Ligers as Pet
A liger as a pet will be a huge pet animal and will definitely be biggest pet in the world from the cat family. So does this motivate people to have ligers as pet as well? The answer is yes and in fact many people all around the world have ligers as their pets. North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and even Australia all the continents have ligers and people have them as their pets. Some people try to tame these ligers while others just put them behind the bars when they grow up. Since ligers are unique and usually massive in terms of their size, therefore; people are always tempted to have ligers as their pets, especially the people who have big desires for having exotic animals as their pets.
In terms of liger petting United States of America (USA) tops the list. About 70 to 80 percent of liger pets are living in USA. Most of the States within United States allow their citizens to have any exotic animals as their pets, so this includes ligers as well. According to the findings of a website ligerzoos.com there were about 22 zoos in USA that had ligers but that number was much higher when they tried to evaluate ligers at privately owned facilities. China on the other hand is another country that has maximum numbers of ligers in Asia but almost all the pet ligers in China are at Zoos. Russia is relatively at third spot where ligers are part of circuses and zoos and tamed as pets.
Having a liger as a pet can be a very expensive stuff indeed because ligers are huge and they grow at a very fast pace. This huge size and fast paced growth of the ligers also means a lot of food consumption as well. Usually a lion or a tiger will have around 6 to 8 pounds of meat per day; whereas; on the other hand a liger alone will have around 30 pounds of meat per day. According to Dr. BhagavanAntle a liger may even eat around 100 pounds of meat in a single sitting. So having a liger as a pet can prove out to be a very expensive hobby indeed and your expenses will always be more than double when compared to lions and tigers.
There are a lot of risks that are also associated with ligers as being pets. According to the experts; ligers are wild animals. They have wild instincts of lions and tigers combine and they will always prefer to move back to their instincts rather than being tamed. So whenever you will have a liger, there will be a risk of an attack from this massively huge animal because of its native instincts. Peter Getz is one such unfortunate casualty! Peter Getz was attacked and mauled by a liger named as rocky the liger. He went inside the enclosure of liger to feed him and that's where the liger attacked him and ended his life on the spot. It should be noted that Rocky the liger was not raised by Peter Getz and he was adopted at the animal facility.
Dr. BhagavanAntle who has almost 3 decades of experience with ligers, is of the opinion that ligers should only be within the hands of the animal trainers and big cat experts. He further said that these are the right individuals who know how to handle and care a big cat like liger. Furthermore;according to Dr. BhagavanAntle, ligers can be tamed for a specific period of time period but at the end of the day, a liger can be back to its wild & natural instincts which can prove out be very fatal indeed. So from these statements it is very much obvious that a liger can be a pet for animal trainers and big cat experts but other individuals should seriously avoid having ligers as their pets.
So all this above discussion takes us to the point that ligers should not be considered as an option for a pet. On the other hand for exotic animal lovers, there is a serious advice that they should have basic animal training knowledge and expertise before they even consider ligers or any other big cats at their homes as a pet. Plus financially you should have a lot of money as well, because having a liger will definitely prove out to be a very expensive hobby as your daily expenses such as meat, land, enclosure, its cleanup and also medical attention etc. will be much more higher.