AIBU to say that no one should own a caged pet?

[Time2change2]

My parents loved animals and hated to see caged pets ie rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs etc. I did end up having one or two of these as a child but they always hated it really.
Now I have DC and they ask regularly for a rabbit, hamster etc. I just can’t agree. I think it’s so cruel. Hamsters gnaw on the bars all night to try in vain to get out.
Rabbits stuck in hutches or small runs all day.
Many people claim to love animals but how can they when they are caging animals? I can’t even stand to see fish in a tank!
Hate house cats too. Also think it’s cruel.

Agree with you 100% OP. I would never own a pet that needed to be caged, nor would I ever confine a cat inside the house. I wouldn't buy a house that wasn't in a safe area for a cat to have a cat flap.

And don't get me started on birds in a cage.

I have guinea pigs. They are my first pets. And I have much guilt over them not having a full life running free and making baby pigs. There'll be no more pets after them.

I give them the best life I can. They get pampered and loved and I adore them beyond anything I could imagine. It's the best I can do for them as I can't let them go free.

can get inside the walls
Actually, the same rat that got outside did manage to get into the walls once! Thought we'd adequately rat-proofed around a pipe but apparently not!

They have good recall though, so we whistled and she came straight out.

I dont think hamsters are as trainable, so I think you'd need to hamster-proof very carefully to have a free range one.

@Time2change2 I agree with the principle of what you’re saying, but you should avoid generalising. We adopted a cat when she was 4. She’d been diagnosed FIV+ and her owners no longer wanted her because of the possible high vet costs. Her options were to be rescued and kept indoors or to be put to sleep. So we have to keep her indoors because, if she picked something up then she’d likely be unable to recover from it, but it’s also to protect other cats as the virus passes very easily to other cats - we actually had to sign a form saying we wouldn’t let her mix with other cats. I hate not being able to let her out, but she is loved, well looked after and has the run of our home, with no area out of bounds.

So what you say in general is correct, but please don’t judge unless you know all the circumstances.

Having a dog is Animal slavery? That's absolutely ridiculous. Wolves and humans evolved side by side and all a dog wants now it's fully domesticated is a loving owner that understands and fulfilled its needs. My rotty just wants a decent 30-60 minute walk a day and a cozy home with a big couch to flobb on while she guards us . My chihuahua is happy to have a trip around the block for 3-5 minutes. My Chinese crested was bred to be a lap dog and that breed has been that way for centuries. She hates being walked but we take her around the block to keep her socialised. My hairless pug is so traumatised from her first homer that she just wants to be by me 24/7 and she gets that. In no way are my dogs slaves.... if anything it's literally the other way around! I spend a fortune on them buying the best food, enrichment and vet care. They never ever get sent to kennels and have establishes pet sitters that stay here on the rare occasion we are away.

Slavery 😂

We have 2 guinea pigs who have a big run on grass which is moved to a fresh patch every few days outside connected to their hutch (where they go at night) they seem content.
If being out of the run freaks them out is crueller to expect them to live “free”.

Rodents need constant chewing to wear down their always growing teeth hence the chewing of bars, cages, everything they can find.

My rabbit used to live under the shed in the garden in a burrow he made himself. He had the full run of the garden ( fenced) and in the evening we would clap our hands and call him in when he would sit in front of the fire until we put him into his indoor hutch for the night. He was brought up with our dog so he was sort of half dog, we even took him for walks to the park on a harness

Yeah I feel pretty comfortable saying our rats are likely far happier than many of their wild brethren.

They're also rescues so I think we're giving them a much, much better life than they'd otherwise have had.

Pepsirolla - now that is a better way to keep a rabbit! Love the idea of the burrow he made himself. I do feel sorry for rabbits not being with other rabbits. They live in big groups naturally so being in their own or even with one or two others is unnatural for them. They are also largely nocturnal so putting them out in a run in the day is not natural either

Rescue animals are different IMO. If you have rescued an animal that was being badly treated, is ill or can’t be let out for its own health that is completely different.
I am taking about buying from a pet shop or similar because you want a ‘pet’ and keeping in a cage

The whole idea of owning any living creature is weird really. Having a useful trained animal that you develop a kind of mutual sympathy with eg working dogs, horses, even ratting cats etc yeah fine, but owning a creature and having it curtail itself just to be a mute lifelong dependent "friend" for you is odd behaviour and, yes, ultimately cruel because that's not what animals are here for. It always makes me uneasy. Plus cats and dogs especially do loads of damage.

I think if you can give a good home to a rescue pet then why not.

No. I find birds in cages particularly disturbing but anything in a cage is awful.

