Most Exotic Species you keep?

Shadow

Shadow

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Interested in what people keep on here deemed as rare etc?

1. How did you obtain the species? (Wild Caught, money spent etc)
2. How do you find keeping the species? (more time & effort etc)
3. What do you enjoy most about keeping the species?

Thanks!
 
I kept a yellow anaconda for a while.

She was captive bred. I got her as a hatchling from a friend of mine, who has the most docile female ever. I kept her for almost a year, and she never tamed down, ever. She was the most aggressive, "Napoleon Complex" snake I've ever had in my entire life. No amount of handling would keep her from biting you. And fast? Oh so fast!

Their natural diet in the wild as juveniles is fish. So feeding her involved taking all her mice, and rubbing them with a fish filet thoroughly enough that hopefully none of the mouse smell seeps through.

I wouldn't ever recommend keeping these to anyone.
 
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Kaysie said:
I kept a yellow anaconda for a while.

She was captive bred. I got her as a hatchling from a friend of mine, who has the most docile female ever. I kept her for almost a year, and she never tamed down, ever. She was the most aggressive, "Napoleon Complex" snake I've ever had in my entire life. No amount of handling would keep her from biting you. And fast? Oh so fast!

Their natural diet in the wild as juveniles is adults. So feeding her involved taking all her mice, and rubbing them with a fish filet thoroughly enough that hopefully none of the mouse smell seeps through.

I wouldn't ever recommend keeping these to anyone.
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Oh wow! How big did she get while you kept her? Also I did a quick wiki on one and it says they prefer aquatic habitats? Did you keep her like this and how was maintaining the enclosure like?

Also in regards to "No amount of handling would keep her from biting you. And fast? Oh so fast! , it says on there how unpredictable they are. :p
 
I didn't mean hatchling; I meant newborn. They are live bearers, like all boids.

She was about a foot long when I got her, and was close to 2 when I got rid of her. The setup was pretty basic terrestrial with a giant water dish. Like all snakes, she preferred to poop in it after I cleaned it, so I kept it pretty simple.
 
I keep many typs of tarantula (selenocosmia sp), and they are very difficult. they are allwas trying to bite me. but they are fun to watch:D, and feed well. most of them were $140 AUS:( . but that did not stop me from buying them. ( you MUST see them! look in my pets album.
 
ethan said:
I keep many typs of tarantula (selenocosmia sp), and they are very difficult. they are allwas trying to bite me. but they are fun to watch:D, and feed well. most of them were $140 AUS:( . but that did not stop me from buying them. ( you MUST see them! look in my pets album.
Click to expand...

Oh I don't know about that Ethan, I'm not really a fan of Spiders/Tarantulas. Although, my biggest fear is Moths.

And Kaysie, the whole "Why do you choose to make a mess straight after I clean you" thing. I totally understand, me Ferret was the exact same.
 
Shadow said:
Interested in what people keep on here deemed as rare etc?

1. How did you obtain the species? (Wild Caught, money spent etc)
2. How do you find keeping the species? (more time & effort etc)
3. What do you enjoy most about keeping the species?

Thanks!
Click to expand...


1. boyfriend (Homo sapiens alaskensis). Wild-caught.
2. demanding. Fickle eater. tendency to escape from his enclosure.
3. personable. great taste in music. Other stuff too.
 
Molch said:
1. boyfriend (Homo sapiens alaskensis). Wild-caught.
2. demanding. Fickle eater. tendency to escape from his enclosure.
3. personable. great taste in music. Other stuff too.
Click to expand...

You cease to amaze me! Thanks for the laugh!
 
We have an albino ball python, she's a beauty.
I also have exotic plants including sugarcane, coffee trees, and Naga Jolokia peppers (AKA the hottest pepper in the world.) Not really pets, but exotic. I named my mother coffee plant Rhea, the greek goddess of motherhood and fertility.
 
Psychopathic963 said:
We have an albino ball python, she's a beauty.
I also have exotic plants including sugarcane, coffee trees, and Naga Jolokia peppers (AKA the hottest pepper in the world.) Not really pets, but exotic. I named my mother coffee plant Rhea, the greek goddess of motherhood and fertility.
Click to expand...

Real question here is have you ever eaten one of them? I'd be quite tempted to eat a Pepper like that if I was growing them.
 
Shadow said:
Real question here is have you ever eaten one of them? I'd be quite tempted to eat a Pepper like that if I was growing them.
Click to expand...
Yes, I had a whole one, downed it real quick. It felt like...fire, needles, horrible pain in my mouth and throat. I almost went into shock, I swear! That was horrible.
Naga Jolokias have caused heart attacks in older people.
 
I keep Atlantic mudskippers. They have some special tank requirements as far as fish go, with a good size land section, humid air, and a good bit of space per mudskipper, but they are a lot of fun to keep! They are by far the best fish I have ever owned. My favorite part about them is watching them walk around on land and hunt their food. I feed them live worms and fruit flies occasionally and they bounce around on land pouncing on the flies. Their behavior towards each other is a lot of fun to watch to. They are territorial so they raise their dorsal fins at each other and chase each other around, particularly at feeding time. I have two of them and my smaller one is less dominant, but he usually figures out how to out smart the bigger one to get to the food.
 
"Most exotic" is really a loose phrase. What may be considered rare in US collections may not be true overseas. If a particular animal is expensive it may be rare but not necessarily. On the other end of the spectrum some animals may be common, inexpensive, and easily available (especially if WC) but still rarely kept when compared to more popular herps. An example of the latter would be many native US salamanders. I am not going to list everything that I work with but to give a few examples I keep Rhacodactylus leachianus and Eurydactylodes agricolae (expensive but not rare), Echinotriton andersoni (rare and expensive), and Candoia asper (neither rare or expensive but rarley kept when compared to other boas).
Chip
 
I used to keep a Chinese Giant salamander when I was a teenager growing up in Hong Kong. They were occasionally available in the fish markets although they were illegal. It lived in a 2 foot tank and used to love feeder fish, it was a voracious predator when it was hungry. It lived for about a year before it died of unknown reasons. I suspect that the water was far too warm for it's likings. I feel really bad about it now considering it's rarity and my lack of knowledge into it's husbandry.


Regards Neil
 
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