Anyone else addicted to pets?

[LaylaLop]

I am not talking about hoarder's style, but just having more pets than what most people deem "sane"... A few years ago I rescued small animals and had 4-7 rabbits (4 permanent, rest were fosters), 12 degus, 10+ mice, 3 hamsters, 50+ gerbils, 5 rats, a hedgehog, a guinea pig, and various others like spiny mice or dwarf hamsters. I adopted out lots, and kept a lot for their entire lives. They were taken care of "better than any others" people always said when they visited...

That was all back when I was in highschool and ran a rescue out of my parent's basement. 5 years later I find myself still wanting to rescue every sad and pitiful animal.

I live in a place where technically I am not even allowed Layla, but just my one dog.. I currently have a dog, 2 gerbils, a hamster, and a rabbit :halo The landlord would not be happy, but I do have friends in the area who will take in my animals if the landlord needs to stop in for repairs/inspections... I figure as long as she gets her rent and I have no noise complaints, what's the harm in it all? The city also has no limits on small animals in a residence, just dogs/cats.

I noticed someone on CL trying to dump their two female rats who are kept in a habitrail cage on pine with crummy colored food pieces. They're super cute and look healthy.. I emailed them about the dangers of pine and such a tiny cage and said if they do not find a suitable home to email me before dumping them at a shelter or outside...

On second thought, maybe I should be on hoarders... :lookaround

 

[Kipcha]

I can completely relate. Right now we have 11 rabbits, 2 horses, 1 miniature horse, 1 chinchilla, 1 guinea pig and 3 gold fish. Most of our animals are rescues, and I've rescued tons of other animals in the past.

I just can't help it when I find something that's in need, no matter what it is. I don't know how some people can just turn a blind eye, although I do try to rehome because if I kept everything that came through our house, I would be in a serious hoarder situation. I never let it get to the point where I feel the care is insufficient, I keep the numbers at a comfortable level and rehome our rescue efforts to good homes.

 

[LaylaLop]

I figure if I do end up with the rattie girls I'll attempt to find them a good permanent home where they get more one on one attention than here, but if that's not possible I think they'll just end up staying... I do have time to care for them, but am just slowly running out of critter space >.>

 

[Meeky242]

Haha, ooohhhh talking to the right person about this!

Before I stopped breeding Fancy rats i was also a rescue for rodents. If you walked into my house you could have mistaken me for a hoarder....except for the fact that all my animals were practically kings and queens and waited on had and foot!

I had at one point 48 Fancy Rats and 22 mice (mother+babies, males and females) plus my two cats and a fish-tank All in my house that was only occupied by my partner, myself and our one cat :lookaround:rollseyes:headsmack


.....or so the landlord thought. My thinking is exactly the same as yours

 

[MiniLopHop]

I too have lots of rescued pets. I'm rather relieved to find others like myself.

The current count is 4 rabbits, 2 cats, 2 box turtles, 9 zebra finches, 2 gerbils, and a fish tank. They fish were not rescued.

I can't stand to see an animal in pain or being neglected. However, my husband has declared I'm no longer allowed to go onto petfinder because our landlord made us sign a "no more pets" clause in our lease. Originally it was only to be the two cats and fish tank. :whistling He lives next door and is our pet sitter during vacation, so...



My most recent rabbit is from a breeder, but I still count it as a rescue. I was at a rabbit show and commented to my friend how it was odd the one rabbit was $15 while the rest were $45+. The breeder hopped in to say that he was a cryptorchid male, so he was worthless. If he didn't sell at the show she was going to "cull" him because he wasn't worth taking back home to NY. :shock: Needless to say, he came home with me. I don't care that the neuter will be more, he's safe and happy. I know, I probably got played but I couldn't take that chance.

 

[JadeIcing]

8 rabbits (Not even fostering at this point) 1 dog, 4 leopard geckos, 1 viper gecko, 1 african fat tailed gecko, and a blue tongue skink! I am done, no more!

 

[Serenity73]

I have 6 cats, and 2 rabbits. When I was younger I had all kinfd sof animals too. I want a puppy, but my bf thinks I have my hands full right now. All of my animals are rescues.

 

[Jynxie]

If it was up to me I would be like this.

People still think I am insane with the amount of animals I have, even though it's 1 dog, 1 cat, 1 bunny, and then my snake.

I would love to get another bunny as a buddy for Harley and another ball python... and maybe a puppy if I had the room... LOL.

No but really, I would love more animals and I would say my addictions would be chocolate and pets... I even just like researching pets I'm not interested in getting and looking at them at petstores or online.

 

[LaylaLop]

Sadly my bf says it's ok for me to have more, but he does question it so I don't go overboard. In the near-ish future he says if we live together we'll find a place that has an extra room for the pet room, which will be 100% bunny proofed and space for me to store all their supplies and rodent cages such. I knew he was a keeper

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

I currently have 2 dogs and 5 rabbits. I have had gerbils, dwarf hamsters and mice in the past as well as some fish (gold fish and bettas). At one point I had 2 dogs, 3 rabbits and 7 gerbils at once.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

A lot of ours were rescues. 2 iguanas, 4 tarantulas, 2 alligator lizards, 4 cats, 3 dogs, 37 bunnies,a tortoise,2 cockatiels, 8 zebra finches, and had 8 aquariums over the last 4 decades. All but the fish were rescues. Also had a koi pond.

