First of all you have to know all this thinks: Lions or any wild exotic cat require a lot of time, attention, care, management as they cannot eat ordinary cat food only, a raw diet w/vitamin supplementations or they will die from malnutrition, which happens so frequently with new pet owners. Exotic cats will only bond with one or two people at most therefore, would you be willing to commit 20+ years of your life for the sake of the exotic cats lifetime? You cannot go out a lot or take vacations or the cat will never forgive you while you’re away as it will starve itself to death since it will only trust no one but you to feed it. Will you be able to afford to feed it the diet it requires and meet the legal requirements or will you decide you can give it away because it becomes too much of a financial and emotional burden? Exotic cats should never be rehomed as it will ultimately be a death sentence to them. They bond with essential one or two people and if those persons no longer exist anymore the exotic cats may starve themselves to death. Exotic cats DO NOT get along with other pets and will kill any smaller domestic house pet that enters their territory even if they were raised together as youngsters. As they reach sexual maturity (even spayed/neutered) they will kill domestic animals. Most exotic cats are solitary by nature, which is why. Therefore, anyone telling you this is not being honest and this such a hearbreak to discover this first hand as many people do. But they are planty of stories about living with pet lions. Just for your curiosity we present you some here bellow:
Look at this lion. He was born on 2nd of April, 1970 and was a weak cub. But the family gave so much care to him that at the age of 2 he already weighed 200 kg and was 3 m tall. He was named King but the kids used to call him Tosik. The adults also called him Simba. Then he became a beautiful and tame lion’s whelp. Everyone in the family loved him and took care of him. Roma liked to set his hair while King liked Roma to do this. He was a full member in the family. Mornings started from exercises. Only Eva used to shirk them. She preferred to go on the swings and sing songs. King let her swing, he had his own apparatuses for training. In evenings they watched TV or read books. King liked to watch cartoons very much. He was dreaming to become an actor and once he did!
But the Tosik is not the only one story about living with lions as pet. In the 1970’s, actress and model Tippi Hedren (mother of actress Melanie Griffith) created the Shambala Preserve after producing the film Roar. The preserve rescued exotic big cats living in captivity that had been abused or were in need of help, one of which the family created a close bond with. Neil the lion lived with the family in their home, and played an active role in the day to day activities of the preserve.
