I used to have 2 sugar gliders. Very high maintenance pets. They are very social and will get depressed without enough attention. They are also group animals and when you get them you adapt them to your scent as the “home tree”. This means you being gone for let’s say a vacation or something will stress them out to the extreme. Since they are basically wild animals they have a very strict diet you also need to maintain, on top of them being picky eaters, can’t really give them the same food more than 2 days in a row or they won’t eat it. They often take a bite or two of food before throwing it and going for a new piece.
All that being said they can be very fun and loving animals. They live a long time and are quite smart. Their little hands look like people’s thumbs and all and they LOVE untying knots and anything plastic that crinkles. Had them through college and had a tapestry on every wall so it was fun letting them run around the apartment free and climbing where ever. Always a good laugh when someone was over and didn’t know they were out. They would lead across the room to get back to me or the cage and seeing someone freak out as they saw something dive bombing them out of their peripheral never got old. My favorite thing about them was this demonic noise called crabbing that they make when they are scared or upset.

Had stick insects for a while. Very easy to care for. In fact kind of too easy, as the main challenge is to stop them from rapidly multiplying in number. They can also procreate asexually, just cloning themselves over and over.

Neighbor had an emu in a very suburban neighborhood. It was tall enough to look over the fence and would scare the day lights out of the local children.

There’s a hawk in my yard that likes me. When I walk out, it flies to the nearest fence and waits for me to comfort/feed it, like a dog who had just realized its dinner has just been poured.

I had 4 Madagascar hissing cockroaches for several years. They are docile (female) to feisty (male). As long as they have plants to eat, things to hide in, and water to drink, they’re good. Mine seemed to especially love eating slightly damp rose petals.

A neighbour 2 blocks away had a lion until early this year. Idk what happened there and don’t wanna find out.

I’ve got an Axolotl. Not sure where that falls on the spectrum of exotic pets.

They are pretty easy to get ahold of and apart from a chiller to keep the water at an appropriately cool temperature they are easy to take care of. That being said, every person that has come over to our place reacts with something along the lines of “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!”.

All I really need to do for it is top off the water every day or two and once a month or so replace 20% of the water with fresh water. It’s not even that critical to do that much water maintenance I just like to go for as clear water as possible.

Feeding is easy as well. Optimal feeding is once every 2-3 days but they can survive MUCH longer without food. Studies have shown up to 3 weeks is doable. This means if we are going to go on vacation for a week or a bit longer I just feed him once before we leave and then don’t worry about it.

4 species of roaches (Pseudoglomeris magnifica being the prettiest in my opinion), 3 species of isopods (Merulanella sp. scarlet being my favourite) and 2 species of beetles as well as shrimp and snails in an aquarium.

I had 2 fancy rats. They were lovely. They liked to play around in boxes and carve tunnels into my couch to run around in. They liked fruits and riding around in my pocket.

My monster of a roommate at the time took them and let them into the wild when I was away. I never saw them again. Should have left her in the wild as well for that.

I have a hedgehog. He’s very easy to take care of. They naturally litter train, so cleaning up after him is super easy.

I have a few and have had more in the past, but my current most interesting I think are mourning geckos. They’re a little gecko and when they were found in the rainforest the researchers realised they were all female, so assumed some dreadful disease had killed off all the males and called them ‘mourning geckos’ as they were mourning all their husbands and would die alone.

Turns out nope, they don’t need men, they’re independent women, they lay fertile eggs through parthenogenesis, who are also female.

Budgerigars (small parrots).

They’re active, smart, and social. They fly.

So I made them a flight cage that takes up most of the room they’re in. I’d prefer a full walk-in aviary, but don’t have room in my apartment.

Cleaning isn’t bad, I just shop-vac out the litter tray & refill it with a 20lb bag of corn cob bits. Fresh food in the mornings, take it out & replace with pellets around noon. Clean water daily. Millet treats when I let them out (about an hour per day to interact with them).

Feathers get everywhere when they molt. And feather dust. Their room has its own HEPA filter.

Vet appointments are more expensive for exotics than cats & dogs. There are fewer exotic vets, and I always go to a board certified avian vet. Boarding when I go on vacation is also more expensive (about $50/day), especially since they’re flighted.

They’re not anywhere near as loud or destructive as larger parrots, but that doesn’t mean they’re quiet. Just means they might not damage your hearing from the next room. They wake up with the dawn, and let you know about it.

They’re extremely sensitive to airborne toxins (avian respiration is rather different from mammalian). That means absolutely no teflon cookware use, no air fresheners, etc.

Not me but an old friend of mine had a red eared slider. It looked god awful to take care of it. He had like a giant plastic tank, think its called a stock tank or something, which took like at least 1/4 of their room space. Then there was another big box filled with sand and dirt that he said was for eggs since apparently they just lay them whenever. He probably slept great though since all you heard was the filter whenever you walked in. Not sure how long it took to clean the giant tank but I can only imagine it must of taken hours.

Five ball pythons; two Normals (Monty and Lucky) one Super Mojave (Hisui), one Jigsaw (Amber), one Mystic Spider (Jasper). And two Leopard Geckos (Spot and Rover).

And anyone who tells you reptiles don’t have personality is lying. Jasper is very snobbish and a homebody, Hisui is a coward but tries to be brave, Monty is laid-back and lazy, Amber is adventurous, and Lucky is very gung-ho (and food obsessed, because his previous owners starved him, then dumped him on the side of the road).

Rover is very confident, and Spot is a grumpy old man.

Blue tongue lizard - they’re pretty easy to take care of (so far - we’ve only had it about a month). We’re still learning what it likes to eat, but their diet is pretty varied, so there’s always an option in the fridge - strawberries, lettuce, banana, etc.

It’s been pretty reclusive, and even a little cranky, since we brought it home. It’s started hissing at us when we try to pick it up. Talking to the people at the store, I think we need to “force” it to get used to being held, so that’ll be this weekend’s fun activity.

That said, experiencing other domestic blue tongue lizards, they’re pretty chill pets.