By far the majority of pets fall within the categories of dogs, cats, fish, birds, herpes, small mammals and horses there are numerous other pets are now gaining popularity.

It is hardly surprising really, traditional pets come with all manner of traditional problems. Traditional pets tend to need lots of space. Traditional pets can deliver a relatively long period of time. All traditional pets can be just, well, to traditional.

In a recent trip around Australia I met many families travelling with their pets, and since they were travelling through Australian National Parks traditional pets were not suitable pets to take on the road. The kind of pets I saw people travelling with were snakes, scorpions, spiders, crickets, lady beetles – all manner of pets that were far more transportable than traditional pets and in many cases easier to find food for on the road as well is being expendable (at least the crickets and the lady beetles were perhaps not the snakes).

If you are looking for a pet that is a little out of the ordinary perhaps consider a saltwater crocodile. It is legal to keep them as pets up until they are 50 cm long at which point a licence is required. How about a spider is a pet? Keeping jumping spiders can be loads of fun.

If you have a history of being a lazy or irresponsible pet owner maybe you could consider a pet rock. Or perhaps some sea monkeys (I’m yet to find anyone in the Malibu successfully look after sea monkeys).

In any case this section is here just for a bit of fun and I hope it gives you a smile.