trained to walk on leashes.
Hold up, I’ll take one of these guys!
2 - Slow loris If you guys ever look at memes, chances are,
you’ve seen a slow loris.
The slow loris is primate living in parts of Southeast Asia.
Their lovable round heads and their wide eyes really don’t show how aggressive they can
be out in the wild.
For one thing, they have a toxic bite, which is mainly used to deter predators.
But still, do these guys look toxic to you?!
Also, they’re super territorial and when two males get together, well, let’s just
say it isn’t pretty.
They spend all day sleeping, and all night foraging for food such as insects, small birds,
and veggies.They’re omnivores, which in nature basically means anything they can catch
is fair game.
Oh and as fars as their name goes...they’re just slow climbers.
Now, as far as these guys being pets, most experts agree that they make poor pets.
Most importantly, it’s also illegal to own them.
But this hasn’t stopped them from becoming popular pets in places such as Indonesia,
where there’s demand for these guys as pets.
Baby Slow Lorises are taken from their parents as infants, and they often have their teeth
pulled out so they can’t bite.
Yeah, definitely can’t condone that for a vulnerable species.
1 - Argentine Red Tegu lizard Well this IS YouTube, and I would be doing
you guys a disservice if I didn’t talk about one of the internet’s favorite celebrity
pets.
Meet MacGyver the Lizard.
MacGyver is an Argentine Red Tegu Lizard who was born at Ty Park’s lizard farm in Punta
Gorda, Florida, on July 4th, 2012.
Within weeks of entering this world, MacGyver, who presumably was named after the clever
secret agent, became an internet sensation.
Videos began to appear where MacGyver would respond to his owners when they called his
name….which come on, is pretty impressive for a lizard!
Soon his videos were getting tens of thousands of hits as viewers tuned in to watch him eat
his favorite foods, such as eggs, cherries, and salmon.
There’s even a video that shows MacGyver sneaking for some cuddles with a sleeping
human!
Argentine Red Tegu lizards, or simply Red Tegus as they’re commonly known, obviously
live in Argentina.
But they also live in Bolivia and Paraguay.
Growing anywhere between 3-4 feet long, Red Tegus are known for being opportunistic predators,
which might explain why MacGyver has such an interesting diet.
Out in the wild, anything they can overpower is fair game.
So insects, birds, small fish, and rodents all pretty much have to look out for these
guys.
They also like to eat plants, berries and veggies.
So overall, they seem to have a pretty well balanced diet.
Here’s what’s next!