Pet

A menagerie housing many pets.

A pet is a non-combat NPC loyal to a player that is generally obtained from monster drops and skilling. Most pets can be interacted with. Most pets do not serve a purpose other than aesthetics, as most pets are very rare drops from certain bosses or skilling activities, and thus are often considered prestigious. A player may only have one pet following them at one time. Pets only move at a walking pace (except for Nexling), if they become stuck and/or too far away from the player they follow, they'll teleport close to the player and continue. They can also be called to the player's side using the Call follower button under the Worn Equipment tab.

Pets may be stored in the bank or inventory, and will follow the player when dropped. Players can store up to 52 pets in the Menagerie of a player-owned house (with the highest-level pet houses).

Unlike other pets, cats are the only kind of pets that must be raised to maturity by following the player. Kittens must be stroked and fed regularly or they will run away. Once they reach adult stage, they no longer need to be fed.

Obtaining a pet

When a player receives a one-off pet (i.e. a boss or skilling pet), it will automatically try to appear as their follower. At the same time, a message in the chatbox will state You have a funny feeling like you're being followed. Upon receiving a pet, a small sound will be heard.

Receiving a pet The sound which can be heard when players receive a one-off pet.

However, if a player receives a pet while having a follower out (for example, a cat), it will be placed into their inventory. When this occurs, the message in the chatbox will instead state You feel something weird sneaking into your backpack. If a players inventory is full and they have a follower already, they will not receive the pet; it must instead be claimed from Probita in East Ardougne for a reclaim token, which costs 1,000,000 coins. When skilling, the pet is prioritised over the resource gathered; it will be placed in the last inventory slot available, while the resource gathered will be dropped underneath the player if their inventory becomes full. However, this does not apply to Farming due to the complexity of the skill's code.

Players can still roll for pet drops even if they already own it; when this happens, players will receive the message You have a funny feeling like you would have been followed... The only exception to this is the abyssal orphan due to being obtained differently compared to other pets. In addition, players will be given a pet reclaim token, accompanied with the message You have been given one free pet reclaim with Probita.

If a player dies with a one-off pet following them (or if it is in their inventory and it is not one of the items protected on death) in a dangerous situation, the pet will be dropped and wander around the area for 30 seconds before despawning. Even if the player returns in time, the pet cannot be picked up, and can be reclaimed from Probita in East Ardougne for a reclaim token.

If a player runs out of membership with a pet still following them, the pet is placed in their inventory. They will receive the message Your pet is scared into your backpack. If the player does not have space in their inventory, the pet is placed in their bank. If the player's bank is full or exceeds the allowable free-to-play bank space limit, their pet is sent to Probita in East Ardougne, where they will have a free reclaim token usable to reclaim their pet.

List of pets

Boss pets

These pets usually resemble the bosses that drop them, or the bosses that they are associated with.

Pet		Source	Drop rate
	Abyssal orphan	Using an unsired on the Font of Consumption	1/2,560 (per Abyssal Sire kill) 5/128 (per unsired)
	Baby mole/mole-rat	Dropped by the Giant Mole	1/3,000
	Callisto cub	Dropped by Callisto	1/2,000
	Hellpuppy	Dropped by Cerberus	1/3,000
	Ikkle hydra	Dropped by Alchemical Hydra	1/3,000
	Jal-nib-rek/Tzrek-zuk	Defeating TzKal-Zuk or exchanging an infernal cape to TzHaar-Ket-Keh	1/100 (per kill or gamble) 1/75 (per kill on Slayer task)
	Kalphite princess	Dropped by Kalphite Queen	1/3,000
	Lil' zik/maiden/bloat/nylo/sot/xarp	Theatre of Blood reward	1/650 (per completion, with optimal performance)
	Little nightmare/parasite	Dropped by The Nightmare	1/800 to 1/4000 (From 1 to 5+ team size)
	Nexling	Dropped by Nex	1/500
	Noon/Midnight	Dropped by the Grotesque Guardians	1/3,000
	Olmlet/Puppadile/Tektiny/Vanguard/Vasa Minirio/Vespina	Great Olm at the end of the Chambers of Xeric	1/53 (per broadcasted unique item)
	Pet chaos elemental	Dropped by the Chaos Elemental and Chaos Fanatic	1/300 (Elemental) 1/1,000 (Fanatic)
	Pet dagannoth prime	Dropped by Dagannoth Prime	1/5,000
	Pet dagannoth rex	Dropped by Dagannoth Rex	1/5,000
	Pet dagannoth supreme	Dropped by Dagannoth Supreme	1/5,000
	Pet dark core	Dropped by Corporeal Beast	1/5,000
	Pet general graardor	Dropped by General Graardor	1/5,000
	Pet k'ril tsutsaroth	Dropped by K'ril Tsutsaroth	1/5,000
	Pet kraken	Dropped by Kraken	1/3,000
	Pet kree'arra	Dropped by Kree'arra	1/5,000
	Pet smoke devil	Dropped by the Thermonuclear smoke devil	1/3,000
	Pet snakeling	Dropped by Zulrah	1/4,000
	Pet zilyana	Dropped by Commander Zilyana	1/5,000
	Prince black dragon	Dropped by the King Black Dragon	1/3,000
	Scorpia's offspring	Dropped by Scorpia	1/2,015.75
	Skotos	Dropped by Skotizo	1/65
	Sraracha	Dropped by Sarachnis	1/3,000
	Tzrek-jad/Jalrek-jad	Defeating TzTok-Jad or exchanging a fire cape to TzHaar-Mej-Jal	1/200 (per kill or gamble) 1/100 (per kill on Slayer task)
	Venenatis spiderling	Dropped by Venenatis	1/2,000
	Vet'ion jr.	Dropped by Vet'ion	1/2,000
	Vorki	Dropped by Vorkath	1/3,000

