I feel like bears is the most obvious answer. In this scenario it would have started thousands of years ago. We’d have dozens/hundreds of breeds with different shapes,sizes and characteristics. What do you think would be the most interesting/cool?

  • Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    15 hours ago

    I would love having a squirrel as pet. Unfortunately most squirrel types don’t do well in captivity because they are too anxious. I nursed a baby squirrel once as a volunteer and it would just sleep in my shirt pocket or bra and be the cutest little thing until it was old enough to start learning to be a wild squirrel.

    • anon6789@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      13 hours ago

      I think I’m going to side with you on this one. They start out calm enough, simple feeding and housing requirements, they can’t hurt you as much as some of these larger animals, and most don’t seem to get too bad an attitude even as adults unless they’re cornered. Honestly my biggest problem would be them going to the bathroom everywhere and in places not readily accessible to clean. Eww.

    • pasdechance@jlai.lu
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      14 hours ago

      We tried to keep squirrels as pets for more than 2 years. Couldn’t hold them ever. Eventually we just opened the door to the pen and it was a squirrel hotel for years. Watched lots of little babies come out of that thing.

      • Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        14 hours ago

        I hope they were native squirrels! The netherlands almost had an escaped-pet-turned-invasive-species problem because some imported squirrels escaped.

        • pasdechance@jlai.lu
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          12 hours ago

          They were native. It was still illegal. Originally what happened is a pair of squirrels lost their parents and literally wouldn’t stop trying to crawl all over us whenever we went outside. So we planned on keeping them safe for a little bit. My mom got attached. Then they got out once and came back so we just left the door open. Eventually they got bored of that “hotel” and just stopped coming around altogether.