======= Date Modified 13 32 2010 10:32:04 =======
============= Edited by a Moderator =============
Hello Forumites,

Hope you are all doing ok. As many of you will know, we had a lovely little office gerbil called Foxy. Sadly, he became very poorly and was put to sleep by the vet on Tuesday :-( He was very cute and he will be missed very much.

The office now feels a bit empty without him, so thoughts have now turned to finding ourselves a new office pet. We would therefore welcome any suggestions (we're not allowed a tiger or an elephant - I've already asked).

If you have any ideas (preferably realistic ones!), please let us know.

Caz x

A bearded dragon!! They are amazing lizards that are very easy to look after as long as you don't mind feeding them crickets and locusts :)

I have a few and love watching their antics as they are inquisitive critters.

BABY TORTOISE! How about a ferret?! You can put them on leads and they wiggle their bums when they walk! Are they the ones that smell though??

How about degus? Like gerbils, but bigger.
Ferrets are awesome fun but they are rather mischievious (and a bit smelly)

If I were you, I'd probably just get a hamster - maybe a Russian dwarf hamster or something. Ferrets (polecats are in fashion even) are fun, but they stink, as Teek says - had one when I was a kid. There's always a rat - low maintenance, built to last. In fact, I have a mate who has a bald rat and it looks like a funky gremlin. You could even think about going loco, and getting something a bit more tropical...a red trapdoor spider or a sugar glider, a centipede or a burmese - there are lots of different pets and I wonder which you'll get?

A nude mouse!!! They're like the ones in the film The Witches, but rather than being the cute fluffy ones that the kids get turned into, they're the mice the witches get turned into. The have MASSIVE ears and are really wrinkly!

That's my next pet anyway...

======= Date Modified 13 May 2010 14:30:13 =======
There are these tiny turtles you could keep in a tank with rocks and little water. Not really sure what they're called but I reckon you could get them from an aquarium. :-)

Caz! Sorry for loosing your lovely Foxy. I had kept a male cat name 'm8' for like 5 years. I strongly believe in nature and did not castrate. This led him to go in open, hunt and bring back own food. He became wild which I never mind. Sadly, my marriage broken down and I moved to a flat in city where I could not keep pets. He was happy there and did not need help. I put a engraved tag around his neck, electronically tagged him and left the nature to take its course. I received a call from Motorway Police 8 months after that his body had been recovered nearly 25 miles away. I do not know how it all happened. From there I felt responsible and decided never to keep animals as pets for my entertainment.

I think you should do that as well. Animals are created by nature to live in wild and they can only learn skills if they are bred in a natural environment. It is same as we could not survive in jungle except those who are trained like commandos or Jordan!

Rats are good, and very sociable (much less nippy than russian hamsters too!). Or how about one of those miniature pigs that are so in fashion just now? Size of a cat and very trainable I hear :p

======= Date Modified 14 May 2010 17:00:12 =======
============= Edited by a Moderator =============
I think I vote for Teeks' suggestions of degus! I googled them and they look very cute! We were also wondering about pygmy hedgehogs...




On another note, I should also introduce my new colleague Amy, who has posted below. She will now also be moderating the forum along with myself, Sascha and the rest of the PGF team.

I'd be careful with the idea of a pygmy hedgehog. They're very cute and everything but they're mostly nocturnal and quite shy and retiring creatures. They can take a little while to tame, too. Other than that, I think they cost c.£150 or so.

We've got some chicks who are just over a week old. Very cute. :-) You can have all the ones who turn out to be cockerels - their crowing would wake up anybody who falls asleep at their computer. (Or is it just me who falls asleep at the computer? :$)