Skilling pets

These pets are obtained by training a specific skill, with the chance of obtaining one being based on the player's level in the corresponding skill and the base chance of the activity being performed.

For all drop rates, use the formula: ${\text{DropRate}}={\frac {1}{{\text{BaseChance}}-({\text{SkillLevel}}*25)}}$. Base chances are found in the individual page of each pet. Players with 200 million experience in the corresponding skill will be fifteen times more likely in receiving the skilling pet.

As the rates use the player's base level, temporary skill boosts such as the dragon pickaxe's special attack or invisible boosts in areas such as the Woodcutting Guild do not affect the rate at which players can obtain these pets.

Pet		Source	Drop rate
	Baby chinchompa	Obtained while hunting chinchompas	See here
	Beaver	Obtained while woodcutting	See here
	Giant squirrel	Obtained while training agility	See here
	Heron	Obtained while fishing	See here
	Rift guardian	Obtained through runecraft	See here
	Rock golem	Obtained while mining	See here
	Rocky	Obtained while thieving	See here
	Tangleroot	Obtained while farming	See here

Other

These pets are obtained either through quests or other means.

Pet		Source	Drop rate
	Eek	Received during the 2018 Halloween event. The only F2P pet in the game.	N/A
	Bloodhound	Received when completing master clue scrolls	1/1,000
	Cat	Gertrude, after completing Gertrude's Cat	N/A
	Chompy chick	Dropped by Chompy birds after completing the elite Western Provinces Diary	1/500
	Hellcat	Catching Hell-Rats with a cat	N/A
	Herbi	Hunting herbiboars	1/6,500
	Lil' creator/ Lil' destructor	Dropped by Spoils of war	1/400
	Pet fish	Caught in Harry's Fishing Shop using a tiny net, with a fishbowl (containing water and seaweed) in the inventory	N/A
	Pet penance queen	High-level gambles in Barbarian Assault	1/1,000
	Pet rock	Askeladden after The Fremennik Trials	N/A
	Phoenix	Supply crates earned from subduing the Wintertodt (completion of game gives possible chance)	1/5,000
	Tiny tempor	Received from Reward pool when collecting rewards for Tempoross	1/8,000
	Toy cat	Clockwork and a regular plank used at a Crafting table 4 with 85 Crafting	N/A
	Youngllef	Reward from The Gauntlet	1/2,000 (normal Gauntlet) 1/800 (Corrupted Gauntlet)
	Smolcano	Dropped by Zalcano	1/2,250
	Abyssal protector	Reward from the Guardians of the Rift minigame	1/4,000

One-off pet totals

This is how many times each pet has been obtained by players, sorted by date. On the linked tweets by Jagex Moderators, they are also divided into columns based on ironman status.

