Pet: Hedgehog

Name: Charlotte

Age: 3

Owner: Claudia Boisvert, senior

From: Plano Pets

Care required: Clean out cage every week, feed and give water every day.

Why: “My sister and I got a hedgehog because they’re fun, they’re less responsibility and they’re really cute,” Boisvert said.

Fun fact: Charlotte gets little chunks of her bedding stuck on her quills and runs around with little balls of cotton on her. She also loves baths.

Pet: Leopard Gecko

Name: Slash

Age: 5

Owner: Nathan Lao, senior

From: Plano Pets

Care required: Clean the cage once a month, and feed occasionally. Leopard Geckos can go without eating for as long as a week.

Why: “My mom said our family couldn’t have a dog or a cat because we had one before and couldn’t take care of it,” Lao said. “She wanted me to get a pet that’s easier to take care of, so I settled for a gecko.”

Pet: Chinchilla

Name: Bling

Age: 6

Owner: Jasmin Nguyen, junior

From: Her brother’s friends, who bought Bling from a local pet store as a gift.

Care required: Lots of attention from family and friends, meals every morning and night.

Why: “My family’s chinchilla was a surprise gift to my brother from his friends,” Nguyen said. “It’s a cool and rare pet.”

Fun fact: Chinchillas have to take baths with dust that absorbs the dirt and oil from their fur. When Bling takes a bath, she stays in a little box with various openings called a dust house. She loves baths and loves to roll around in her dust house.