What are some wild animals that you can own as pets?

For the dog to become a domesticated pet, it took hundreds of years and hundreds of generations of wolves to be bred to have the traits that dogs have. You dont take a wolf and make it a pet. Without the selective breeding, its instincts are still very high, its prey drive is very high, and they are unpredictable and dangerous.

Havent you ever noticed at a zoo, that all the animals are asleep and bored? The only time they get active and excited is when they are brought food? It is because they are bored in captivity, depressed even. Why? Because they arent pets. They are taken out of the wild for peoples amusement, not for the benefit of the animal. The animals who are tame, are not that way because they like humans. They are that way because they have given up trying to fight with us, or they have been "trained" not to lash out.

If you want a "list" of wild animals to own, you obviously dont care about their welfare. It shows that you are more in love with the idea of owning a wild animal, for the novelty of it, or so you can tell your friends you have a fox. If you truly wanted what was best for the animal you would have picked one and done endless amounts of research on their behavior, their care, diet, enclosure requirements, state regulations, etc.

I work at a wildlife rehabilitation center, and I see people like this all the time. They usually get tired of the animal for various reasons and the animals end up euthanized or if lucky sent to sanctuaries. They get tired of wild animal behaviors such as aggressiveness, them not being trainable, them using the bathroom everywhere, etc.

Now, one positive thing I will say is if you choose an animal and decide that you are able to give it the best captive life possible, try looking into adoption. There is usually one skunk rescue in every state. They get many ex-pet skunks from people who decided they didnt want their pet anymore. Try contacting one of these rescues and look into the possiblility of adoption. I have an adopted skunk, not because I like the novelty of one, but because there are many that need homes and I provide a very good captive life for her. She has her own bedroom, toys, climbing items, and a carefully controlled diet. If you buy wild animals from breeders, you are helping that breeder sell animals to people who wont provide good homes for them.

well first of all i think its really stupid to keep a wild animal as a pet! yes dogs come from wolfs but they have changed so much into a domestic animal. its not still a wolf! ask any vet or animal caretaker, they are different. same with wild rabbits and DOMESTICATED rabbits. they call them that because they have been changed. they were bred to become pets.

not to mention that most wild animals, (unless allowed by the state to have wild animals) are illegal.

some states don't even allow skunks to be pets. as for raccoons, foxes, and pygmy marmosets, ive never herd of as being pets. they are still wild. along with deer, most birds, some snakes, and lots of other animals. they aren't safe to keep as pets.

you might as well get a goat or something like that to be a "wild" pet. it would be a lot better than a real wild animal.

It depends on where you are as to what you can legally own. Some animals are under license or downright banned in certain places. You cant even keep ferrets in California let alone more exotic things.You should never go into exotic pets lightly. I have a few smaller exotic pets and they are a TON of work and money...my sugar gliders have cost me over 1000 in a year if you include the vet bills, and I have to spend hours every day with them, and preparing their diet properly takes a while. And sugar gliders arent much bigger than a large hamster, can you IMAGINE the care a monkey or cougar takes? Dont buy a pet just because its cool and unusual. Exotic pets are exotic for a reason, they take a ton of time and work, are potentially dangerous, can be quite vicious and nasty, and can cost a fortune to care for...and finding a vet for an exotic like a kinkajou can be a nightmare.

Some smaller, more common exotic animals are African pygmy hedgehogs, sugar gliders, flying squirrels, jerboa, spiny mice, prairie dogs, dormice, squirrels.

Some very exotic exotics include skunks, wallabies, meerkats, raccoons, kinkajous, coatimundis, cacomistles, ringtail cats, tamandua ant eaters, bush babies, marmosets, tamarins, squirrel monkeys, fennec and bat eared foxes, alpacas, serval cats, asian leopard cats.

Some downright dangerous exotics include larger monkeys such as capuchins, (not so much large maybe as vicious and fiercely intelligent) macaques, wolves and big cats.

What all these creatures have in common is that they take a very high standard of care to maintain. Also, a lot of them arent pets in the sense that you can interact with them and play with them, many of them are just wild creatures in a cage, who tolerate their humans but thats about it. Think about it carefully before deciding on an exotic.

they arent wild as if someone has gone and just picked them up out of the forest or something: people have bred them, and while they arent quite domesticated and can still be unpredictable, they likely wouldnt survive in the wild. most of the ones you see as pets are atleast second generation tame animals :)

now, assuming you dont mean exotic pets like reptiles, birds and fish etc, then some exotic mammal pets you can keep (other than the ones you already mentioned) are:

capuchin monkeys

pygmy hedgehogs

prairie dogs

chipmunks

sugar gliders

possums

kinkajous

coatimundis

genets

ring-tailed lemurs

wallabies

:)

Im not going to say its mean i have a bobcat and a cougar along with a chipmunk all are happy just keep in mind they are mean and can really hurt you plus if they get sick you can't find a vet. As far as what you can have depends on where you live contact your local fish and game they will be able to help you. In south texas where I live you can have anything except song birds, birds of pray, endangerd animals, protected animals, and poisionus snakes everything else is free game

ok first the wolf is not directly related to the modern dog the painted dog is its closest relatives. second if you try to domesticate a wild animal it will die.