Yeah... I could see myself possibly keeping either mice or rats in a feeder-scenerio in the future IF I could have a dedicated climate controlled shed-type setup. I just don't want to deal with the funk in my house any more. The worst thing is cleaning and then having someone come over and make a comment about it two days later... and mind you that my rats were in a DCN with aspen, horse stall pellets, etc. and had way more space than normally recommended. It's just too much work to get a cage like that clean...practically impossible. I think racks would be easier, but also not the best living conditions. I would only consider doing that if I ever grow my collection and feeder costs are too much.
My budges and canaries entertain themselves... I'd personally never go for a larger / more social parrot.. I've read too many horror stories of mutilation when they don't get enough TLC and I just don't have time for that, or for a dog or ferret.
I also used to keep fish..I was actually a mod on an aquaria forum many ages ago when I was in college and had loads of free time. My thing was planted community tanks. My dream tank would be a discus setup, but even at the peak of my hobby, I never wanted to tackle the water changes necessary. I've had a 10gl tank crack on the bottom and leak out, but that's the worst water leakage issue I've had. What got me out of the hobby, was an epidemic of parasitic worms... I made the mistake of buying some guppies at petsmart. I went though all the standard quarantine procedures, treatments, etc. All looked well until 1 month after I had introduced them into my planted rainbow tank (praecox neon blue dwarfs). Then I saw the red worms sticking out of their vents... It was downhill from there. My rare rainbows, the guppies, and all other inhabitants died despite all of the treatments I tried. It also spread to another tank even though I was not using the same equipment on the tanks. After that, I just put the breaks on my plans.
I will only ever consider getting back into aquariums if I have no mammals and have downsized my reptile collection, which isn't happening any time soon.
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