Dogs are complete and utter messes. They shed, chew things up, and relive themselves wherever they please. Cats are just as bad. I own and love both, but sometimes they can be pain. Reptiles are much less needy. I have a leopard gecko, and he requires a cage-cleaning every month, and some crickets and mealworms every week or two. I can cut the costs in the summer by catching crickets or grasshoppers outside.
I would really like an Egyptian box tortoise. I like tortoises in general, and Egyptian box tortoises are probably the best. A pet Galapagos tortoise would be cool too, but there would reach a point when the size and high food intake became a problem. Pet snakes are amazing, but I’m still too much of an animal fan to regularly sacrifice a mouse. Insects fed to a gecko are one thing, but vertebrates are different. If I did get one, it would be a black rat-snake.
Other pets that would be cool to have include, in no particular order, a cockatoo, macaw, or African grey parrot; a falcon; a spotted skunk (stink glands removed); or a large crab. Taking into consideration costs, care and everthing else required, my ideal set of pets would be a cat and a tortoise. I really do like large birds, but cleaning a bird’s cage wouldn’t be worth it.
Until next time, I am: looking into costs of a tortoise.