Top 10: Cutest Eco Pets

Who knew hermit crabs were considered a green pet? But don’t fret dog and cat owners: you’re on the list, too. Find out the other top 10 eco pets after the jump...

Because of their small size and the fact that they’ll eat fresh food from your garden (no large carbon footprint from food shipments), Sprig.com gives hermit crabs an impact rating of 1 of 5.

All the pets that made the list:

Hermit Crabs

Chickens

Bunnies

Fish

Snakes

Birds

Horses

Pigs

Dogs

Cats

Get all the reasons why and their ratings over at Sprig.

Comments (7)

This is a really disappointing post.

First off, if you click the link, you still need to search around for the list.

More importantly: the pets listed aren't all considered eco-friendly. In fact, the only information spring.com gives (other than mitigating tips for the last several animals) is how resource-intensive those particular pets are.

Accidentalvermonter, I've fixed the link so that it now goes directly to the article on Sprig's website. Sorry about that.

Gosh.

It's pretty irresponsible to advocate taking animals out of their natural environment.

(parrots?!! Though they speak of using captive-bred snakes, they don't do so with parrots. If not captive-bred, then they are probably illegal & threatened or endangered).

I THINK YOU'RE MISSING PART OF THEIR POINT: LEVEL OF IMPACT... So the Pigs, Dogs, Cats are on their 4-5 out of 5 level of ecologic impact, so I think they don't highly recommend those. Some of their points are interesting.

But still... keep the wild animals wild.

I forgot to say...

caging animals is cruel, when you think about it.

"Eco" should involve being empathetic with the earth & its inhabitants. Put yourself in a snake's 'shoes.'

digger61, actually, they did mention captive-bred, right at the end of the parrot/bird paragraph. "...and make sure you buy captive-bred. Birds that are captured from the wild take a toll on the local wildlife population."

I will never own another caged parrot or budgie after moving to Australia and seeing beautiful, vibrant, happy parrots in the wild. There are parrots that wake me up each morning by flocking in and chirping while they hang around on the tree outside the house. I don't need a pet parrot when I've got wild ones just outside the window :)

Obviously the parrots in pet stores are captive-bred and have never known "outside", but the difference between pet-store parrots and wild parrots is amazing.

Why not hang a bird-feeder outside the window and have regular bird visitors of the common species of birds in your area? That way, everyone is happy :) I wish the article would recommend that instead.

What about hamsters? Mine eats only garden grown goodies.