29 Jun 2011, 5:48 pm
I've been mentally juggling with wanting a pet while at college since I was a freshman but never went through with getting one because I didn't know how I would handle college life and was not familiar with "pet proofing" a dorm room. I started looking up different types of pets that many college students at least claim to keep and ended up narrowing my choices from the list to my top 5 and top 3. I originally was considering a leopard gecko or a corn snake in my top 5 if I went with a reptile (b/c "technically" I shouldn't have anything furry but I know of people who've kept mice at least) but decided not to go with those because I don't know if I could house a corn snake long term (due to needed adult tank size) and I'm afraid of dropping the gecko food (live crickets or worms) and causing a dorm bug catastrophe. I'm also really bad with my measurement conversions and was wondering about a few things so I have my facts straight.
How much room does a 20-30 gallon tank take up? I read on a few sites that corn snakes grow to be 3-5 feet (lowest rate I got was 2ft and highest 6ft) (.9144-1.524 m or lowest .6096m or highest 1.822m). Note: I am NOT getting a snake!
The three animals I actually am debating are a rabbit, hamster or hermit crabs. This is my order for most-least preferred but probably least-most practical. I didn't look up cage sizes for hamsters or hermies but did read stuff that makes me think the different enclosure options I came up with for a rabbit would not work. I read some stuff on NIC cubes and regular cages (which should I believe be 24 by 36 in. at the smallest or 60.96 by 91.44cm) and still think my dorm is too small. My dorm is about 160 sq. ft. or based on the diagram 16' and 3" by 9' 10", or 4.953 m by 2.9972m). Also, if I went with the smallest cage option (24 by 36 in. or 60.96 by 91.44cm) I would get a foldable metal gate/enclosure so the rabbit could run around on some of my floor space. I also don't know my ceiling height so I'd be completely guessing if I could have 2-3 NIC cubes be the width of an enclosure by piling them on top of each other to give a rabbit a high rather than a wide enclosure to run around in. (And yes I have looked up other stuff like food, habits, toys etc.)
The other main reasons I'm leaning away from a rabbit practically are all related to rabbit proofing the room. What would be necessary to keep furniture and cords covered? I read something about pvc piping awhile ago for cords coverings but am wondering if their is a simpler cover option (besides keeping all cords off the ground or permanently enclosing the rabbit away from all cords)? Also, how does one go about rabbit or even generally pet/small child proofing wooden furniture? Cardboard all around every edge?
For the other two animals I'm interested in my concern with the hamster is that its nocturnal (I read that rabbits are active at twilight) and I'm not sure about how to dechlorinate and add salt to water. I was thinking salts for fish might work for hermit crab salt water. Can water be dechlorinated by just letting it sit out, or do you always need to use special chemicals (the water from my home and college is so terrible that I can taste the chlorine in it, so it would need to be cleaned for hermit crabs)? Heck, maybe I should purify the H2O for myself 
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I give you props for reading my stupidity 
29 Jun 2011, 6:43 pm
Wow...if the water is as chlorinated as you say, that is not only disgusting, but severely unhealthy.
Anyway, onto pet stuffs. First things first - make sure that your college allow pets in dorm rooms!! One of my friends got in a lot of trouble for having her hamster in her dorm room. Second - of the 3 pets you said you were debating on, the best for a college student would probably be a hamster, as a cage for one wouldn't take up much space, and they don't require a lot of upkeep, like, say, the salt water for a hermit crab would (and who would want to try to cuddle a hermit crab anyway? 
). Hamsters aren't really nocturnal, they're much more active during the day, at least from my experience.
29 Jun 2011, 6:53 pm
Anyway, onto pet stuffs. First things first - make sure that your college allow pets in dorm rooms!! One of my friends got in a lot of trouble for having her hamster in her dorm room. Second - of the 3 pets you said you were debating on, the best for a college student would probably be a hamster, as a cage for one wouldn't take up much space, and they don't require a lot of upkeep, like, say, the salt water for a hermit crab would (and who would want to try to cuddle a hermit crab anyway?
). Hamsters aren't really nocturnal, they're much more active during the day, at least from my experience.The water issue is why I stick with bottled water. I actually really liked having hermit crabs as a kid b/c besides fuzzy stuff, I liked the texture of their legs when they crawled on me and loved making them obstacle courses out of book stacks. Thanks for the reply
29 Jun 2011, 9:11 pm
