Exotic pets, by the rules

Move over Fido and Whiskers. The family pet takes on a whole new meaning when the critter in question crawls on eight legs or slithers on the ground like a burglar beating a hasty retreat.

Exotic pets, ranging from snakes and iguanas to ferrets and hedgehogs, occasionally replace the beloved dog and cat in some people’s homes.

The creatures often demand a series of stringent care considerations before they can thrive, but the bigger question remains just how legal is it to keep them in the first place.

Animal lovers must do their homework before bringing an exotic pet into their house. States and counties enforce their own rules and regulations regarding animal adoptions.

In the District, it isn’t even legal to own a ferret, says Echo Uzzo, who runs an educational outreach company named Echoes of Nature out of her Bowie home.

Would-be exotic pet owners should contact their local gaming officials to find out which animals are allowed to be kept in their home area.

In Virginia, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries oversees that information, while the Maryland Department of Natural Resources serves that function for its state.

The District’s Fisheries and Wildlife Division provides the do’s and don’ts for D.C. residents, but the city’s list of restrictions means most exotic pets pass muster.

Mrs. Uzzo brings exotic creatures like iguanas and turtles into nearby schools and retirement homes to educate young and old about them. She keeps more than 40 such creatures in her home.

Mrs. Uzzo says exotic pets universally need special consideration, from their dietary habits to living space issues and heating concerns.

Some reptiles require ultraviolet light to process certain vitamins.

“If they don’t have that light, they get sick. It can be sick for the rest of its life or its life won’t be as long” (as it should be), she says.

Holli Friedland, program director at the Mid-Atlantic Reptile Show in Baltimore, says the most popular exotic pet nationwide is the bearded dragon.

In recent years, the iguana likely held that mantle, Ms. Friedland says, which is a positive shift since the iguana is a more difficult pet for which to care.

The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, a Greenwich, Conn., nonprofit that supports both the manufacturers and importers of pet goods, completed a survey in 2002 counting the number of small animals both domestic and exotic in pet owners’ homes. The survey listed the most popular creatures, in descending order, as rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, ferrets, mice/rats, gerbils, chinchillas, hermit crabs, pot-bellied pigs and hedgehogs.

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