I disagree with cats freeroaming though. Its not safe and they massively impact wildlife. They should be the same as dogs. If you let your dog roam the streets you'd be labelled cruel and neglectful. Often cats don't even have collars so if they get hurt their owners can't be contacted to help them and they suffer.

I’ve never owned an animal that lived in a hutch or cage so never really gave it much thought but you’re right OP. It does seem particularly cruel. Especially birds for some reason. Tbh though all those little creatures like rabbits and gerbils etc creep me out. There’s something about their mouths that make me shudder

I have completely come to agree with this

I don't agree with keeping 'pets' anymore - and this doesn't include cats/dogs/chickens/horses/livestock

These animals can be kept in a way where they're not 'pets'

My dog is not a pet - he shares my life and all of his needs are met

Ditto all the cats and livestock I've ever caretaked

But caged animals and most zoo animals and petting zoos - big no. I don't think they're raised 'naturally'

Our hamster died on Mother's Day. She would have been 4 in August. I think it depends hie big their cages are to be honest.

Maybe the breeders / pet shops need to stop otherwise if people don't buy will they go?

I agree OP. My DM wouldn't allow us to have anything in a cage, and neither did I with my own DC. (Well, I didn't until we somehow ended up with ferrets who had a run so fancy it was named Ferrety Towers and had lots of free exercise outside and in the house) I don't agree with crates for dogs either, cages by another name, and would never have an indoor cat.

I keep gerbils and hamsters and I use large cages that are set up in a specific way to allow natural behaviours. I am quite sure that my animals lead better lives than their wild counterparts. They won't be eaten by predators, have back to back pregnancies, fight to the death over territory, starve, dehydrate and die before the age of a year, which is what happens in nature. Well kept captive animals have lower levels of stress than wild animals and live much longer.

In small or improperly furnished cages, pets can be unhappy. Unfortunately the majority of caged animals are improperly kept, and this is seen as normal. There are also some species that aren't that well suited to captivity, because their needs are difficult to meet (rabbits, Syrian hamsters), but there are also species that have simpler needs and do very well in captivity (guinea pigs, Mongolian gerbils.

If you'd like a hamster without the guilt, my advice would be to get a dwarf hamster. Get a glass tank 80x50cm or bigger, or ideally 100x50cm. Fill it with 8-10 inches of bedding with some branches, tunnels and houses buried. Scatter the food over the bedding. Provide a large dish of sand and an 8 inch wheel. This is all a dwarf hamster needs to be happy. They don't care about being free, they just want to have their needs met. Gerbils are even easier and need all the same things but a bit more bedding and no wheel, and you need two gerbils as they're social. Believe me, a hamster or gerbil kept like this will be happier than a wild one.

It depends on the animal and the cage. My DC have two hamsters, one lives upstairs and one lives downstairs. They need much larger homes than most pet shops would have you believe and both of ours are in the largest homes we can accommodate. One is in an Alaska cage, if you haven't seen one before I can promise you that they are massive, my three year old can comfortably sit inside it. The hammy who lives in it did have a modified Deltolf cabinet (custom made home even bigger than the Alaska) but he's getting on in years and doesn't like to roam around as much now so he's in the Alaska and the younger hammy is in the Deltolf. Both have loads of substrate and are able to burrow, are fed a mix of fresh foods and commercial hamster foods as well as the occasional mealworm or two, have lots of enrichment and get lots of interaction.

I can't say whether they'd be happier in the wild but they have it pretty cushy where they are compared to probably being eaten by a snake or some other predator.

An Alaska cage is around the minimum recommended size for a single hamster. Large by pet store standards perhaps but not a particularly good home.

I agree. I always had pets growing up, mice rescued from a snake-owning uncle were the only ones I actually chose to save them from being eaten, all the other caged rodents/birds as well as dogs and cats etc came from my mum who seems to enjoy collecting animals and often rescued cats and things for me to look after if she couldn't take any more. I really do love animals, but the older I get the less I want to own one. My daughter keeps asking for a mouse, I've told her she can have one when she can manage to keep her room clean. She's never getting a mouse!

Well I agree humans shouldn't breed animals (whether for food or as pets etc). But until others stop doing that, there will be a stream of abandoned/rescued ones which need some kind of home. So give them as a good a one as possible. But from a proper rescue centre, not pet stores or breeders masquerading as such.

I agree, I don't think any animal should be kept in a cage.
And birds should be free to fly
I feel the same about house cats and dogs. But cats that are allowed to go to out and are free to come and go as they please are ok - if they weren't happy they wouldn't come back.

An Alaska is bigger than the biggest cages usually available at Pets At Home, etc. and for an elderly hamster who isn't as mobile as he used to be it is ideal.