Exotic pets come in all sizes and snorts-4/29/97-PET PROJECTS - STOP HOGGING THE SPOTLIGHT, YOU PIGS! EXOTIC PETS COME IN ALL SIZES AND SNORTS.
BYLINE: SAMANTHA BORNEMANN THE ROANOKE TIMES
CHARLIE HARVEY started buying exotic pets because, in his words, "I've always been the type of guy that wants to have something different than everybody else."
Fifteen years and dozens of bizarre animals later, Harvey now maintains a full-fledged menagerie at his Pet City Discount Store on Williamson Road in Roanoke. And more and more, he says, people are flocking to stores like his in search of their own "something different."
In other words, that old cat vs. dog debate has been shelved: What really matters today isn't whether a person prefers a meow or a bark, but whether he finds his pets at the kennel or the zoo.
Exotic pets are hot.
At Pet City, prairie dogs and Australian sugar gliders are so popular that the store has a waiting list of about half a dozen prospective owners -
many of whom have been waiting for almost three months.
Among the other unusual pets for sale - at prices from $ 100 to $ 300 - in the Roanoke Valley are hedgehogs, ferrets, chinchillas, ball and Burmese pythons, and iguanas. In addition to Pet City, exotic pets are sold at Warehouse For Pets, with locations on Electric Road and Williamson Road; Alpha-Pets in Salem; and The Pet Shop in Rocky Mount.
Pot-bellied pigs and skunks also are popular exotic pets, but you won't find them at any local pet stores. They are illegal to sell, Harvey said. Skunks are forbidden as pets in 32 other states as well. According to Harvey, who sold skunks at his store 15 years ago: "They made terrific little pets."
Skunk protector Jane Bone, who led and won a fight to keep skunk pet ownership legal in her home state of Georgia, agrees.
"They are domestic animals, just like dogs or cats," said Bone, a self-proclaimed authority on domestic skunks. "They're house pets."
As many as 5million of the creatures are scampering around homes in the United States, Bone said. She estimated that only about 100 of those are in Virginia.
But it is hard to know for sure, since many illegal skunk owners won't tell even Bone, who operates a 24-hour hot line for skunk emergencies. The owners live in fear that they will be caught and their pets confiscated or killed.
Pot-bellied pig owners have similar worries. But although the pigs have been in the media spotlight often recently, the push to own one was just a trend, Harvey said. "There's no big demand for them anymore."
But other animals have replaced the pigs on the pet "hot list." Sugar gliders, named in part for their ability to glide through the air like flying squirrels, are the hottest thing on the exotic-pet market right now, according to Harvey. The small furry marsupials average about 7 or 8 inches from nose to tail and like to hide in small places - in fact, they travel easily in an owner's shirt pocket.
Among those on the store's waiting list is Laura Testerman of Christiansburg, who wants a sugar glider to join her six dogs, two parrots, cat and ferret.
Once she has her sugar glider, Testerman also hopes to get a prairie dog - another hot exotic pet on the market - to replace her old prairie dog, Baby, who recently escaped from her home by chewing through a window screen. Testerman said she thinks Baby tunneled for miles and then couldn't remember the way home.
"They are just the most lovable animals you ever saw in your life," she said. "I'd call his name, and he'd stand right up on the back of the couch and start whistling."
Testerman said she likes exotic pets because "they have such a different outlook on things than a dog or cat. You learn from them just like they learn from you."
Particularly important is learning how to care for an exotic pet.
Dr. Vanessa Rolfe of Veterinary Services to Avian and Exotics in Salem said that many of the problems with exotic pets she sees are caused by well-meaning people who have incorrect or outdated information about caring for their animals.
That's why exotic pets should have annual checkups at the veterinarian.
Many have special dietary and other needs that a more traditional pet might not, she said.
Rolfe cited iguanas, which are very independent creatures, as an example. "People see the iguana in his cage all alone and think he needs a friend," she said. ''They think, 'I'm social, my dog is social, so my iguana must be social.' But that's not the case, and the next thing you know the two animals get in a fight over space.''
At Pet City, Charlie Harvey keeps two Capuchin monkeys, three ring-tailed lemurs and a large bird called an African ground hookbill, which dines on raw beef liver, dog food and mice. He said visitors often ask about buying the animals, but his answer is always the same. It's always ''no.''
He sold a monkey only once, but after the buyers mistreated the animal, he decided he would never do it again. ''These are my children - and if you can't take care of them as little children, you don't deserve them.''
Breeder and broker Deborah Schneider of Monkeys-N-More Exotics in Raymondville, Mo., echoed Harvey's sentiments. ''It's just like having a kid for the next 40 years.'' Capuchin monkeys can live in captivity for 25 to 35 years.
For this reason, Schneider requires all prospective buyers to visit her breeding facility to see exactly what they are getting involved in before she will sell any of her monkeys, which cost $ 1,000 to $ 40,000.
Because keeping a monkey can be such a time- and money-consuming task, she said that owners tend to be couples with grown children or couples who cannot have kids.
But for those who are seriously interested, finding an exotic animal broker is not difficult, Schneider said. ''There may be just as many as there are dog breeders. It's much more common than most people even realize.''
Copyright 1997 The Roanoke Times & World News
Roanoke Times & World News
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