Questions only exotic pet keepers get asked
By one industry estimate, ~7%[1] of pet owners choose taxidermy, and exotic keepers face choices most dog owners never do. Add your vote and see how others decided.
- Anonymous, one vote per person
- Questions written for unusual species
- Live results you can compare with research
Why we ask
Why we run polls for keepers of unusual pets
Almost all published research on pet aftercare is about dogs and cats. We haven't found a published survey of what hedgehog keepers want back from a cremation, or how many tarantula owners keep a molt instead. These polls are a small way to fill that gap, and to show you that other people have faced the same odd, specific decisions.
Vote on as many as you like below. Each one shows live results once you've answered. You don't need to give your name or email, and your vote isn't linked to anything else you do on the site.
Browse every poll
How keepers of gliders, hedgehogs, amphibians, invertebrates and other unusual companions handle the goodbye, the paperwork and what they keep.
Which unusual companion are you planning for, or saying goodbye to?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Has a pet crematory ever hesitated over, or turned down, your species?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Would you want a necropsy (an animal post-mortem) before cremation?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
If your pet is very small, what matters most about the ashes?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Have you thought about preservation instead of, or as well as, cremation?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Did your species need a permit or paperwork while alive?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
How far is your nearest vet who treats your species?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
What would you most want to keep from your exotic pet?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
A word of caution
How to read the results without over-reading them
These aren't scientific surveys. The people who vote are the people who found this site, often while grieving or planning, and that's a particular group. A poll where most voters chose necropsy tells you what readers here chose, not what all exotic keepers do. Early on, when only a few votes are in, one or two people can swing the numbers a long way.
Where proper research exists, we put it alongside the poll so you can compare. The live results page shows every poll together with the published figures closest to each question.
For a benchmark, our estimate combining UK and US surveys is that roughly two-thirds of bereaved owners choose cremation and about 30% choose burial[2]; the US half comes from a peer-reviewed survey of 2,043 dog and cat owners. The RSPCA's pet bereavement survey is the closest comparison for the grief questions. Neither covered hedgehogs or geckos, which is why these polls exist. If your vote leaves you unsure, the aftercare options comparison and your local page turn it into concrete choices.
The questions
What these exotic pet questions are really trying to find out
Necropsy. Exotic animals are a bigger share of post-mortem work than many expect: at one university pathology service they made up 20.5%[3] of cases. We ask whether keepers want one, and why, because the answer changes how the body should be stored.
Would you want a necropsy (an animal post-mortem) before cremation?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Preservation. Freeze-drying is the larger part of the pet preservation market, at 62.3%[4] by one estimate. Invertebrate keepers often prefer resin or a display case. We ask which appeals, since it's a choice that has to come before cremation. Our resin and display guide covers what's realistic.
Tiny ashes. For a glider or an axolotl, the ashes may be a pinch or nothing. We ask what matters most, because the honest answer shapes whether private cremation is worth it. The ashes weight estimator shows what to expect for your pet.
Providers saying no. We ask whether a crematory ever hesitated over your species. It's a frustration many exotic keepers describe, and knowing how common it is may make it feel less personal.
The practical side
Polls on permits, vet access and what keepers hold on to
Paperwork. Some exotic pets live their whole lives under a state permit or with CITES records, and some keepers are genuinely unsure whether their animal needed either. We ask so readers can see how common that uncertainty is. If it's you, our note on paperwork for unusual companions explains when it might matter after death.
Distance to an exotics vet. A glider keeper an hour from the nearest specialist faces a very different end-of-life plan from one with a clinic down the road. Distance decides where euthanasia happens, who stores the body and how it reaches a crematory. The answers help us write more useful local pages.
What people keep. Exotic keepsakes are often unusual too: a tarantula's final molt, a handful of hedgehog quills, the branch a glider slept on. We ask which matters most because some of these, like prints, have to be taken before cremation, while others you may already have without realising.
