I have 2 tortoises which were expensive to buy, cheap to keep yes, but we had to `tortoise proof`our garden, a tortoise on a mission is a determined soul! and one of them recently was a bit poorly and the vets bill was expensive. However I personally wouldn`t be without them, although they are hibernating at the moment which can also be a tricky business.

when my mum was very young, about 4 or 5, she had a tortoise and he ran away so often the neighbours used to find him in their garden, and bring him back for her imagine such a slow creature managing to escape and run away!

i have two, cost of hay, sawdust, salad food, etc. approx £10 per week.

i have 16.

and actually mine work out at just over £10 a week to keep

1/2 a £6.50 bale of shavings £3.25
1/2 £2.50 bale of hay £1.25
1/2 £9.50 15kg bag of wagg £4.75
bag of carrots £1
greens £1.50

about £11.75

with my 6 rabbits on top?
quarter of an £8 bag of wagg £2

so... for about £15 a week or thereabouts and you could be as mental as i am

They are cheap to keep & one of the most rewarding. Are you still breeding them xdow? What breeds do you have now?

They're only cheap while they are healthy though like a lot of pets & the vets bills can run into many hundreds of pounds.

We only have 4 now. We get a 10Kg bag of Supa Excell which is about £15 (lasts 6 weeks) & get our hay from Asda which is £6 for a very heavy, large bag of Bob Martins stuff & that can last upto 3 weeks.

hamsters

cheap, and need minimal intervention. yuou can leave them for a few days

great fun watching them move around a tube system.

they live indoors - they don't need walkies.

and they are cute when they stuff food in their mouths.

Snails are easy and cheap to keep. We have some. Just need a fish tank (obviously with no water in) with some soil at the bottom (pete free soil), and some leuttuce, cucumber, etc. The soil needs changing every couple of weeks, and you just microwave the new soil.

very true words.
i've not had any problems with any of mine though *touch wood!*
the only guinea i've had to have to the vet is still dewey a couple of years ago for an eye injury, and my first rabbit with a respiratory infection

things like mites and fungal problems are easy enough to treat myself, so i just do that

I'm not doing the guineas any more, i'm cutting back on them now, they're just pets now, to be pampered for the rest of their days

it's a shame though as i loved doing the guineas, they are too too cute when they are born, it's wonderful to see what you get with them!

if someone begs me, i'll do the rabbits, but i'm not breeding them for the sake of breeding them - if somone is prepared to wait, and have one of mine, then i will oblige, any money i get goes straight back into the animals care funds so it just helps keep them
i've still got my Netherland dwarves and one english butterfly doe

recently had a litter of nethie cross english for a member of the family who wanted a couple as pets, my sister kept one (spoiled house bun!) and the owner of the pet shop bit my arm off for the rest of them when i showed them a picture - as they looked like pure english buns and people are crying out for those markings apparently

i'm on to breeding mice now, for a couple of reasons i shan't go into, one fo them is for pets, but the other... well

The sound gorgeous, but I've yet to meet an ugly rabbit/piggie.

I'm guessing the mice are an erm, supplement for your reptiles lol

Do you kill them 1st or feed them live? I understand they're quite easy to put to sleep with co2.

not an especially flattering picture of mum, but this is her
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...W/SDC14699.jpg
dad
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...C14702copy.jpg
and a couple of the babies
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...W/SDC14690.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...W/SDC14692.jpg < i LOVED this one;s character, so cheeky, just like her mum
she's gone to a new home in driffield to be spoiled rotten, a 4ft double storey hutch to herself!

as for the mice, it's illegal to feed live vertebrate animals to other animals in the UK, so i... see to them myself and give them to the snakes, yes

it is easy to put them to sleep with co2, you're right. i have a self built gas chamber, but as i was using a vinegar and baking soda mix (in a ratio found online to ensure it was done correctly and effectively!) the mice ended up smelling of vinegar and the snake was extremely fussy about taking them, since then i use a more... "hands on" approach, to put it delicately

it's swift though, and the mice don't see it coming.
not an ideal situation, but i just can;t afford a gas cannister and a regulator right now

at least though, i know the mice that i am breeding and despatching have had a good, happy life and have been kept in good conditions before being dinner, so to speak.
unlike many of the mice i've bought frozen in the past, covered in wounds, broken bones, teeth over grown... the final straw came a while back when one had it's upper incisors curled completely round, puncturing the roof of its mouth, and the lower ones were so long they punctured the poor little guys upper lip too

Very nice photos, thanks for sharing them.

