During the time I spent working in live animal husbandry at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, I had the opportunity to interact with a splendid array of animals, and learn a lot about what it takes to keep them healthy and happy.

So, which exotic pet should you pick? Or should you stick to purely domestic varieties?

First off, if you aren't willing to take the time to learn the specific needs and intricacies of your pet, you should not even consider buying it. This guide will help set you on the right track in that regard.

All pets require some amount of time and attention. If you can't provide the time or money required to maintain the feeding, watering, and cleaning of an animal, cross it off the list.

If you can't provide the time and money necessary to meet a pets more advanced needs, such as temp, humidity, or day/night cycle please cross it off the list.

Lifespan is important to consider also, and look into ahead of time. Many exotic pets can live a very long time if properly cared for. Tortoises and some parrots, for example, will likely outlive you if they're properly cared for.

Some animals, particularly mammals and birds, require massive amounts of socializing and affection. Others, such as chameleons, tend to drop dead if you handle them more than is necessary for basic maintenance. There are also plenty who just really don't care, particularly if handled from a young age. This varies not just species to species but individual to individual, so don't expect an animal to behave a certain way just because that's generally true of its species.

I have set up tables with various attributes for each species, let me explain briefly how each category works.

Species: Just the common name of whichever species I'm rating. Where possible, this section is also a link to an outside care/info page for the animal.

Cost: This is the original cost of procuring the animal. Can be dollar amount, or low, med, high, etc. Low is less than $50.00, Med $50.00-200.00, High $200.00-1000.00, Very High >$1000.00

Rarity: Rated 1-5 with 1 being the most common, 5 the least so. Most of the animals discussed with be in the 1-3 range.1 would be a cat or dog, 2 would be a parakeet or cornsnake, 3 would be a boa constrictor or firebelly toad.

Affection: This is two ratings in one, the first is how much it requires from you, the second how much you can expect in return. This is on a (-5)-5 scale, so a cat might be 4/4, a dog 3/5, a goldfish, 0/0 (doesn't care either way/nuetral), whereas a chameleon would be -5/0, or benefits from being left alone, and will give no affection.

Time: This is the amount of time you will invest in caring for them, 1-5. A dog might be 4, a green iguana a 2, a goldfish 1.

Money: The amount of money you can expect to spend maintaining their needs and health, including food, also a rating 1-5, not a dollar amount.

Lifespan: Given in a range of years, approximate, and assuming good care, no additional issues with the animals.

Risk: Basically, how much danger this animal represents to you. Things like cats or a goldfish would be low, dogs a bit higher depending on breed, pythons pretty high up there. A zero represents no risk.

Experience: The level of experience 1-5 required to keep this animal safely and effectively. A rating of 1 can be interpreted as "recommended for beginners" a 1* would be a personal recommendation, while 2 is for someone with basic animal care experience, 3 a novice, 4 and 5 really for experts only.

Fun: This basically is my own experience with how interesting and lively such animals tend to be.

Invertebrates:

In general invertebrates, i.e. "bugs" tend to be easy to keep, cheap, hard to kill, and interesting to watch. Under normal circumstances, they generally live short lives. The main issue with these guys is getting over your creepy crawlies.