Pet		8 Oct 2015	14 Mar 2016	7 Nov 2016	16 May 2017	16 Nov 2017	24 May 2018	22 Feb 2019	21 Feb 2020	24 Dec 2021
	Chaos Elemental	2,413	3,393	5,718	7,251	9,306	12,312	16,677	25,615	40,388
	Dagannoth Supreme	623	972	1,951	2,948	4,017	5,086	6,818	9,380	12,224
	Dagannoth Prime	613	976	1,844	2,738	3,745	4,778	6,419	8,928	11,694
	Dagannoth Rex	1,031	1,471	2,565	3,789	5,111	6,589	8,985	12,436	16,222
	Baby mole	521	782	1,610	2,766	4,668	6,562	8,334	11,818	21,171
	Kalphite princess	307	504	1,282	1,841	2,626	3,515	4,570	5,986	9,040
	Smoke devil	1,487	2,072	4,032	5,534	7,413	9,851	13,668	19,479	30,568
	Kree'arra	376	523	841	1,000	1,287	1,738	2,360	3,510	5,036
	General Graardor	918	1,393	2,600	3,394	4,178	5,225	6,724	9,675	12,359
	Zilyana	505	799	1,397	1,829	2,256	2,783	3,383	4,331	6,250
	K'ril Tsutsaroth	310	492	1,041	1,310	1,549	1,811	2,192	2,981	4,606
	Prince black dragon	1,950	3,050	5,614	7,530	9,830	12,406	15,750	20,965	27,795
	Kraken	4,051	6,006	11,750	17,050	23,070	31,906	45,655	66,139	97,357
	Penance Queen	81	136	294	410	542	670	826	1,129	1,625
	Dark core	263	487	971	1,230	1,436	1,762	2,078	2,701	4,087
	Snakeling	3,577	5,340	9,870	14,345	17,126	21,242	29,144	42,072	41,273
	Chompy chick	476	858	2,209	3,451	5,573	8,520	12,066	17,779	31,686
	Venenatis spiderling	590	996	1,896	2,396	3,011	3,574	4,832	7,268	8,874
	Callisto cub	244	419	969	1,390	1,998	2,641	3,546	4,999	6,483
	Vet'ion jr.	134	203	468	617	785	992	1,393	2,157	3,111
	Scorpia's offspring	351	572	997	1,501	2,006	2,481	3,168	4,265	5,986
	Tzrek-jad	648	1,443	3,290	4,822	6,629	8,679	12,047	16,352	24,278
	Hellpuppy	414	1,165	3,060	4,826	6,829	9,090	12,568	18,021	28,847
	Abyssal orphan	76	444	1,572	2,579	3,953	5,135	6,635	9,215	16,461
	Heron	N/A	2,608	13,062	20,883	28,447	36,147	50,906	72,510	92,657
	Rock golem	N/A	1,559	6,335	11,217	17,222	25,653	40,455	62,910	80,460
	Beaver	N/A	2,458	10,804	17,838	25,219	33,305	47,237	68,482	94,686
	Baby chinchompa	N/A	1,345	5,119	8,098	11,022	14,122	19,397	26,957	22,326
	Bloodhound	N/A	N/A	137	305	492	739	1,171	2,071	3,912
	Giant squirrel	N/A	N/A	1,418	7,576	12,890	19,353	31,723	51,136	66,921
	Tangleroot	N/A	N/A	591	2,678	4,813	7,547	15,154	31,184	56,385
	Rocky	N/A	N/A	1,332	6,629	13,295	24,478	38,796	63,326	85,625
	Rift guardian	N/A	N/A	763	3,521	6,499	10,109	15,995	26,804	43,618
	Phoenix	N/A	N/A	3,436	8,393	13,105	18,244	29,905	46,083	78,242
	Olmlet	N/A	N/A	N/A	547	1,414	2,730	4,697	8,786	15,475
	Skotos	N/A	N/A	N/A	2,580	11,826	20,225	33,765	55,634	86,434
	Jal-nib-rek	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	24	86	194	508	1,531
	Herbi	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	548	1,374	2,877	5,672	12,970
	Noon/Midnight	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	339	1,199	2,560	4,467	9,420
	Vorki	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	3,956	11,074	22,953	37,508
	Lil' zik	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	1,783	4,644	10,805
	Ikkle hydra	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	2,483	10,589	23,413
	Sraracha	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	1,027	5,635
	Smolcano	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	7,123
	Youngllef	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	614	9,946
	Little nightmare	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	4,076	4,028
	Lil' creator/Lil' destructor	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	7,675
	Tiny tempor	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	9,825

Changes

Date	Changes
22 June 2022 (update | poll)	One-off pets are now automatically insured by Probita upon receiving one. Players who've paid the insurance fee of 500,000 coins prior to this update will have the fees paid added to Probita's reclaim fee coffer, which can then be used as a discount towards any further reclaims. For example, if players insured two pets for 500,000 coins each, they will be given one free reclaim token, and if five were insured, they will be given two free reclaim tokens and a 500,000 coins discount towards the next reclaim token purchase.
6 October 2016 (update)	Talking to various NPCs in Tale of Two Cats/Icthlarin’s Little Helper quests while other pets are visible displays the correct dialogue.
28 April 2016 (update | poll)	Call pet button has been added to force your follower to appear next to you. You will now receive a message if you would have obtained the pet on that kill, only if you already own the boss pet.
30 April 2015 (update)	Pets now follow you up and down the Motherlode Mine's ladder.
9 April 2015 (update | poll)	The 'talk to' option is now the left-click option for boss pets rather than 'pick up'. Dialogue added for the chaos elemental pet, dark core pet and chompy bird pet.
21 August 2014 (update | poll)	Pet insurance is added to the game.
15 May 2014 (update)	The options on other players' pets are no longer visible.

Trivia

• When a pet is in the inventory as an item, its name may be incorrectly capitalised; this is because all items in Old School RuneScape use ucfirst capitalisation, wherein the first letter of a string is capitalised, but the rest is not. For example, as an inventory item, TzTok-Jad's pet is called Tzrek-jad, but as a follower it's called TzRek-Jad.
• Players cannot go underwater if they have a pet following them or in their inventory, with the exception of pet kraken and pet chaos elemental. Furthermore, Tangleroot and Phoenix can be obtained underwater, but they cannot be taken back once the player leaves.