best pets for students?

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Mould.

Original post by pink-marshmallow

I'm really keen to get a pet. Last year, a fellow housemate had a puppy I got very attached to. I have now found myself separated from the lovely puppy and I miss the companionship it provided.

I'm wondering what my options are... my housing contract doesn't mention a problem with pets, but I don't want to lose my deposit due to a destructive animal!!

However although I really want a pet, I think about the times when I sometimes go home... not very often though (1-2 times a month for 2-3 nights a time). Is it still appropriate to get a pet in this instance?? :s-smilie:

Get a reptile.

I have 2 snakes (cornsnake and kingsnake) and a lizard (leopard gecko). Snakes only need feeding once a week. Get a corn or a royal/ball python, as these are the most docile, best feeders and smallest. Reptiles really are your best bet if you are go away for several nights.

And by the way.. They are far easier to look after than any mammal :wink:

When they get older, you feed them less. If you have to go away for longer, I'm they can survive though (one of my snakes got a bit ill, and ended up going over a month without food, and he's doing just fine). I have never been to a vet (even with the thing I just said; most of the time you can deal with issues yourself, but if he had refused to eat after that I would have gone to a vet; note that you need to find someone who can do reptiles, general vets often can't), so you wouldn't be expecting vet bills for one of the easier snakes to keep. They are not very expensive either. Seriously.

Get a snake. I can bombard you with my baby snake pictures until you give in.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 82

miserlou

Fish make rubbish pets, they are boring. I was glad when mine died

Reply 83

vickie89

i miss my cat, shes 8 now and had her since the day she was born, so it saddens me to leave her with my mum, but im not allowed pets at mine, and i visit family and friends sometimes so cant have her with me for that reason, so i settled for having my fish with me instead.

imo fish are pretty easy, i had 3 originally as a present for passing my gcse's and they were called blender, beaker and schneebly. they can be expensive to set up but i inherited my sisters tank, and then upgraded to one from my mum when her school class decided not to have fish that year and go for a rabbit instead, so only had to buy gravel and decorative stuff, and you can do it fairly cheaply if you dont go for a fancy tank. 1 died after a year and the next one died a couple of years later leaving me with one left, which stayed alive for 6 years. it went to uni with me and when i was feeling lonely and sad at night i would sit and chat to it (sounds sad but when your all alone its nice to have something to talk to, even if it is a fish (but then i'm trhe kind of person that names my 2 house plants and talks to them sometimes, theres finley the ficcus who was a housewarming gift and steve the sygonium i bought a few months ago as he was nice and leafy, im not crazy i just like talking to things that arent myself.lol). i got pretty attached to beaker and was actually gutted when he died. maintanance is easy, every week or so if you have a lot of fish, or i did it once a month when it was just beaker left. fish food is very cheap as they dont eat much, and can be away for a couple of weeks if you buy them a feed block and make sure the water filter is working properly. yes they can be one of the more boring pets but i liked mine and want some new ones to replace beaker.

hamsters are nice pets, fairly easy to take care of and can be cuddly if you get the right one and handle it a lot from the beginning so it gets used to you. just be careful with female ones, i had one that was 3 months old when i got her, she had 8 babies, the last one we had left, that i was waiting for a friend to get a cage for, went and had another 7 hamsters, which it then proceeded to eat 3 of them, so it was a right pain to find a home for them all, but they are very cute pets.

(edited 12 years ago)

Tamagotchi?

I'm thinking about getting a hamster :smile:

Reply 86

joey11223

It has to be a Tarantula...or scorpion

Relatively small, you can keep one very well in one of those clear wilkos storage tubs with air holes made in them. Depends on the size obviously, something like a 24l one would be fine for a smallish and easy to obtain species like a Chile rose.

Good points...

Doesn't really need to be cleaned out

Doesn't smell

Doesn't make noise

Cheap to feed

Food pretty easy to obtain

Can be handled

Low maintenance, if you forget to feed it for two months..oops!..no problem! :biggrin:

Unique pet

Bad points..

It's a spider, ewwww (females mainly, apologies for being sexist :tongue:

)

They don't exactly do much

Have to feed them live insects, generally locusts or crickets. (small tubs can be purchased from many pet shops, or online and posted via royal mail)

I'm bias as I like my exotic invertebrates so I have a fair few. :tongue:

Also don't believe folks saying Tarantulas are ugly, look at this lovely girl!
(I'll just post the link below so it doesn't pop up when folks are scrolling down and scare them if they hate spiders.)

http://www.bighairyspiders.com/pix/tick10.jpg

Reply 87

Lexlow10

Original post by mosmof

right; my two mates put this on my fb the other day, they wont tell me what it means! - i cant find anything on urban dictionary - what does it mean?!!

Are you dumb

Reply 88

JustMeAHuman95

Original post by erryberry

an indoor rabbit or guinea pig is a good pet ^^ you can leave them in their hutch throughout the day and just get them out whenever you want, a change of water and food daily and clean the hutch once or twice a week, pretty low maintenance and so cute :3

I'd have to disagree with the rabbit, rabbits need a lot of space and at least four hours a day to run around, they also need to be cleaned out more than that- every two days is better, I have two rabbits at the moment and they are handfuls. Rabbits are also very sociable animals so if you were to get a rabbit you'd need two (plus cuddle time), they require just as much work as a cat or dog not to mention how easy it is for your buns to get sick, a hint of soft poop could mean major issues for the buns such as stasis which can kill. They're amazing pets but unless you have the space, time and money for a rabbit then do not get one, mine are staying at home when I start in September.