I'm asking this cause I didn't really find an answer to this in the wiki page.
So, let's say I belong to one of the major groups that used to or still live in South America, maybe a Guarani, a Mapuche or one of the many ethnic groups under the Inca, what sort of pet would I have? A llama, a monito del monte, a colocolo? A dog, something close to that?
Llamas were domesticated; I don't know if they could be regarded as "pets" but there's traditional Andean festival in which the llamas all plied with chicha and get extremely drunk (Steele 119). Guinea pigs were domesticated for food.
Parrots were kept in basketry cages, and dogs were definitely pets, particularly the Peruvian hairless dogs (some are completely hairless; some have tufts of hair on their head). In this article, Sonia Guillen says, in precontact dog burials, "They were wrapped in textiles and they had a bit of fish put on top of the snout, as a way to send them to the other life with covering and food." Pics.