Most exotic animals seen on the pet trade

Some rummaging on the internet says keeping American River Otter is illegal in all 50 states without a permit. Asian and African otters appear to be legal in a few states.

 

Exotic Mammals For Sale - Monkeys and More - Underground Reptiles

Rock Hyrax
Sloths
Libyan Striped Weasel
All sorts of herptiles


Wtf

 

My friend who lived in Japan for a brief time sent me a picture of someone walking a meerkat on a leash.

 

If you only count animals that I’ve seen in real life then my list is almost non existent due to Australian import laws which I disagree with but do see the reasoning behind (somewhat),

Mammals

nothing, I’ve never even seen a ferret, I mean I’ve seen stuff such as domestic rabbits, guinea pigs etc but that’s it for exotics However a cool native Spinifex Hopping Mice are commonly kept in the pet trade

Birds

Blue and yellow Macaw, peach faced lovebird, Nanday Conure, Plum Headed Parakeet, Slate headed parakeet, Ring neck, Alexandrine.

for unusual natives, Bourkes parrot, Superb Parrot, King Quail, all sorts of Waxbill finches (gouldians, manakins, munia, firetail, Star, etc), Sulphur crested cockatoo.

Herps

None in Australia but when I went on a trip to the US I did see a Chinese Water Dragon

I’m not going to list natives for herps

Fish

Notable Exotics and saltwater, Red bay snook, Magestic Angelfish, Pyramid Butterflyfish, Fiji Foxface, Harlequin Tuskfish, Asian Red tail, Peters elephant nose, bichir species, peacock bass species, galaxy rasbora, Motoro stingray, blue face angelfish, lion fish species and many many more.

Banded pipefish and Kuda seahorse.

 

Most states require a permit to keep pretty much anything "exotic", licenses are usually not difficult to obtain. Many states even require licenses to keep dogs and cats!

 

True, although ease of getting the permit depends on what it is.

 

It isn't hard at all to get permits. I actually plan on getting a Native Wildlife, Exhibitor, and Importer licenses once I turn eighteen in a few months.

Underground Reptiles is a terrible source to get animals from. It is frowned upon in the reptile/amphibian keeping hobby.

 

What's wrong with them?

 

They've got a bad reputation for selling really unhealthy animals. They're also just nasty mass-producers that don't care much about the animals themselves. They also do a lot of wild-caught imports, which is why they have such a diverse collection.

 

Just the title of this sounds illegal as hell.

 

I put in an application for a wildlife import license back in October (at the time I was looking into importing some skulls from S. Africa) and I haven't received anything from USFWS since then. Granted I'm a private individual and not a business so things could take longer for me. I'm not sure what the process is like for people seeking to import living animals as private individuals.

And yes Underground Reptiles along with Backwater Reptiles, BHB Reptiles, and LLL Reptiles are all not great. Most people in the reptile community dislike them for selling sick, wild caught or farmed animals. They're all a big part of the reason why you see so many monitors, iguanas, and other large/aggressive reptiles that need to be rehomed.

Underground Reptiles and Backwater Reptiles also sell hybrids, which is very frowned upon.

 

Out of curiosity, what reptile sites/businesses are safe to buy from? It seems all the ones I've heard of are looked down upon.

~Thylo

 

Josh's Frogs is actually pretty good. I haven't personally ordered from them but I was planning on getting a colony of dart frogs from them at the NARBC Tinley Park Show this month...which got cancelled. I believe that most, if not all, of the animals they sell are true captive born and bred.

Pangea is good as well. They're more well-known for their reptile supplies but they produce New Caledonian geckos.

Great Basin Serpentarium is a business that bills itself as only selling cbb animals and they've had quite a lot of success with breeding hard to breed reptiles, such as Indonesian blue tongue skinks.

New England Reptile Distributors does sell wild-caught animals but the have several cb and cbb animals as well. The staff is incredibly knowledgeable too. One of my friends has had good experiences with them.

There are plenty of smaller breeders out there that are fantastic as well. My local reptile shop, Curious Creatures, produces several rare species and all of their animals are very well cared for. Just do some digging and you'll be able to find a good breeder for most species you're looking into.

 

Im personally not a fan of NERD either but still better than underground and BHB

 

The import license is used for moving animals across state borders, not importing them from the wild or other countries. I believe there is a different importer license for that.

There are a lot of great sources to buy from, including the ones listed above. There are a lot of high-quality small-scale breeders you can find on Facebook as well.

 

Virginia Living Museum's (or maybe ZooAmerica's? not 100% sure which) river otters were pets being illegally kept.

 

That's a pretty common story for a lot of native wildlife that ends up in zoos in the states in my experience. I figure the restrictions aren't that effective for how routinely we hear about native animals being kept illegally. Or even illegal non-natives...

 

This isn't relevant to North American River Otters, but I just realized I've never seen meerkats for sale. They're common in the European private trade, but not in the United States.

 

No, the can't be sold in the US because they are on the "noxious species" list.

 

I think all mongooses are illegal to import due to their propensity for becoming invasive if escaped or released. However, I would be very surprised if there were not any privately held Meerkat.