Thread: Post Pictures of Your Pets

My Puppy Angela!

My late ferret, Trippy. He went for a ride with me everywhere.


Trippy dancing to a live guitarist. For some reason, the sound of a guitar was entrancing to him.


Trippy, are you taking pot again? LOL


He would sleep in the strangest places, in the strangest positions.

Samwise the yellow
Winifred the brown

Watermelon hats


Eating the hardcover of a book


Exploring a Street Sharks action figure

Hahaha Franklin, awesome.

Pet snails..? Just let them outside.

If I let them outside, they would slither away and no longer be pets, and I would miss them.

My friend used to have a pet turtle (named speedy, and she ran away, haha) and I even understood the attachment to the reptile. But I cannot bring myself to understand that someone could possibly be attached to snails and want to keep them as pets.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

My friend used to have a pet turtle (named speedy, and she ran away, haha) and I even understood the attachment to the reptile. But I cannot bring myself to understand that someone could possibly be attached to snails and want to keep them as pets.

Funny story actually, I found my tortoise walking down the sidewalk one day on my way home. I went door to door but couldn't find the owner so I just kept him. He too was a runaway.

Frankling that was fucking hilarious. Thanks so much mate haha

Originally Posted by erible

his name is Chip
he is a West Highland White Terrier (aka White Terrier) (aka again Westie)
I friggin love him, he is snuggled next to me right now :3

I love West Highland Terriers. I drew a picture of one once....

I am all around interested in wildlife and that includes bugs, arachnids, and other invertebrates. I've enjoyed finding snails since I was a kid and just last summer decided to try keeping one. So far it's been a lovely experience. They're great to watch and despite their ridiculously simple anatomy (instead of a brain, they have just a small cluster of neural cells called a cerebral ganglion), I've noticed differences behaviorally, the kinds of differences that could give the impression of individual personalities. That's also been neat, because no one cares much about snails. Everyone knows them for their speed and no one spends time watching them because of their speed. I love to watch them and see behaviors others miss outside, feeding and shell cleaning and mating rituals/foreplay, mating itself, etc.
So it may not be the bond you have with a dog or cat or bird or whatever, but I'm still attached to them through my curiosity and love for wildlife. Plus I named them, and that just makes you love something all the more. I mean, people name plants and become attached to them. You put work into learning and caring for something, you're going to be attached to it.

I remember as a child I had a snail graveyard, I'll leave it at that. I've never thought to raise one as I never really liked them. What are their names?

I was just watching a snail the other day. Quite interesting. I realised they can't see. I always thought those feelers were eyes. I kept putting crap in front of it and it wouldn't know until it touched it with a feeler.

Franklin, that's cool. I've always loved snails, but never thought of keeping them. What do you use as an enclosure?

The yellow one is Samwise Gamgee and the brown one is Winifred Burkle.

Tommo, they can see, they just have awful, awful eyesight and it seems to take a long time for them to register visual stimuli. If I hold my finger near the side of their head and one tentacle happens to wave by, they often begin to slowly turn to the direction of my hand and over the course of like.. 15 whole minutes, I can get them to slither in a circle. They probably register differences in light and shadow more than anything and they definitely rely more on touching their surroundings rather than seeing it. The small tentacles are used for smell, which is much better than their eyesight. If I put food on the opposite side of their tank while they're sleeping, they'll wake up in a few minutes and begin making their way over to chow down.

I keep them in a glass aquarium, Armistice. Just minus the water, of course. It's around 15 gallons, I think. The substrate is dried peat moss and then I find mossy sticks and rocks from outside as they enjoy eating the fungi that grow on them. The lids cost a surprising amount of money so I just cover the top with screen and put some books up there, mostly to keep moisture in. Otherwise, they're left uncovered a lot of the time. Snails and slugs often establish a home for themselves to return to after exploring and feeding, so when they come to the edge of the aquarium, they turn around and head back to where ever they were sleeping.

you're a hero, franklin

A hero needs hotdogs for fuel.

Franklin, how long have you had these snails and what's their life span?

I've had these guys just over half a year now. They can live, in captivity, up to 10 or more years. I know mine are both over 3 as I've read quite a few times that they don't become sexually mature until 3 years of age and mine have both mated multiple times and are full grown. I've read they can live anywhere from 2-5 years in the wild. They can fall victim to a lot of nasty diseases and parasites and there's like 9999 other animals that eat them, plus pollution and all that jazz takes its toll, so the difference between captivity and the wild is pretty dramatic.

How did you get a male and female? Like how can you tell the difference?

You can't. All snails and slugs are hermaphrodites (surprisingly, Samwise has never laid eggs, but part of his tail is missing so he could have been attacked in the wild and had his female reproductive system damaged somehow), I just assigned them genders based on their names. They each have a genital pore on the side of their head where their junk comes out, both a penis and vagina. While mating, they each penetrate the other and sit there for up to 3 hours, sometimes longer. Foreplay beforehand can last up to 12 hours and involves circling, following, slithering all over and biting each other. They also stab each other with love darts.

And to avoid turning this into a "tell me about your snails" thread,

Hahaha Franklin, it's all good. We're all fascinated with the concept of owning snails, we enjoy it.

Originally Posted by JP

Funny story actually, I found my tortoise walking down the sidewalk one day on my way home. I went door to door but couldn't find the owner so I just kept him. He too was a runaway.

That's almost how the person I'm talking about found his too, in someone's driveway. One day the turtle was in a house he made for it outside with a cage door. One of those plants with stems that twine around objects had grown and pulled the door down, letting the turtle escape.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

That's almost how the person I'm talking about found his too, in someone's driveway. One day the turtle was in a house he made for it outside with a cage door. One of those plants with stems that twine around objects had grown and pulled the door down, letting the turtle escape.

Do you know what kind of tortoise/turtle it was? I have a desert tortoise, they are known for their digging and can easily dig out of yards. I found my tortoise in a three foot deep hole one day :S

Ahahah that image needs a caption!