pets anyone ?

Thank you for the chinchilla lesson. Much appreciated.

I did not travel with the chinchilla but I do not think travel would bother it. My hesitation is that their cage needs to be pretty large and it would be hard to fit the cage into an RV. They need a cage with a branch for climbing and chewing and enough room to run around. The cage for a rat is much smaller. You also cannot let a chinchilla out of the cage unsupervised and they are too large to easily travel on your shoulder. The reason you cannot let them run around unsupervised is they love to chew on wood.

ncrowley wrote:
... I would pick a rat. ...

To anyone who may think a rat is "awful", actually it is not. My sister (67 years old now), has had pet rats for years now. At one point in time she had 24 of them. She had quite a set-up in her basement where they didn't even have to be in a cage, but they never jumped down from their area or left their "home."

She had several hair-less rats. And she always said they make the best pets. One by one, over the years, they've died off, gotten more, died off. She's down to the last 2 now, and I play with them when I see her. And ncrowley is absolutely correct ... they are very affectionate little creatures!

And she now also has a chinchilla too. Now that creature is awesome!

Because these are caged animals, they would make great "camping" companions!

How is the chinchilla as a pet? Does it like traveling? Just curious.

I have had a lot of different pets over the years - cats, mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, fish, a goat, horses, and a chinchilla. I love all animals but I think dogs are the most rewarding but take the most time and care. If I had to select a pet other than a dog that is the easiest to care for but affectionate, believe or not I would pick a rat. You need to get them young and spend time to work with them but they are very smart and very loving. They used to sit on my shoulder when I was in the house. They are very clean.

I am a dog lover who travels with a cat. The cat doesn't need to go out on a schedule and she free-feeds on kibble while we are away. She eats wet food when we gets home at whatever time.

She is good company and not as "needy" as my dogs were.

There is the letterbox requirement, which I am not thrilled with. But it is a small trade off that seems more than worth it.

Enjoy your freedom for now. You never know when a pet might suddenly adopt you.

My dog loves to go camping with me. Most campgrounds do not allow you to leave your dog unattended, so it can be difficult. If I know I'm going somewhere that I won't want to do a lot of sightseeing then he goes along. Going out to dinner/etc. can be difficult if it's summer weather as I won't leave him in the car. It's just like having a kid with you - you can't leave them behind alone, even though you might like to.

Once a dog lover, always a dog lover. I see you have two choices. Get another dog, or dont!

We traveled over 5 years as fulltimers with two elderly cats because we already had them when we became full timers. When they passed at 18 & 20, we decided to wait to get more pets for a while. It has been nearly 3 years now and I am amazed at how differently we travel now. We do things we wouldn't have done before and even the things we would have done, we do now without worrying about how they are doing back at the RV. Don't get me wrong, I loved those two so very much.

One of the reasons we waited to get another pet is because my Mom has cats and we wanted to be able to take hers in just in case the need should arise.

I really miss having pets but for now it is the right decision for us.