The animals next door: Exotic pets are making their way home

Lions and tigers and bears? Oh, no!

Ferrets and geckos and pigs? Well, why not?

Whether in the backyard, the bathtub, basement or our beds, pets considered exotic are living in harmony in homes with their human owners.

"When people say 'exotic' pet, they usually think of reptiles," Shane Goodwin, manager at Petco in Cape Girardeau, said.

Goodwin pointed to a store enclosure housing Russian turtles that retail for $139 each, and said he cautions customers to consider the care and responsibility an animal requires -- adding that while the Russian turtles "may have a high price tag, they have a 50-year lifespan."

Dru and Tara Reeves at their home in Jackson Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. (Glenn Landberg)

Also in the exotic category are some large and colorful birds, such as a Quaker parrot, a breed known for its ability to mimic sounds and human speech, and a vibrantly hued sun conure, which can be a loud squawker. The birds can live 20 years or more.

Goodwin said he notices pet-fancy trends, perhaps linked to television shows such as "Animal Planet," and that people often seek a particular pet because a friend may have introduced them to a certain animal or breed.

The Goodwin household in Jackson is home to Mozy, an 80-pound African spur-thigh turtle, who this time of year trades her backyard range for the basement, where the furnace provides a consistently warm environment for her semi-hybernation.

"She sulks a bit this time of year. She's not as lively, and doesn't come out and greet you," Goodwin said of Mozy, who was about the size of his hand when he got her 13 years ago.

"The kids love her," Goodwin said, adding that she gets along very well with the family's three dachshunds.

All in the family

Apollo, a male panther chameleon rest on Dru Reeves shoulder Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. (Glenn Landberg)

For Dru and Tara Reeves, the kitchen and dining room of their Jackson home serve as Grand Chameleon Station.

"It started in May of last year. It started with one. We became taken with them and went nuts, I guess," Dru Reeves said of the couple's collection of seven chameleons. "We call them our chamily," he said, blending the words chameleon and family.

Reeves credits his daughter with starting the chameleon incursion.

"Now, my wife and I have a team effort to take care of them. They can be high maintenance and expensive to maintain. They have unique husbandry requirements -- a certain kind of lighting and habitat. We spend probably 10 hours a week on them, since we have the seven," Reeves said, explaining that the varieties are caged separately.

"Sunlight is as essential to their health as water and food," Reeves explained, adding that they take the animals outside during summer, and outfit the cages with UVB bulbs, which provide heat and the full spectrum of sunlight to keep them healthy.

Of the extremely colorful panther chameleons, which are native to Madagascar, the couple has a male, named Apollo, and a female, named Grapefruit -- "because she looks like a slice of grapefruit," Reeves explained.

Their veiled chameleons -- three males and a female named Greenbean -- are a little less particular about their environment; the species is native to the southern Arabian peninsula. Forrest, a Jackson's chameleon, has three tiny horns, and the species is native to Africa.

While the species hale from afar, all of the couple's chameleons are captive born, and several are rescues, and, Reeves said, each has a unique personality, no different from the individuality shown by a cat or dog.

"Some are buttheads and some are as friendly as can be. They're just like people," Reeves said, adding that Rango "has the most personality."

"We don't handle them a lot, but they do just like to roam around. We have potted trees; they climb around on tops of cages *... and vines on the chandelier in the kitchen," Reeves said. "They like to go up high."

A call on New Year's Eve expanded their collection by two -- not chameleons but geckos. Cheryl Ellis, director of the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri, telephoned to ask if they would take on "two leopard geckos that were on the verge of death."

"They were blind and starving. We've turned them around," Reeves said, adding that the male weighed 37 grams on arrival, and now is a robust 91 grams. "We'll end up keeping them."

What's next for Dru and Tara Reeves -- and Rango and Grapefruit and the rest?

"We have two more coming in the spring, another male panther and another male veiled. Their coming from a rescue in California," Reeves said.

An odd couple

The Chaffee home of Lori Simpson and her daughter, Chaylon St. Cin, houses an odd couple of four-legged friends.

In Simpson's charge is a pair of box turtles she acquired four years ago as new hatchlings -- Shelby and Shelley -- and, she claims, each has a unique personality. While, she admits, "turtles aren't for everybody, because you can't cuddle them," she says she regularly pets one under its chin and the other on the top of its head.

"The turtles watch us just like we watch television. They'll bang on the side of the aquarium when they want to eat," she says. "If they made turtle clothes, I would dress them up."

In contrast to the leisurely pace of Shelby and Shelley is the quick and cagey demeanor of Zeus, St. Cin's one-year-old ferret.

"The great thing about Zeus is that he's kind of like a cat and a dog together. He has the affection and intelligence of a dog and the independence of a cat," St. Cin said, adding that of the family's two dachshunds -- Baxter, aka Bubba, and Maggie -- only Bubba likes and gets a long with Zeus.

St. Cin acknowledges ferrets have a reputation for being ill-tempered, and said she earlier had a ferret that was "mean."

"A ferret needs human interaction or they can get mean. They need supervision. You need to spend at least four hours a day with them. They're not mean, but they like to play rough -- like a puppy -- and they might nip when they play," St. Cin said.

Ferrets are notoriously playful, and Zeus is no exception -- chasing balls and initiating games of hide-and-seek. They can be entertaining; Zeus performs what ferret-owners call the weasel war dance, a series of hops while his back is arched and his tail frizzes out. It includes a sound called "dooking," which St. Cin describes as "a little squeak."

St. Cin explained that ferret's health requires diets based on meat with limited carbohydrates, so Zeus is fed raw meat, the occasional raw egg and specially formulated ferret kibble.

Although Zeus is descented, meaning musk-producing glands near the base of his tail have been removed, he, like all ferrets, has a distinct musky odor that emanates from his skin glands.

Zeus, like most ferrets, sleeps about 18 hours a day, mostly in a hammock in his cage, but sometimes he'll have a spot under the covers in St. Cin's bed.

Getting to know you

One local veterinary clinic lists among its patients a fair number of ferrets, rabbits, hamsters, gerbils and rats. Add to the roster reptiles including snakes, lizards, chameleons and bearded dragons.

"Every once in a while we'll see a prairie dog or a caiman, which is like an alligator. We also see some potbellied pigs and some goats, and hedgehogs and sugar gliders," Dr. Christi Foutz, veterinarian at Skyview Animal Clinic in Cape Girardeau, one of the few clinics in the area that "routinely sees exotics."

Foutz, who began her career in veterinary medicine in 1997 after graduating from the University of Missouri veterinary school, said the care of reptiles and birds isn't generally taught in vet school, so a lot of that is "self-taught, through books, seminars websites dedicated to exotic animals."

Foutz classified reptiles as "complex."

"A lot of problems we see are husbandry related -- how their environment is set up, its temperature, its humidity, the right food," Foutz said.

Herself the owner of four dogs, a cat, a rabbit and two bearded dragons, a species of lizard, Foutz, who lies in Cape Girardeau, said she favors the dogs because they're interactive.

"The rabbit likes to be petted but it's not as tame as the cat and dogs. Bearded dragons are fun to watch, but they're not much on being handled," Foutz said.

Foutz advised anyone interested in taking on an exotic pet to take their time.

"My biggest advice to anyone thinking of getting an exotic pet is to do a lot of research on it. Get to know the animal's needs and figure out if you can meet the needs of the animal. Know what you're getting into before you get it," Foutz said.

nhadler@semissourian.com

388-3630