Anyone have Bats for Pets?? - Page 4

One time a bat came into the house one night, scared the beejesus out of me because I was watching TV at night and thought it was a bird that got in. Well I turned on the light after seeing if flying around, lo and behold, a bat! The cat was going bonkers and I saw it flew in the bedroom and slammed the door to keep everyone out until hubby comes back from work at 3 am in the morning. I told hubby and he got a plair of gloves, a towel and caught the bat that was settling on  the curtain LOL! I got a good look at it and it was vampirish in looks but cute in a way. So he let it go when I opened the front door.

Another bat came in the house, in the following year, but dead under the furnance. How he got there, I have NO idea unless he flew in the furnance flue and by passed the heating elements. He could have died from carbon monixide because we were ready to fire up the furnance when I found him there. It looked like he didn't die that long ago or rotting smell yet. Probably a day old or so.

I never saw a bat ever except those two. I would not mind having bat houses however we do have problems with wasps so it would be too hard to keep it going.

Would they bother sleeping chickens?

the bats or the wasps?

insect eating bats won't bother chickens... I don't know about the wasps...

haven't heard of vampire bats bothering chickens either... but the ones we had prefered beef blood to anything else.  in most of the US, you don't have to worry about them anyway.

I just let a bat back into the wild I reared - let it go in late August.
Bats here cannot be pets as they are a protected species. You have to be licenced and registered. So No they cannot be pets here in Ireland.

My pics turned out all blury because the darn thing moved so fast.
I found it in the harth after a strom - it fell down the chimeny and into the ash pan. It was lovely to watch it grow and I fed it meal worms everyday from tweezers and water from a Qtip. As it got older I just upturned meal worms into the bator overnight and he/she ate them. Then when the bat started to open its wings and stretch them I knew it was ready to go back to the wild. 

Oesdog

I've read that fox bats or fruit bats make good pets.

fruit bats tend to be a little calmer than the native bats around the USA but the 2 biggest things about fruit bats, a relitvly expensive diet (fruit and nectar) and the projectile liquid poop that comes with eating a diet high in sugar and liquid...(and its sticky too lol)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENyf-p8vNhw

One more reason I would love to live in Australia!