An exotic pet is a rare or unusual animal pet A pet is an animal kept for companionship and enjoyment or a household animal, as opposed to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful characteristics, for their attractive appearance, or for their song. Pets also generally seem, or an animal kept as a pet which is not commonly thought of as a pet.
The definition is an evolving one; some rodents Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing, reptiles Reptiles, or members of the class Reptilia, are air-breathing, generally "cold-blooded" amniotes whose skin is usually covered in scales or scutes. They are tetrapods (either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors) and lay amniotic eggs, in which the embryo is surrounded by a membrane called the amnion. Modern, and amphibians Amphibians , such as frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians, are ectothermic (or cold-blooded) animals that metamorphose from a juvenile water-breathing form, to an adult air-breathing form. Though amphibians typically have four limbs, the Caecilians are notable for being limbless. Unlike other land vertebrates (amniotes), amphibians lay have become firmly enough established in the world of animal fancy Animal fancy is a hobby involving the appreciation, promotion, and/or breeding of pet or domestic animals to no longer be considered exotic.[citation needed] Sometimes any unique or wild-looking pet (including common domestic animals such as the ferret The ferret is a domestic mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur, have an average length of approximately 20 inches including a 5 inch (13 cm) tail, weigh about 1.5–4 pounds (0.7–2 kg), and have a and the domestic rat The fancy rat is a domesticated brown rat , which is the most common type of pet rat. The name fancy rat derives from the idea of animal fancy or the phrase, "to fancy" (to like, or appreciate)) is called an exotic pet. "Exotic" may also be used for a species which is non-indigenous to the owner's locale.
Many major pet stores and service providers (such as veterinary insurance carriers or online retailers) tend to classify any animal besides cats, dogs, small birds or fish as "exotic".
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