Can you own bats as pets

There is a toilet where you can eliminate, but only your captor decides when it should be flushed. You get the same thing to eat day after day after day after day. There are no pictures on the walls, no TV, no computer, no phones, and no friends. You have absolutely nothing whatsoever to help you pass the endless days and nights. If you are lucky you might have a companion, but otherwise you are completely alone, and this is where you will spend every single day for the rest of your natural life.

It might not be. As cute as bats can get, seeking out a pet bat may be a bad idea. Fortunately, pet bats are not overly prevalent when it comes to the exotic pet trade scene. However, it is challenging to collate actual statistics on this type of business. The trading scene toes the thin line between what is legal and illegal. Additionally, much of the business happens in private.

In the United States, however, there exists a listing of Egyptian fruit bats for sale. Several Vine videos of pet fruit bats originating in Japan are also trending. In many counties, the United States included, keeping pet bats is illegal. But it is legal in several states to import non-native species, specifically fruit bats. This article by The Furry Companion will focus primarily on the needs of fruit bats over that of insectivorous bats.

The appeal of fruit bats is undeniable. A lot of fruit bats are cute with their foxy faces and big eyes. Bats are intelligent, social, and very fascinating features, but that does not mean you should have a pet bat in your living room.

Here are three straightforward reasons why:. That is not the only natural behavior of pet bats that you will find unsanitary, but this might be one of your least favorites. Bats do this to keep themselves fragrant, or so they like to think.

They also have very odorous scent glands located on both sides of their neck, which they use to mark things liberally. This scent lingers and is highly potent. So if you do get a pet bat, get ready to clean smelly gunk off of some corners of your home. The sense of scent is critical for bats. It is a big part of how bats communicate with one another. For this reason, expect your pet bat to stay stinky almost all the time.

Even transporting them to the vet in your car will be a huge problem since their scent might linger in your car for weeks. Bats are the only flying mammals, which is why they need to process food quickly so they can keep their energy up. It also means that you should expect your pet bats to eat a lot.

Pet bats will also urinate and poop frequently. Unfortunately, unlike traditional domestic pets, pet bats cannot be potty-trained. It is going to come out unexpectedly anywhere your pet bat likes. Approximately 20 minutes after your pet bat has eaten, everything will get processed. Wondering what spats are? Let us explain. When a fruit bat consumes fruit, it is only after the sugary juice, not the pulp. It means that when your pet bats take a bite of fruits, they mash it up against the roof of their mouths to squeeze out as much juice as they can.

When satisfied, your pet bats will spit the rest out just like that. In other words, any space where you will keep your pet bat will be dirty with mashed-up bits and pieces of fruit. Their spat will also attract other insects who like to eat fruit, like cockroaches and fruit flies. It only means that where there are bat spats, insects like these are sure to follow.

In a natural ecosystem, it can be a great thing. But you do not want to create this kind of ecosystem inside your home. Never tried to bite or cause problems. She lived to be 10 years old and I found her dead one morning in her tank. Believe it or not, my vet specialized in arachnids and told me she had lived longer than most and died of old age.

I now have a Bombay cat named Missy Meow who is 4 years old today. Thank you so much! I have had small and large brown bats nesting in my Connecticut home for thirty years. My family has gone from screaming and diving unde the tables to now, calmly getting a glove and towel to tthrow over them In flight and then to grab them, take a quick look at their cute, grumpy faces, and toss them out the window.

But why must they escape to dive bomb us at dinner, or run figure eights past the TV — or even swoop us awake while sleeping? Today, I made the choice to finally pony up the dough call the bat man.

Part of me honestly will miss these not so polite houseguests. Am I making a mistake? An excellent and informative article. A very informative article. Bats have always been one of my favorite animals.

I always thought about having one as a pet, if I could. But as a responsible pet parent I do my research. Now I know adopting them is out of the question. Thank you! Is it okay to still want to have a bat after reading this?

