Pet

This page is about domestic animals. For several meanings of the acronym PET, see PET.

The term "Companion Animal" is often employed as a politically correct name for the word "pet". A pet or companion animal is a domesticated animal that is kept by humans for companionship or for the beauty of its appearance or utterances, rather than for economic reasons.

While in theory one could keep a blue whale as a pet, in practice a small number of species of mammals and birds have dominated the pet scene for a very long time. Fish have joined them more recently. With the exception of iguanas and non-venomous snakes, few reptiles and amphibians make good pets.

The glofish, a genetically modified zebrafish with a bright red florescent color is the first genetically modified (GM) animal to be engineered as a pet.

A pet can be acquired from an animal shelter, a pet store, and sometimes from people who have too many due to births. See also Dog adoption.

Table of contents

1 Pet species

1.1 Mammals
1.2 Birds
1.3 Reptiles
1.4 Amphibians
1.5 Fish
1.6 Arthropods

2 See also

Pet species

Mammals

Dogs
Cats
Rodents, including hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, gerbils, chinchillas, degus, flying squirrelss and rats
Rabbits
Ferrets
Hedgehogs
Alpacas
small pigs
Monkeys
Donkeys

Birds

Budgerigars (parakeets)
Cockatoos
Macaws
other parrot species
Canaries and other finch species
Doves
Cockatiels

Reptiles

Lizards
Iguanas
Snakes
Turtles
Crocodilians, including alligators, crocodiles, caymans, gavials (can usually only be kept as pets when they are young)

Amphibians

Frogs
Toads
Salamanders
Newts
Caecilian, a wormlike amphibian that lives underground

Fish

See: Aquarium

Arthropods

Ants
Cricketss
Tarantulas