Wild animals as pets?

Having a wolf as a pet is, basically, a bad idea. They are much more difficult to train than domestic dogs, much more prone to aggression, and much more prone to accidentally mauling their owners when playing with them. I would consider anyone who keeps a pet snow leopard, tame or not, to be asking for some serious trouble. MAYBE if the person was a practiced animal-trainer, but I don't recommend having them as pets.

Cheetahs are the most "doglike" of the felines. I've heard that some Africans kept them as pets and used them to chase down prey, kind of like greyhounds. However, most cat species do not have a "pack mentality" (lions are an exception), they are not at all inclined to obey a human, and would make very lousy pets. Keep in mind what happened to the stage performers, Siegfried and Roy -- even after years of working with tigers in their magic acts, one of the tigers turned on Roy and mauled him. No matter how well you've trained a wild animal, it's still wild, and it can revert to its instincts at any time. Especially cats. Most felines are loners, so they don't like to share space or food and they don't take orders easily.

Snow leopards would definitely not be a good pet. They'd bite or scratch if they felt like it (and an animal that size could inflict serious wounds), they would have great difficulty learning to follow commands, they wouldn't want to live indoors, and they would be very territorial. In answer to your question about food: if you gave the animal enough square miles of wild space to hunt in, it'd probably have no trouble feeding itself, since that is what they do naturally. If you caught the animal as a very young kitten, though, it might not have learned to hunt. That doesn't mean it couldn't hunt, since the behavior is largely instinct, but it'd have to figure things out on its own, which might take a while. If you fed it yourself, it would need a strictly carnivorous diet.

As the previous poster said, wolves are much harder to tame than dogs are. Most real people who try to keep wolves or wolf-dog "hybrids" as pets are idiots who suffer from an overabundance of machismo. The animals are usually bad-tempered, savage and unhappy creatures. Even a shelter dog is fairly easy to tame, because domestic dogs are wired to get along with humans. After thousands of generations of selecting for the trait, it comes fairly naturally to them, and all canines are sociable, good at looking to others for feedback and obeying orders from a strong leader. But wolves are wild animals, they are not mentally programmed to work with people, and they aren't really meant to live indoors. If your character wants a wild canine for a pet, a coyote might be a better choice. Coyotes are still wild, but they're smaller and more adaptable than wolves, and they are very smart.

Except for being much less "polite" (a wolf will snarl if you come near it while it's eating or resting, it may not be contrite if you reprimand it, etc.) and afraid or aggressive toward humans, the behavior of a wolf is pretty doglike, and many scientists consider wolves and dogs members of the same species. A wolf could probably maintain fairly decent health on dog food (though supplements of meat, bones or the occasional vegetable wouldn't hurt). The animal would certainly be happy to chew bones, but it wouldn't gnaw a rawhide bone -- it'd probably break off pieces of rawhide and eat them. (I have a German shepherd who does that. We give him real cow bones instead, they're very solid and heavy and able to stand up to his incredibly strong bite.)

^ Breeder of Plot Wolverines

Come to the fantasy genre. We have syllabubs.

I grew up with a specially bred wolf hybrid. The breeders that provided us with the dog would not let any animal out of their care with more than around 30% wold blood, and with good reason. Not only is the risk of aggression there, there are some other problems most people don't think about. A wolf dog cannot, for any reason, be transferred... they bond fiercely with their owners, and don't transfer that affection. They're also DIGGERS. My lord, my dog could dig a 10 foot pit. When they breed, they have massive amounts of puppies... mine would have over ten in a litter, and that was just the survivors.

The problem of aggression towards the owner is less of a problem than aggression towards others. They are VERY territorial, and fiercely devoted. They're also highly intelligent, athletic, and keeping them contained is difficult. With that intelligence, they have to be stimulated, or they will absolutely behave badly.

Heather
Forums Moderator

Wolves are monogamous and breed with the same partner for life, hence the attachment problem spoken of by a previous poster. Keeping any wild animal, even one that has been raised in captivity, is dangerous. They can seem sweet, and then turn on you in a second, for what would seem like no reason. You definately don't want them around your pets or kids.

If they have been raised from babies I don't suppose nutrition would be alot different, if they are being kept in cages. On the other hand, I know zoos do their best to feed their captive animals a close to a wild natural diet as possible for maximum nutrition. And yes, a snow leapard is a carnivor and thus would need alot of meat. Ditto for the wolf.

Even chimps and orangutans and animals like these can be dangerous. Chimps, if raised from babies, can do well obviously, but can also still pose a danger to people who don't behave properly around them.

When my Dad was growing up the next door neighbors had a wold hybrid. He said it was the sweetest dog in the world until one day it randomly decided to attack my Aunt Marty. She was ten at the time and going into the neighbor's yard like she did almost every day but for whatever reason as she walked to the back door to say hi the wolf-dog ran up and attacked her instead of begging for pets like usually. Luckily she was able to get into a ball and protect her neck and my Dad, one of his brothers, and my oldest Aunt heard her screaming and charged over there. The owner of the wolf (who had also heard the screaming) couldn't get the animal to stop attacking my Aunt so she used the broom she had been sweeping with to hit the wolf-dog so hard she ended up breaking its leg.

Needless to say it was quite the drama even after it stopped attacking my Aunt. With its leg broken it lunged at it's owner and bit her on the forearm before finally slinking off to hide in it's dog house. My Aunt went to the hospital and got a lot of stitches and scars to this day, the owner went to the hospital and got fewer stitches, and when the neighbor's husband came home he was so upset that the first thing he did was find his army pistol and shoot the dog.

Fourty some years later my Aunt loves telling this story. Give her a glass of wine, a comfy chair, and people who don't mind hearing it again and she'll show you all her 'battle wounds' and get gory on the fine details until you squirm.

*****
2007: Miss. Marin

Keep in mind ... this is illegal. You're not even, technically, supposed to rescue injured birds unless you're a certified professional. Keeping 'wild' animals is against the law. Something you might want to look up. :) There are lots of wildlife rescue sites that give tips on what to do and who to call if you find a critter in need.

You might even also check kids' library books on the animals you want. I recall one Zoobooks (magazine) issue about Elephants that showed a nice picture of how much food they fed an elephant in however much time. There'd be a lot of that sort of information in kids' books on zoos and animals and things. Or maybe circus training books? Just for some crazy resource ideas.

I'm not sure what your genre is, but if it's more in the fantasy genre you could solve the problems of aggression with the owners having some kind of magical bond with their animals. Otherwise it would be difficult to keep them from eventually reverting to their more violent, wild instincts.

wordcount widgets

Most domesticated animals domesticated themselves over a long period of time. Dogs, for example, probably started out as wolves who ventured near enough humans to pick up scraps. Those that were less fearful of humans, and behaved better, got more food.

Cats hung around for the mice, and for this reason were tolerated by humans. There is no apparent difference in appearance between the common tabby and its close cousin, the European wildcat. However, the European wildcat cannot be domesticated, even when raised by humans. It will tear your hand to ribbons if you try picking it up!

Chickens, cows, goats, and sheep all made long, slow transitions to domestic life. People killed and ate those that proved too much trouble, and bred those that were easier to deal with.

Some animals can be tamed, but not really domesticated. I had a pet crow when I was a kid. A friend had a pet skunk (de-scented, of course!)

if you're planning on any of your characters keeping wild reptiles i can help with that.
let me know.

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my mind got sucked into a plot hole.