What would you most want to keep from your exotic pet?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Beyond exotics
Wider questions every pet owner answers
Alongside the exotic polls, you'll find general questions shared across our network of pet aftercare guides: how people choose between cremation and burial, what surprised them about costs and what helped in the first weeks of grief. These let you compare exotic keepers' answers with owners of dogs, cats and other pets.
What was the hardest part of losing your pet?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Grief after an exotic pet is often underestimated by other people. In the RSPCA's pet-loss survey, 66.9%[5] of respondents were surprised by how intense their own grief was. Our page on grief after losing an exotic pet has ideas that fit.
Putting it to use
Turning what you learn here into a plan for your pet
Polls can't tell you what's right for your animal, but they can show you options you hadn't considered. If you notice that plenty of glider keepers kept a pouch or toy, or that many hedgehog keepers asked for a necropsy, that's worth thinking about while there's time.
Most people never compare aftercare providers: in the UK, 89%[6] of cremation buyers didn't. For an exotic pet, comparing is how you find someone who will actually take your species. Browse the services overview, or send us your pet's details and we'll do the comparing for you.
Reader polls
What would you choose?
Vote anonymously and see how other readers answered. The results are live counts from people who visit this site, so they show real opinions, not a scientific sample.
Which unusual companion are you planning for, or saying goodbye to?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
What would you most want to keep from your exotic pet?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Has a pet crematory ever hesitated over, or turned down, your species?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Questions people ask
Are these poll results real?
Yes, every vote is from a real visitor, and the results update live. They're not a scientific sample, though: they reflect whoever chose to vote on this site. Treat them as a sense of what other keepers here chose, not as research findings, and see the results page for published figures alongside.
Can I see results without voting?
The live results page shows every poll's current totals, so you can look without voting. Voting helps other keepers who come after you, though, and it takes a couple of seconds. You can only vote once per poll, and your vote is anonymous.
Why aren't snakes, parrots or fish in these polls?
They each have their own dedicated guide in our network, with polls written for those keepers. This site focuses on the animals that fall between the cracks: gliders, hedgehogs, amphibians, invertebrates and larger exotics like skunks, wallabies and primates.
Can I suggest a poll question?
Please do. If there's a decision you faced that nobody seemed to talk about, like what to do with a shed exoskeleton or how to handle a colony loss, send it through the contact form. The most useful questions come from keepers who've been through it.
Do you share poll votes with anyone?
No. Votes are anonymous totals and aren't linked to your name, email or any request you send us. We may mention overall results on our pages, always labelled as live reader polls rather than research, and never in a way that could identify an individual voter.
Sources and our estimates
- [1] About 7% of pet owners choose taxidermy, per Astute Analytica. Astute Analytica via GlobeNewswire — Global Pet Preservation Services Market to Hit USD 112.7 Million by 2032 (Apr 2, 2024), 2024.
- [2] UK and US survey evidence converges on roughly two-thirds of bereaved owners choosing cremation (UK 67%; US 68% ever) and about 29-32% choosing burial. Our estimate: mean(67, 68) = 67.5; burial range 29% (UK) to 32% (US). How we calculate.
- [3] At the University of Tokyo, exotic animals made up 20.5% of necropsy cases in 2006-2020, and the median age at death of necropsied dogs rose from 2 years (1903-1914) to 10 years. Nakayama H et al. Chronological transition of necropsy cases of animals in Tokyo, Japan. J Vet Med Sci, 2023 (PMID 36385043), 2023.
- [4] Freeze-drying accounted for 62.3% of the pet preservation services market. Astute Analytica via GlobeNewswire — Global Pet Preservation Services Market to Hit USD 112.7 Million by 2032 (Apr 2, 2024), 2023.
- [5] 66.9% of respondents were surprised by how intense their grief was after losing a pet. RSPCA — Pet Loss Survey Results, 2026.
- [6] 89% of UK owners who bought a pet cremation did not compare different providers; 9% did. UK Competition and Markets Authority - Veterinary services for household pets, Provisional decision report Part A (Oct 2025), 2025.
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