Birds, rats, and even sugar gliders, many around the world have interesting pets, and the students of FCUS are no different.

Meet “Sparkle”, who is the yellow parakeet…

“My bird is a parakeet. Her name is Sparkle she’s yellow, she’s a very aggressive bird. She doesn’t talk but if you put your finger in the cage, she will bite you. We had two, but the other one passed away, we have had her for 11-12 years now, she mostly just does nothing but fly around in her cage, and all we really feed her is bird food,” said sophomore Chelsea Gawron.

Next up is “Cinnamon” the feeder rat…

“My pet rat cinnamon is around two years old; she is what’s called a feeder rat, so she was bred to feed to snakes, but we decided to keep her a few others. She hangs out with her siblings, they like play fight which is really cute, they will also groom themselves and sleep on top of each other which is cute. They eat a mixture of different rodent foods like guinea pig and mice food. For example, what’s surprising about them is they stay clean and keep their enclosures clean themselves. They regularly bathe and groom themselves and they will clean up their space which is not only helpful but really cute,” senior Matthew Mackivitch shared about his pet.

Introducing “Alvin” the sugar glider…

“My sugar glider’s name is Alvin, we got him from an old neighbor who was moving and kept him ever since, he mostly stays up during the night eating mealworms but we let him out his cage sometimes to run around and play, but most the time he just plays in his cage as its big and a lot of space for him to glide around, there [are] also a lot of obstacles which he enjoys messing around with. We will feed him meal worms or baby food and then clean out his cage once a week,” explained sixth grader Mark Runkle.

Last but not least, “Butterscotch” the corn snake:

“My snake’s name is Butterscotch, he’s a corn snake, he eats frozen mice, I feed him maybe once a week which is a lot, but he is a big snake, we got him online, we found him and thought he was pretty, and my mom just went [and] picked him up,” sophomore Valerie George said.