I would like to build an enclosure, and still have bats. Do you regret owning bats? Even though they are hard to take care of? I feel there is still some reason you would have them.

I love bats, and I would like to know what you think about this. If I can learn how to properly handle them, and still want to, do you think I should? How sad. After seeing the recent meme going around with a bat giving cuddles, I looked up pet bats and stumbled across this article.

I wish there was a place to do this which was good and safe for the bats themselves. And I get the thing about a bat biting someone being a risk. To me though, if you take the risk, you should just suck it up and get the rabies shots anyway rather than killing the bat.

My mom had her very fat dachsund bit someone on the ankle as he slowly peddled up the hill in front of her house. The wuss reported it and the poor dog spent lots of time in isolation. I was furious enough as it was. Sigh, guess we must love bats from afar. Nice job! Thank you for educating me a little more about bats. I will continue to adore them, in their natural habitat, not mine. Cute little stinkers they are though.

Nonetheless, informative and honest article that is greatly appreciated! This just one of those things I intended to read for 5 seconds to get an answer and found myself fascinated after the first sentence. Investing the small amount of time reading this has made me one of the human beings that knows I can now list it as a credential on Quora and gain cred with my peeps. After reading this I am thinking about how the dark Knight is actually being covered with bat jiz when they fly around him.

After watching videos on YouTube of this lady saving fruit bats i became interested in buying one! They are so cute! After reading this article it really helped me understand the needs of bats and would never make an animal unhappy. I will choose a different pet haha. This is very interesting. I work at a wolf sanctuary and I tell people that wolves are NOT dogs and that wolf-dogs can make really difficult pets.

The problem with wolves is that, unlike dogs, they do do not care about your opinion. If a wolf has a problem, she will not look to you for help. Wolves are incredibly intelligent, powerful, and pack oriented. When you have a wolf-dog, YOU are their pack. If you leave for too long like to the grocery store , they can get extreme separation anxiety. And they will take it out on all your stuff.

And they can destroy Everything. Thanks for the info on bats, really cool. I was completely wanting to get a pet bat. As a kid we caught one and was able to look closely at it before we released it. I always like to get the facts before making a decision about anything so the pros and cons on bat ownership I had to take a look at.

I want to thank you for a well read and honest look and helping me decide not to pursue the idea of owning a bat.

The article was fascinating, informative and ahh gross lol. Thanks good job! Turns out not close at all, but this was a fascinating look into the life of bats. I had no idea they were so social or sexual. As a curious passer by, I spotted a reference to bat ownership being illegal on a telly show, I found this an excellent and informative article as to why.

Well done. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Email Address. I mean, look at this. About Koryos Writer, ethology enthusiast, axolotl herder.

Might possibly just be a Lasiurus cinereus that types with its thumbs. Bookmark the permalink. Part 75 ».

Janie May 18, at pm. You have my white kitty, Creed!!!! He is adorable!!! Lindsey lamm August 15, at pm. The bats you see in the zoo are fruit-eating bats, from places like Africa or Australia. The director at the excellent Bat World Sanctuary found this web page and wrote me this: " We came across your bats as pets page and wanted to make you aware that keeping insectivorous bats as pets is actually illegal. Wildlife rehabilitators must be vaccinated against rabies, receive specialized training and must also obtain state, and sometimes federal, permits in order to care for insectivorous bats.

Aside from that, keeping an insectivorous bat as a pet is considered animal cruelty as they are very complicated animals that require an enormous amount of specific care, specialized housing, nutrition, etc.

We rescue dozens of bats annually that people have tried to keep as pets for a few days and they are at deaths door when we receive them. Without special training, the public has no idea how to care for these animals and they are usually dead within a week.

Additionally, bats absolutely cannot be domesticated. You can see the text below which she objected to, and it's true that it's not the best of info. But where they can live as long as 30 years in the wild, their life span in captivity is usually much shorter. Often, it's only five or six years and that alone should discourage people from keeping them as pets. Bats need to fly and they don't do well when confined to a cage.