Pretty much everything is banned here. I'm interested in sugar gliders, hedgehogs, and unique things like that
I've had & seen many great unique pets in California. The animal hospital I work at sees birds & exotics & we work with Fish & Game to treat wildlife. We have a wildlife license & vets are allowed to see illegal pets anyway (& we are not expected to report them unless they are not being cared for properly). It sounds like you're interested in warm blooded stuff. Chinchillas can make great pets & they are legal in California. If you want something a bit bigger, pot bellied pigs can be good pets. Also, I think pygmy goats are still legal, but I'm not positive about that. Most of the other exotic warm blooded pets are not legal - sugar gliders, hedgehogs, degus, flying squirrels, primates, ocelots, servals, prairie dogs, even ferrets - without a permit from Fish & Game . And from what I understand, it is not easy to get a permit for an exotic pet. Bunnies & guinea pigs are not as exotic, but can make great pets, too.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com Whatever you get, make sure you learn all you can about it BEFORE you get it. Also, find a vet hospital in your area that has doctors & techs who are knowledgeable & experienced in working with that type of animal. Take your new pet in for an exam within a day or two so that you can make sure it's healthy & get all the information you can from the hospital staff-if it's a hospital that is experienced with that type of pet, they can give you a lot of good information about how to take care of it properly, better than the pet store can. Take notes because when you get home you will have forgotten a lot of what they told you.
Ferrets were legal in Ca until 1986. You had to have a permit, but for some reason they stopped issuing permits. They accidentally got put on a list of "wild animals" years ago which put them under the jurisdiction of Ca Fish and Game. Pet ferrets were actually having their necks broken in the bathrooms of the places where they were confiscated as they came into California as people's pets.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com They claimed for years that they were not domesticated and therefore fell under Ca Fish and Game. Since ferrets have been domesticated longer than cats, they no longer make this claim. Now they say that the concern is that they will produce feral colonies, like cats are known to do. It is interesting that there are no feral colonies of ferrets anywhere in the US in spite of the fact that they have been in this country for more than 200 years. The only feral colonies of ferrets are in New Zealand which where specifically established ON PURPOSE with thousands of not ferrets, but ferret/pole cat hybrids. They were brought into New Zealand because the rabbit population exp; loded. (There were no mammals at all on the island of New Zealand.before Europeans introduced them and therefore nothing to catch and eat rabbits) The only places that there have ever been feral colonies of ferrets is in places that do not have much larger carnivore; s competing for food.
Governer Schwarz ....? sp had a bill on his desk to legalize ferrets but chose to veto it saying it needed more study.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com Hawaii and Puerto Rico are the only places where they are banned now and I think that Puerto Rico may be giving in, too.
Hope this helps
Keep in mind that there will always be irresponsible pet owners that get tired of animals and turn them loose. This can create a problem such as that in Florida Everglades where so many large reptiles have been turned loose after people did not know what to do with them as they got bigger. Animals that are not native to an area may not have predators and therefore can kill off all of the native wildlife.
The mongoose in Hawaii has over run the island and killed off almost al of the native bird populations. You cannot go to Hawaii and see or hear any birds because of the mongoose. They are much like cats and eat ANYTHING.
Well, sugar gliders are illegal in California.
I'm pretty sure hedgehogs are, too.
Stick with a little dog ... you'll be a lot happier in the end.
