I’ve Had Over 15 Different Pets — Here’s My Honest Review of Them All

Hi. My name is Brittany, and if you’ve ever visited FamilyMinded or our related pet site, Always Pets, you’ve probably seen my name at the top of quite a few stories. That’s not an accident. As a fellow internet user, I appreciate when authors cover what they actually know. I’m not a child psychologist, pediatrician or vet, but please allow me to present my qualifications:

So I don’t have a zoology degree, but I’ve tried my hand at caring for almost every pet one is legally allowed to keep. That’s a lot of pets — and some of them I’d never get again. That’s not to say they were bad pets, but they weren’t the right pets for my family. To help you figure out which pets are the best fit for yours, I’m breaking down the pros and cons of (almost) every animal I’ve kept. 

I’ve rated each pet based on how easy it is to handle, how intense the care requirements are, how much it costs (10 being the most expensive) and how kid-friendly it is. Let’s go. 

How many I’ve had: 11

Handleability: Depends on the species, but 7ish

Care: 1

Cost: Varies, but very affordable to care for

Kid-friendliness rating: 9 (Just hear me out)

You’ll love snakes if: The idea of a living hose is soothing

You’ll hate snakes if: Frozen rodents give you the ick

Final thoughts: Tbh, snakes are totally underrated pets. Hear me out. They’re silent, only need to be fed once every week or two, poop even less often than that and holding them is like getting a free massage. Plus, there’s that, “OMG, you have a snake?!” factor that’s always amusing. I’ve had six different species of snakes so far and currently keep boas and ball pythons.

All of them have been way less work than any mammal I’ve owned. In over 15 years of owning them, guess how many times I’ve been bitten? Once. That’s it. And it was a walk in the park compared to the couple of times our resource-guarding dog snapped at me. For better or worse, snakes are much more simplistic. You’ll never be able to train a snake or build an affectionate relationship with one, but they’re also very easy to understand. To a snake, you’re either a predator, a snack or a tree. Your goal is to be a tree. The obvious downside of snake ownership is that snakes are not vegetarians and there’s no kibble for snakes. They have to eat rodents, aside from a handful of species that eat live insects. Frozen food is highly recommended, but if feeding an animal mice is still too gross to handle, stick with a cute and fluffy pet instead.

How many I’ve had: 2

Handleability: 5

Care: 7

Cost: 8

Kid-friendliness rating: 5

You’ll love alpacas if: You enjoy training and grooming livestock

You’ll hate alpacas if: You hate troubleshooting problems

Final thoughts: Alpacas are like the smaller, less spitty version of llamas. They’re incredibly soft to pet and their curious nature and intelligence make them one of the coolest farm animals you can own. We loved the animals themselves, but there were aspects of their care that are holding us back from getting them again in the future. It’s theoretically possible to keep up to 10 alpacas on a single acre, but we struggled to keep our pasture grass growing well enough to support just two. The two critters pictured above were adept at tearing it up by its roots. We sectioned off the pasture to allow part of it to grow, but we ended up relying on hay and alfalfa much more than we thought we would.

For that reason, caring for them was considerably more expensive than we had anticipated. On the upside, alpacas conveniently poop in piles rather than all over, so keeping the pasture clean was a breeze. Alpacas can also be trained to pull carts and walk on a halter. Plus, you can sell their wool or spin it into luxuriously soft yarn yourself.