to think all pets poo?

[Francoitalialan]

They do don't they?

My kids are desperate for a pet. Me, not so much. I've said they can have one that doesn't poo. I'm safe now, aren't I?

Just tell them to wait until they're older, or find someone with rosacea & a lack of personal boundaries to come rub their face on your kids... Demodex mites are physically incapable of pooing. They do die in your pores, full of poo that has to go somewhere...

There's poo and there's poo.

I had gerbils as a teenager and their poo was not messy to clean up.

I'm very much a cat person.

Years ago I had one that taught itself to poo in the toilet.

Unfortunately it couldn't flush but it's not exactly hard to flush a cat poo.

Chinchillas poo little pellets - they are not smelly but they do get everywhere - and they also eat some.

Is it smell or cleaning you are bothered about?

Head lice? They are low maintenance and tend to feed themselves.

How about nappies? Often wondered why never caught on for dogs & cats...

as a serious suggestion for a low maintenance pet, how about a Mediterranean tortoise? They dont grow very big, can go in the garden at summer and when they are babies they poo in their daily bath and the water just goes down the loo. They eat dandelion leaves, clover, plantian leaves, vetch, salad bags. You can hibernate them for 4 months a year and they are super entertaining. As babies they are not much bigger than a 50p so can be kept contained in a guineapig cage with a heat and UVB lamp when they arent outside. I have 3 hermanns tortoises but also have had horsfields, pancakes, redfoots, leopards and the biggest african tortoise, the sulcatta.

I have kept LOTS of species of animals. I currently have a blue and gold macaw,3 baldy dogs and 3 torts. But I also own 2 pet raccoons that are in an educational place along with my troop of redfoot torts.

Irian beat me to it, I used to tell the DCs they could have their nits as pets.

Funnily enough they weren't keen. I suggested names too: Itchy, Scratchy, Scuttley, Bitey, Nitisha, . . . no they weren't interested.

But only on MN would you get a question from someone who finds poo a bit revolting and the solution is presented as get a bloody tarantula. That you have to feed LIVE insects. I would SWIM through shit rather than have a tarantula come to live in this house.

They doo!

Just don't get kittens. I have two tiny ones at the moment and the poo produced by such small creatures is staggering.

"Get them a carPet"
Haha, genius!

"Keeping fish is more akin to conducting an ongoing science experiment than keeping a pet."
So true. To keep them well does require care and attention.

Hamsters are crap pets for children. They are nocturnal for a start, and need lots of exercise on their squeaky wheel in the middle of the night.

I used to tell the DCs they could have their nits as pets.

I wanted to do this. I put up a hell of a fuss at the treatment, apparently, claiming I had plenty of blood and they could have a little bit.
/weird child.

Gerbils hardly poo at all. Because they are desert rats they utilise their food really well and so barely wee or poo. If you have them in a large tank with very deep bedding they can burrow into and build tunnels in (megazorb is good or natural paper pellets), then you can clean them out once a month - even after a month ours don't smell at all and you don't see any poo - I just feel they should be done!

Do not, under any circumstances, get guinea pigs. They are cute and easy to handle but they poo like nothing else on the planet. They need cleaning out every other day at least. DD1 keeps saying she wants guinea pigs again but the minute I say, you clean the poo then, she immediately backs out!

Has to be gerbils, not hamsters. Hamsters are vicious and poo and stink wthin a week. As a PP says they die fast, only saving grace. I love our gerbils though. They have a 4 hour day so you might not want them in the bedroom but they will be awake for at least part of the daytime.

Why does nobody like the giant cockroaches?

Mine rush over to their babies when you take the lid off the tank. They protect them and sit over them quite often. The dad (Greg) was sitting next to one of the nippers a couple of days ago.

They're fab

Ha, ha, no they have babies.

They're about the size of a man's thumb.

Proper caring they are

I think the cuteness is directly proportionate to the quantity and/or offensiveness of the poo. Figures, I guess - why would we have no cute pets that shit for England? The only exception to inoffensive shit = non-cute per (sorry, cockroaches, spiders, etc) I've seen on this thread are gerbils. And aren't they nocturnal and bitey?

I have cats. If you scaled up their shits relative to their size compared to humans they'd be the size of your head. Ugh.

I don't remember our family gerbils pooing a huge amount, but they were always having babies. And escaping, sometimes for weeks. We used to have little gerbil traps all over the house. Plus they had viscous bites. I wasn't that sad when my mother gave them away!

What about giant African land snails?

Very cheap to buy. Happy in a cheap plastic tank. All they need is misting with water so their environment stays humid, a heat mat on part of the tank and some salad. They do poo but as you keep them on compost you don't notice it.

You can though conduct experiments whereby you feed them different foods and observe their poo. Carrots for example can make it orange. I accidentally discovered paper turns it white.

If you get more than one you do need to remove any eggs because they're hermaphrodites and breed very easily. But if you're kids are enterprising they could sell babies to their friends!

Snake poo stinks!

I really want tortoises, but this could be a possibility.

We've never been bitten by our gerbils, but DD handles them a lot so they are very tame. She has a bit of a knack with animals, though, and is the only person in the family whom our wild, ferocious cat doesn't bite. I think she genuininely adores them and does not care if she is scratched or bitten - so gives off this calming aura which even I can't manage! Young or nervous children I'm not sure gerbils would be a good bet. They are quite skittish.