The Aywas Thread

That's an impressive list Dave! Sounds like that fish decided on a sex change or something...

At least in Aywas I've got 4087 pets currently Good thing I don't need to feed and walk them all every day!

I much prefer animals to humans (present company excepted) In general they are much nicer

I used to have chipmunks which were the cutest things and kept them alive until they were over 10 yrs old, which is pretty impressive as the average captive ones only live 2-3 years. They are all gone now though the newest only lived the average time which was upsetting, but they had good lives.

Our 2 bunnies are almost 6 year old, also pretty good age & the vet recently said they were some of the healthiest ones she's seen. .

I have 14 parrots/parakeets in total, 9 cockatiels age 12 yrs old down to less than one yr old, 2 kakarikis who were rescues so I don't know the age and I have 2 conures who are 4 yr old and an african grey who is 2. Only 2 tiels, the conures and the african grey live inside with me, the others are in an aviary in the garden.

2 precious dogs, a husband, 2 grown up kids and my world is complete

Do you count your hubby and kids in among your pets, then?

Charlotte wrote: Do you count your hubby and kids in among your pets, then?

pretty much

I always thought Chipmunks would make a neat pet, but never owned one myself. I did forget that we also had two rabbits growing up. A white one I stole from an Asian couple's backyard, a few blocks from me, when I found out they were raising them for food! (I was kid then, and didn't understand why someone would do something like that) - And a floppy-ear rabbit, that some idiot left in the hallway of our building when they moved out, and the poor thing was just left in a 20 gallon aquarium with no food, water, etc. So we took it in, cleaned it up and had him for many years. ... I actually have a funny story about the white rabbit though, if anyone cares to hear it...

I actually grew up with a rough bunch of guys, who though they were decent enough, they eventually started getting into smoking pot and partying. Which of course, lead to bigger things later, which is the main reason I stopped hanging out with them. Just wasn't my cup of tea. - Though I never partook in those activities myself, I did get a wild notion to actually get some of the seeds from them, and thought it would be neat to grow some marijuana plants. (Yeah, things were different back then.. or were they? ) ... Anyway, I grew about 7 pot plants that got about 3 1/2' tall in my bedroom. My Mom was a school bus driver back then, so she was usually home during the day-time. And I was always honest with her about things I did and she trusted me, so she was pretty cool with letting me do this. ... So one day I came home, and she said 'you may want to go check your rabbit'? ... She then informed me that while watching a show on TV, the rabbit suddenly came flying out of the back bedroom, jumped up and slid across the coffee table, (knocking everything off of course) then proceeded to speed around the TV set about 4 times and then suddenly skidded to a stop right in front of her, panting. She said after just a few seconds of sitting there, he then sprung straight up in the air about 4', and was running as he hit the floor, heading back toward the bedroom. (She said he did this about 4 or 5 times, shooting from one side of the house to the other) So, when I went into my bedroom, there were no plants to be found. - Not only had he eaten all the plants, he was back at the flower pots, standing on top and digging down into the dirt to get to more of the stems, and was nearly into the roots!

Well, he ended up being ok afterward all this, but apparently just loved eating this rare treat! He was known for eating through power cords on anything he could get to, and we replaced cords on quite a few things before rabbit-proofing the rest of the house. We were all pretty surprised that he never electrocuted himself when he did this, but somehow he didn't. We had him for about 10-12 years.

Stoner bunny!

wonder how he felt the next day! I never understand how they can bite through live wires and survive. They used to be house bunnies and chewed through the TV wire one day, it went bang, but the bunny was unaffected. They now live outside in two tier house with a big run so they are happy. Its safer for them!

For the record, I would have taken the bunny that was being raised for food too.

Also chipmunks are super cute, but not friendly to each other. We had a male and female who mated and we got 3 babies, when they had grown one was killed by one of the family, and it could have been any of them and very viciously. We had to pass one to a local pet shop as we had to separate them and didn't have enough room. The rest we kept until they died. But I read that they do not live together at all in life and do fight to the death for territory. So on the whole not great to have more than one!

Yeah, I had a hamster that would do that as well. Being a big male, he would simply kill the entire litter as soon as they were born. And most the time would just decapitate them, which we had to keep cleaning up. - He wasn't very nice at all, and I guess I wasn't either, because after the last time he did this I got pissed off and simply tossed him into another aquarium... which just happened to belong to Sabbath.

I actually felt bad right after doing it, but he was just so damn mean to all the others. He would always go after them for no apparent reason, I guess to show his dominance.

bad hamster... bad end...

They talked about hamsters at work yesterday... Someone mentioned that one of her kid's hamsters were totally crazy, it kept climbing to the top of the cage which was quite big, only to let go and fall down with a loud thump. Turned out somebody else had the very same experience with their hamster. We speculated whether they were suicidal...

And while I would have hated the thought of bunnies for food when I was a kid (dad had some friends who kept bunnies and he and his (ex)wife considered having some - for food. Like the geese...) perhaps I shouldn't mention that I've wondered if I'd be able to keep bunnies for food if I lived in the country. And chicken. I kind of like the idea of not needing to buy meat where you don't know if the animals led a good life. But if I owned them I'd probably just want to cuddle them anyhow..

Like I said, I was a kid back then, so I thought I was being the bunny's savior. - I do understand that some do raise animals just for food, and don't blame them at all. (It's the reason I hunt deer. Wild, free roaming, and I will take venison over store meat any day. Plus I do all the work myself. I've never taken a deer to a butcher.) ... But I have known many who've raised Turkeys, Chickens, pigs/hogs, etc. But it's like you said, you wouldn't be surprised how many of them now have pets from these critters, once thought to be a meal. ... First thing you never do is name them! But even if you don't, you spend enough time around them and sooner or later you will get attached, and it's a lot harder to commit the act then. ... Like I could never raise deer and then harvest them. Just wouldn't happen.

I’m such a hypocrite because I hate the thought of any animal being raised for food for us, and I don’t eat meat apart from chicken, I just love chicken & i’m aware that they have such an awful life i’m trying not to eat it and use quorn instead but it’s not great, I just can’t see how humans distinguish between what is a pet, and safe from our need to eat them, and what makes us decide a different animal is food it just hurts my heart.