Armadillo Cage - Pet Armadillo?

01.01.2006 - The beautiful face of an armadillo. Just look at that snotty nose and those sharp claws! Who would't want an armadillo for a pet? Why, you could just keep the armadillo in a cage or a pen, and it would be a fine and loyal companion, with all the benefits of a Golden Retriever, plus a tougher exterior and barely any shedding. We should all have pet armadillos, right? Right. I mean wrong. I've received numerous requests over the years for armadillo specimens to be donated as pets. The problem is that this animal isn't really suitable as a pet. At least, I don't think it is. While the demeanor of the dillo is just fine and dandy and docile, the problem is that they require a certain type of habitat and food source that can't be easily replicated. They maintain a large home range with multiple underground burrows, and they dig all of their food out of the ground. I don't think that there's any kind of surface food that they'll eat. Otherwise, I'd have used it all these years as armadillo bait. I'm sure that some zoos out there have found a way to keep domesticated armadillos, and have found some sort of habitat that they'll live in and food that they'll eat, but I think it'd be a challenge. And besides, armadillos sleep about twenty hours a day, so they wouldn't provide much enterainment. Although an armadillo can catch a Frisbee in its mouth.