Exotic Pets You Can Legally Buy Your Wife For Christmas in Texas

It's the most wonderful time of the year and if you've got a wife, husband, or any loved one who is impossible to shop for, we've got the perfect idea for you. How about a dangerous, exotic, but very legal pet for them this year?

Texans love pets. We have an estimated 7.2 million dogs living with us, according to the American Veterinary Association. That's more dogs than any other state.

But perhaps a canine won't cut it. Maybe you’re looking at adopting something less common — like maybe something that might even eat a dog for dinner.

Buy Your Wife a Tiger for Christmas.

Wait, is that a little too dangerous for your HOA? How about a bush baby? Bush babies average just seven inches in length and weigh about 2-3 lbs.

Maybe you're worried you'd lose track of a teeny-tiny bush baby? Or perhaps just the thought of living with its infamous pee-pee smell permeating your home is too much for you.

Well, then perhaps a super-slow sloth is more your speed. They, too, are perfectly legal to own in The Lone Star State. In fact, a sloth's natural habitat is in South and Central America, so there's no reason why you couldn't build your new “sloth-baby” a suitable habitat here in Texas. Also, they're not much bigger than a small dog, usually weighing between 8 and 17 lbs.

But if you do wind up choosing a sloth as your wife's new forever pet, it will be closer to forever. Sloths live on average for 20 years in the wild and have lived for up to 30 years in captivity.

Exotic Pets You Can't Buy Your Wife For Christmas in Texas

But word to the wise, don't buy your wife a cheetah, chimp, jaguar, lion, or gorilla. No matter how much she wants one living in the garage or laundry room, all of these are prohibited in The Lone Star State and are pretty dangerous too.

There are so many choices of exotics that are approved as pets in Texas, according to Texas Capital. The list is quite exotic and fairly long. Kangaroos, orangutans (King Louie in “Jungle Book”), and even one of the world's biggest big cats, Tigers, with a few stipulations, are allowed to be privately owned.