An exotic pet is a special kind of animal kept in homes that isn't usually seen as a typical pet, like a cat or a dog. These animals are often from different parts of the world or are usually found living in the wild. The word "exotic" often means the animal isn't naturally found where the owner lives. A "pet" is simply a companion animal that lives with people.
Cool Animals Kept as Exotic Pets
Many different kinds of animals are kept as pets around the world. Below is a list of some animals that live in homes but are often thought of as "exotic." Some of these animals are more commonly kept than others, even if they are still considered unusual pets.
- Arachnids (like tarantulas, scorpions, and vinegaroons)
- Dolphins and porpoises (these are very rare as pets and usually need special care)
- Frogs and toads (for example, African bullfrogs, Argentine horned frogs, and fire-bellied toads)
- Genets
- Hedgehogs
- Hyenas (these are very wild animals and rarely kept as pets)
- Insects (such as crickets, stick insects, Hercules beetles, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and praying mantises)
- Kusimanses
- Lagomorphs (like rabbits and hares)
- Lizards (including bearded dragons, blue-tongued skinks, chameleons, day geckos, iguanas, monitor lizards, frilled dragon lizard, leopard geckos, and tegus)
- Marsupials (for example, wallabies, wallaroos, koalas, wombats and possums like sugar gliders)
- Myriapods (such as millipedes)
- Wild and mixed canids (like wolf-dog hybrids, fennec foxes, domesticated red foxes, and raccoon dogs)
- Wild and mixed cats (such as Asian leopard cats, Bengal cats, caracals, chausies, savannah cats)
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- Parrots (including African grays, Amazon parrots, caiques, cockatiels, cockatoos, conures, eclectus parrots, lories, lorikeets, lovebirds, macaws, parakeets, and parrotlets)
- Pigeons
- Primates (for example, galagos (also called bush babies) and monkeys like squirrel monkeys and capuchins, which are shown in the picture at the top of this page)
- Procyonids (such as raccoons, kinkajous and coatimundis)
- Raptors (like falcons and hawks)
- Rodents (including capybaras, chinchillas, fancy rats, gerbils, dormice, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, Patagonian cavies, and squirrels)
- Salamanders (for example, axolotls and tiger salamanders)
- Sharks and other fishes (some people keep small sharks or unusual fish in large aquariums)
- Skunks
- Snakes (such as ball pythons, boa constrictors, king snakes, rat snakes)
- Tortoises and other turtles (like Greek tortoises, Hermann's tortoises, Russian tortoises, painted turtles, and red-eared sliders)
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Images for kids
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Animal markets in some countries sometimes sell primates, like these slow lorises, as pets, even though it's often against the law.
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A female ferret, a popular exotic pet.
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Sugar gliders enjoying some mealworms.
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A pet hedgehog from Japan.
