{"topic_id":"exotic_pet_legality_us_ca","category":"exotic-pet-legality","context":"---\ntopic_id: exotic_pet_legality_us_ca\ncategory: exotic-pet-legality\ntitle: \"California — prohibited pet species (Fish & Game Code § 2118)\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"California Department of Fish and Wildlife — 'Living with Wildlife' (wildlife.ca.gov/Living-with-Wildlife), extracted 2026-07-23 via Tavily\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/exotic-legality/ca_living_with_wildlife.txt\ndate_parsed: 2026-07-23\ntokens_estimated: 270\nverification:\n  method: substring_match\n  claims: 4\n  passed: 4\n  date: 2026-07-23\nrecovered: false\npath: exotic-pet-legality/exotic_pet_legality_us_ca/01_exotic_pet_legality_us_ca.md\n---\n\n# California — prohibited pet species (Fish & Game Code § 2118)\n\nSource: California Department of Fish and Wildlife — \"Living with Wildlife\" (wildlife.ca.gov/Living-with-Wildlife), extracted 2026-07-23. First-hand state-agency text; C1 substring-verified against `pdf-raw/exotic-legality/ca_living_with_wildlife.txt`.\n\nCalifornia prohibits a range of exotic animals as pets. Per CDFW: \"The most common examples are ferrets, hedgehogs, sugar gliders, gerbils, monkeys, and monk parakeets.\" These animals \"pose a threat to California native fish and wildlife, agriculture, public health or safety pursuant\" CA Fish & Game Code § 2118.\n\nA restricted-species permit exists, but \"Permits are not issued to import or possess any wild animal for pet purposes.\"\n\nThis covers the state-level \"can I keep an exotic pet in California?\" question for the most commonly asked species (ferret, hedgehog, sugar glider, gerbil, monkey, monk parakeet). CITES Appendix status of each species is a separate federal/trade layer and is not addressed here.\n\nVerbatim C1 claims (each a substring of the source file + this body):\n1. \"The most common examples are ferrets, hedgehogs, sugar gliders, gerbils, monkeys, and monk parakeets.\"\n2. \"CA Fish & Game Code § 2118\"\n3. \"pose a threat to California native fish and wildlife, agriculture, public health or safety pursuant\"\n4. \"Permits are not issued to import or possess any wild animal for pet purposes.\"\n","sources":[],"tokens_estimated":270,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}