Who has thought about getting a sloth as a pet? After all, they are kind, sweet, and cute animals. They are the slowest mammals and one of the slowest animals on the planet, so it is unlikely that a pet sloth would ever run away and chase after the kids in the neighborhood. Since they mostly eat leaves, their food costs should be very low, right? So, can they be kept as pets?

In this article, I’ll look into this idea more to figure out how to answer this question. I will do this by talking about where sloths live, what they eat, how they look, and what they are like as people or how they live. I will also talk about some other things to think about when talking about having a sloth as a pet.

Habitat

Sloths are made for slow lives in the trees, not for running fast on the ground. Central and South American rainforests are home to these creatures, who spend most of their time in trees. Getting them as pets by taking them out of their natural environment has many problems. To try to make your home a good sloth habitat, you would need many things, such as:

• The space would have to be large.
• Here are some more reasons why sloths should not be kept as pets, in addition to the ones stated above: There would have to be many tall trees and limbs.
• You would need a living environment that is constantly warm and humid, similar to the tropical jungles of Central and South America.
• A power outage would require you to have “Plan B.”.

Characteristics

Because of how they look, sloths are not easy to keep as pets. As examples:

• Sloths have long, curved, sharp, and strong claws that help them hold on tightly to tree branches. The sloth can grab onto you with these same claws if it feels threatened or in danger.
• Sloths also have big teeth that they can use to hurt things if they are afraid (or if you tick them off).

Personalities

Because of how they act, sloths are hard to keep as pets. Here are some examples:

• Sloths are wild animals; like all wild animals, they have instincts that help them survive.
• “They are also a species that lives alone in the wild,” says The Sloth Conservation Foundation. That means they don’t like being petted, groomed, or bathed because those aren’t things they do naturally.
• Some animals hunt sloths for food, and when humans approach them, even if they don’t mean to, sloths can get scared because it might look to them like the person is coming to attack them. Also, when sloths are scared or in danger, their instincts tell them to stay as still as possible. In situations like this, they may look calm and at ease to us, but the opposite is likely true. Even more difficult is that three-toed sloths always look like they are smiling.
• The Sloth Conservation Foundation says, “By the time they are 18 months old, even the gentlest sloths raised by humans don’t want to be touched anymore.” We think many people will find this out the hard way and end up with a sloth that is expensive, hard to handle, and could live for 50 years or more.
• Because it is stressful for a sloth to be kept as a pet, it will often act strangely. They don’t live like this in the wild, so how can they be happy being someone’s pet?During mating season, a female sloth will scream at the males to get their attention. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want that as my random alarm clock!

Other Things to Consider

The following reasons further demonstrate why sloths should not be kept as pets:

If sloths are legal to own in your area, I can’t imagine that the licenses, permits, etc., that would be needed to do so would be cheap.

What would you do if your sloth got sick? Where do you go to get health checks? Good luck finding a vet who will take on this difficult job.

What if you have to go away for a while? If you want to take a vacation, what should you do? What if you have to spend a while in the hospital? Who would you ask to take care of your sloth while away? Again, I wish you luck finding someone to do that for you.

Can sloths be kept as pets?

Some countries allow the keeping of sloths as pets from a legal and technical perspective. This does not imply they are good pets or should be kept as pets. I get that sloths are cute, sweet, and adorable.

Lastly, the fact that most pet sloths are taken from their homes in the rainforests of Central and South America through illegal wildlife trafficking may be the most important thing to think about and the best reason not to get a sloth as a pet. The more people want sloths as pets, the more cruel trafficking of these animals will be encouraged.