 

[ahall83]

i so am addicted. i have 2 bunnies. 1 cockatiel, 1 parakeet, 1 Roborovski hamster (little crazy thing), 1 russian winter white hamster, 1 leopard gecko (my baby), 2 dogs, and about 10 fish. just lost 3 fire belly toads to what im guessing was something in their water. im going to a bird fair sunday and am glad im broke or id prob come home with a big bird lol

 

[LaylaLop]

Haha, glad I'm not alone.. sorry for posting this in the wrong section too.. for some reason I thought I posted it in the off topic section buuut apparently did not..

Anyways... some day I'll post pictures of my other critters.

Also, the rattie person said I can have just the two of them. I told her if she doesn't find a suitable rat experienced home by Monday to email me... sooo I'll probably be adding 2 more to the zoo. Not sure if they'll be permanent additions or not..

 

[mmfh]

Lol it's good to know i'm not so abnormal. I have 2 dogs, 5 cats, 9 cockatiels, 13 rats (fancy), 10 mice, 5 snakes, 13 tarantulas, 1 turtle, 2 fishtanks (w/ a lungfish), 2 betta bowls, and 4 crested geckos, and 1 bunny

 

[MagPie]

Hmmm I totally love animals. Most of mine are rescues, including my two cats.

I'm not too bad at the moment, but I have 2 cats, 1 bunny, 2 leopard geckos, and 3 fish in a 10 gallon tank. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but is in a small 1 bedroom apartment. I've only bought the fish and geckos. I do have a spare 20gal Long tank which I have no idea what I'll do with it. Might switch it with one of the geckos' tank that is cracked. I don't know what the policy at my place is for small animals, they didn't tell me a limit on the cats. I got a deal with that. They've seen the geckos and haven't said anything. I haven't mentioned the rabbit haha.

 

[funnybunnymummy]

I'm not addicted to pets, but my youngest son is! He's ten and the whole reason we have Gus.

We've got 1 rabbit, 2 fire-bellied newts, and 2 garden snails. We had 3 fish before we moved, but I rehomed them and sold the tank.

If my youngest had his way, we'd probably have a dog, a cat, a hedgehog, a crested gecko, and another bunny.

I just want another bunny.

Rue

 

[Missy2280]

I am not the only one! Lol. We have 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 rabbits, 1 hamster. We did have 4 dogs but sadly had to put 2 of them to sleep in the past year. We are looking for a lab puppy though for Christmas. One of the dogs we had to put to sleep was a chocolate lab and he was a great dog.

 

[JarJar Binks]

Four fish, three cats (two rescue), two bunnies (rescue)and one stinky little hamster. My mother has recently banned any new animals from coming into the household..

 

[iShiznitch]

I, myself, have my puppy and my bunny - but I currently live in the basement suite of my parents house so they're included - 2 cats, 2 dogs, mah bunbun, 2 mini donkeys, a horse (+ a boarder QH) and my mother is looking for another farm dog and my sister wants to get a Chihuahua. With the exception of the one horse, they're all rescues.

My dad is NOT an animal person so... pretty much all the animals were snuck in. It took him a month to notice I had Indy, and 3 weeks to notice the 2nd Mini Donkey.

We recently lost 3 horses this past year, and up until last April I had at least 2 gerbils running around in my closet area as well - took my dad 5 years to notice those ones, and it was only because I was going on a vacation and he needed to care for them

I recently lost a Betta fish that lived for a good 5/6 years.

Our house is also a shining beacon for stray animals. If a neighbour is missing something, its probably here somewhere, lurking about.

 

[SunnyCait]

I used to be like this, and all rescues... They were all taken care of properly, had the best of everything. They didn't have the proper TIME, individual attention they deserved, but because they had friends, I called it okay. In reality most of them would have been better off in a household with fewer pets.

Then one day I was like "Holy crap, why? I can't do this anymore" and slowly my numbers went down and I stopped adding more. By the time I moved to Chicago I had just the one dog, and I knew when I moved to Cali I would get a rabbit, it was something my roommate and I talked about a lot beforehand. I don't think I could EVER have as many as I've had in the past. My limit right now is the dog and two rabbits, and I've allowed myself to plan for an aquarium (haven't gotten it yet, but one day, it's in the "comfort level" plan). Though I've been wanting a pair of rats again for some time, but I just can't bring myself to do it for fear of getting swept up again.

At one point I had 14 rats, 5 rabbits, 3 dogs (though two weren't actually mine, but I still cared for them and they were at my home), 5 mice, 3 fish tanks... There was another time as I was younger that I had more than that, mice in the 50-60 range, guinea pigs, a cat, 8 hamsters, 8 rats, a rabbit, two dogs... At the time it seemed logical and fine but then you realize "oh hey wait, not really, because when do I have time for anything else". And seeing as I have work, children, a significant other, and a house to keep up with, it's just not fair to anyone to let it get like that again.

To be honest having so few pets was such a relief... I hadn't ever had so few in YEARS. Not that I liked when they passed on (the rats being the bulk of my pet count, they all went from old age, and my bunnies never could seem to thrive for some reason, and these all broke my heart when they passed) but it was weird to not have to spend an entire day out of my week cleaning cages, not spend countless hours at home in the evening because "so and so needs out time". In the end I went with quality over quantity. I know the animals I have now are not only getting the best of the best, but they have the proper time spent on them that they deserve and very much want(well not in Holly's case, she'd rather be left alone ).