Terrapin Keeping - is it cruel, or do they have tiny brains and therefore don't mind being enclosed?

[suzywong]

I think the time has come to get the Fragrant boys a pet or two, and I could just about bring myself to house a pair of terrapins. But is it cruel? And are they good entertainment value (I 'm guessing the emotional bond they can offfer to a child is somewhat shallow and as for encouraging fresh air and exercise .....)

I don't know, do they make good soup?

I really liked my little terrapins - but they die very easily from soft shell, don't they? They come and take food from your hand when you feed them, and you can pick them up etc, and you could get a very spacious pool and gravelly bit for them, couldn't you?

would I have to keep them indoors? I guess so, the weather gets dreafully hot here and the crows are not actually crows but ravens and they would see a pair of terrapins as meat pies with quite hard pastry cases. It will have to be indoors then.

Do you have to watch out for salmonella with them too?

Although I suppose all pets have their associated risks.

oh yuck

back to the stick insect option then

Oh, yes, i forgot you are not in the cold sunless soft-shell-causing UK.

But in proper heat they grow quite big and bite, don't they?

how much space do they require?

and what are yours called?

Ours lived for about 20-30 years I think (was passed on to us from a neighbour after the neighbours children grew up and left home). It used to live outside in the garden during the summer, and in the bath in the winter. Not the most exciting of pets, but we used to enjoy watching it catch tadpoles! They do grow very large.

Feeeeeeeeeeeeeck! 20-30 years!!!

i really want something with a congenitally short life span, whose shit i don't have to pick up, who won't lick it's arse inthe middle of the dining room and who I won't be saddled with long after the kids have left home.

Selfishly, hamsters are verboten in Australia, they would have fitted the bill nicely.

Any suggestions?

What about other small animals, mice or gerbils?

tarantulas, some sort of lizard, fish, rabbits?