I find snakes fascinating & at least you can have a clear conscience when feeding them your bred mice.

They don't eat very often though do they, snakes?

they don't, no
most are fed once a week, like mine, or every 10 days.
hatchlings are fed a couple of times a week, but as they grow it's reduced

but there are some species that you only feed a couple of times a month, one keeper told me how she, not knowing at the time, over fed one of her rare boas and it died from being fed too frequently

Do you have to provide humidity in their vivariums? I would imagine that the cost of running one is a bit more than a tropical fish tank as the heater would be on a lot more?

with some snakes, yes, with mine, no
after the corn snake, mine is one of the most commonly kept snakes there is, california kingsnake
they're super easy to care for, no special lighting requirements, not really any special humidity requirements. so long as the heating it correct she's fine.

with your more exotic snakes, you need proper lighting, humidity and basking lamps
lamps as a rule cost more to run as they are about 100w

i use a heat mat for my girl, and it would probably be about the same or slightly less compared to an aquarium to run her heating and lighting (which is just a florescent aquarium tube light as it's to make the viv look more attractive than for her benefit really)
the heat mats have a much lower voltage than the bulbs and aquarium heaters, so they're cheaper to run, even if they are on all the time, unlike bulbs/heaters.

unlike with the fish tank too, there's no filter to run as well as the heating and lighting so you're likely to save a bit there too

sorry if this post makes no sense, i think the time of day has finally caught up with me!

It makes perfect sense so thanks for answering.

When you wake up (lol) let us know if you need to exercise the snake(s) & if you handle them a lot.

Truly fascinating hobby I think. I've been pondering keeping snakes or spiders one day. I wanted to keep spiders as my wife loves crickets lol.

rats are good.

But they tend to dribble urine everywhere due to their urinary incontinence. They are highly intelligent animals though.

They obviously need to be fed and cleaning them out isn't a pleasant task. I think they're a lot of trouble for the amount of pleasure they provide.

it takes literally 10 minutes to clean a cage, hamsters are lovely for what little trouble they are,


if they have plenty of enrichment in their vivs, things to climb on and such, they get plenty of exercise, if given the correct sized enclosure

i lapsed with the handling of mine recently, i had a busy week and got out of the habit of handling her, to make matters worse, she went into shed the week after which meant another 10 days of not handling her

so she's out of the habit now and has taken to venting when i try picking her up again

it'll take a while to get her back out of that habit, but when she behaves herself i get her out almost every day to have a stretch out (she's nearly 4 & a half foot long, living in a 4ft viv, so she doesn't strictly need to stretch out so much, bit it's always nice to have a little wander

i usually just sit holding her in front of the TV, providing the dog behaves himself, she can have a slither across the living room floor

sorry if i confused you before - by snakes i mean i also feed my blokes and my friends snakes from my colony of mice here, i only have the one... though i do wish for another

The eastiest pet to have, would probably be something from Japan. That's quite easterly.

Ant farm, stick insects? a pet fly

Maybe. My view is somewhat coloured by the fact that I had to look after my brother's hamster as well as my own when I was younger because he lost interest in his. They are sweet little things.

I share your interest/ love of snakes , I keep Corn snakes and just awaiting delivery of a baby Royal Python , only a few more days to wait !!!

ahh, royals are lovely snakes

i'd love one, but i've got too many other pets!

i think my next snake, when i can eventually get one, will either be a royal or a rosy boa

What do they actually give to you as a pet?