Mesa County, CO Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

B of the LDC governs the keeping of animals as an accessory use to a residential property. Subsection 1 allows household pets like dogs and cats in any zoning district that permits residential use, capped at five animals over four months old per residential unit (tropical fish, small rodents and small birds kept as pets are excluded from that cap unless raised commercially, kept outdoors, or housed in an accessory structure). Subsection 2, titled Prohibited Animals, flatly states that keeping nondomestic or exotic animals is not allowed as an accessory use anywhere in the county.

Instead, the code reclassifies that activity entirely: keeping an exotic or nondomestic animal is treated as Animal Care/Boarding/Sales, a separate commercial use category, and it can only occur in the specific zoning districts listed in Table 6-1 of the LDC, typically requiring either an allowed-use or a conditional-use designation depending on the district. In practice this means a resident cannot simply keep a wild or exotic species at a private dwelling as a hobby or accessory activity: any lawful keeping of such an animal has to be sited and permitted like a commercial animal-care facility, subject to whatever standards and district limitations that use carries elsewhere in Chapter 6 and Chapter 12 of the code.