May not be a question that should be posted here but you all have given me such great advice on every other question I've asked I thought I'd seek your opinion on this one as well

My DS7 has started asking for a pet and I'm wanting to know what you feel is the best (ie: easiest) pet to start a child out with?

Info: looking for something other than a fish; dog is out, wife doesn't like them; cat is out, sister-in-law is allergic to them; snake and tarantulas are definitely out; and pet rock not exciting enough.

Thanks for any and all advice.

TripleB

Personally I find cats to be the least amount of work, followed by fish. If those are out you are looking at something that needs it's cage cleaned frequently.

Rodents actually require a lot of work and smell very bad if it's put off. Out of all of the rodents I kept, mice were my favorite. They were easier to take care of and they were not great at escaping. I recommend keeping any rodents in a glass aquarium (the "long" ones, not the regular "high" shape) with a metal mesh lid that clicks on well. Hamsters especially will get out of any plastic cages designed for them.

Depending on the work you are willing to put in and the amount of interaction you will want with the pet, rabbits and ferrets are good pets that can be litter trained and that can be out and about in the house, but only supervised unless you want some very unpleasant surprises.

One of the easier non-mammalian critters I ever had was aquatic frogs of some sort. They required about the same amount of maintenance as fish. I kept them in an aquarium with a low level of water and some aquatic plants and rocks and stuff. I honestly don't even know what they were.

Some lizards can be easy enough, but getting started can be expensive. Anoles are cute and probably the easiest reptiles to keep and they don't need a lot of expensive equipment.

And yes, my house was practically a zoo

The "best" first time pet is most likely whatever pet appeals to your family for whatever reason

I agree with most of Panzer's advice too - plus would add that if you have one person in your family you *know* is allergic to cats I'd be leary of getting a cat thinking at least that person doesn't live with you (if they don't)... because we've found in our family that people who have seasonal allergies etc can find they also have more allergy symptoms when living with cats.

Other animals I had as pets as a kid were turtles, snakes, salamanders, frogs, parakeets and hermit crabs. Turtles are really easy - they eat salad-type food and can't get out of their cages. Parakeets were fun but really messy and as a kid I hated cleaning their cage. You might check and see if there is a reptile-pet-rescue group in your area

FWIW one of my ds' favorite pets when he was your ds' age was a plecostomus (algae eater) - we made many attempts at keeping a fish tank and were generally unlucky with most of the fish, but the plecostomus was great and really kept the tank clean!

Have fun figuring out who your next family member will be

polarbear

I think that turtles are great - my son's school keeps a few turtles in aquariums and they seem like very little maintenance to me. They eat a lot of spinach and lettuce and seem happy with little interaction.

I have heard that parrots are wonderful and fascinating companions that meet all your requirements. I have also heard that due to their intelligence and long lives, they take a serious commitment. But my friend who has one loves him so much.

She also has a turtle (tortoise? - it's a box turtle) that she swears is a great companion, and pretty easy to care for.

Side note: I know you said "dog is out" b/c your wife doesn't like them. But could you tease out what she doesn't like and eliminate that? We weren't really ready for a dog, but a little rescue guy landed on our doorstep, and he has been a godsend to DS7. At the time we got Pup, DS was just a really sad little guy, struggling with who he was and why life seemed so hard for him compared to other kids. DS really started a huge turnaround shortly after we got Pup. I'm sure there were many factors, but the unconditional love from that dog had to help.

Caveats - Pup came to us at almost 2 years old and was already house-trained. He is a mutt and so incredibly healthy, smart and easy to train. He is smaller (16 pounds) - but not yippy or snappy. All these things add up to him making my life net-easier (due to DS7's generally improved self-confidence, happiness and ever-present playmate) rather than net-harder (due to grooming, feeding, cleaning or whatever).

Apologies if this dog stuff is useless. But I have been amazed how well it's turned out for us even though we weren't really ready when we got Pup.

Hope you find your new friend soon!

Sue

We tried fish - really more complicated and more work than I expected, and the kids lost interest quickly. We now have a pair of gerbils - they're cute, you can interact with them (unlike the fish), and not too much work; their tanks don't smell - we clean once every 3 or 4 weeks; and they love/need to chew stuff, so we have a great place to dispose of unwanted cardboard or secret documents! ;-)

If you decide to try gerbils, read up about them first, and don't get a plastic cage - they'll chew through it (we have a glass tank for them).

http://gerbilforum.proboards.com/

Of course, now that we have fish and gerbils, DD still really, really wants a cat. I hear about this every day.

I meant to ask some of the same questions Suevv asked about dogs. There are also so many types of dogs - a true rainbow of personality types, some much higher maintenance than others I am terribly biased as I've always had dogs, but fwiw, like Panzer, I grew up in a zoo and it's the dogs that meant the most in my life and that have been the best part of my children's lives too. My kids have had hamsters, fish, the plecostomus, etc - but it's our family dog that is truly a part of the family and that they interact with, have huge feelings for etc.

polarbear

ITA about the dogs. People and dogs can have a pretty close bond that likely has an evolutionary basis (and they take up less room than equine pets).

FWIW - I grew up with dogs but never had one since I married b/c they were "out" for DH. But DH changed his mind when he saw what Pup had already brought to our son in just the few days after he landed on our doorstep. (And of course DH loves, loves, loves Pup now and is all smiles when he teaches Pup a new command).

Right now we just have a cat, and DS and I are both allergic. She is older and has a very skittish personality, so we run an air purifier and take Allegra and just deal with some symptoms. She is not allowed in the bedrooms and that helps a lot.

I love having a cat though. If we go away, even up to 5 nights, we just put out a lot of food and water and she takes care of herself. It's so easy having a cat I almost don't even think of it as a responsibility.

That said, we will not get another when she is gone. I have been willing to suffer through allergies my whole life to keep pets, but I don't think it's my place to make that decision for my son. My cat is almost 15 and has thyroid issues now and some minor heart problems, so sadly I don't think we will have to suffer allergies for too many more years.

I am also allergic to mice, mites, feathers, and molds... and that's out of the few things they actually test for. I definitely think I ended up allergic to every animal I ever kept in my bedroom The animals they tested for that I am not allergic to were dogs and rats, 2 animals I never had in my home. (Our dog was a work dog on the farm and while I spent a lot of time with her, it was all outdoors)

I also forgot about turtles. Box turtles are easy, I had one for a while. It was a nice, gentle pet and more interesting than might be expected. Don't catch your own though, they can have salmonella. I knew someone who kept a snapping turtle in a tank for a long time too, but I wouldn't say that it made a good pet!

In my opinion dogs are the most work, someone has to let them out constantly, even driving home over lunch and sometimes waking in the middle of the night. All of my friends who have dogs have ruined floors as well. Plus you can't go anywhere without finding someone to care for them, which is difficult if you don't have family nearby. So I definitely think of dogs as one of the higher maintenance animals.

Funny, local pet stores sell plenty of supplies for turtles, but it's illegal to purchase turtles in my state (NC). So I could purchase all the supplies I would need but would have to travel to SC to buy the turtle itself.

My wife has never been attacked or bit (although I have) by a dog but she's always been afraid of them. She caved in when my daughter was about 6 (12 years ago) and we got a dog. Unfortunately my daughter didn't help to take care of the dog so we gave the dog to my sister after about 4 years. Therefore, I don't believe we can go down the dog route again.

Nobody has mentioned two that seemed to be recommended a good deal: a rat (although I'd say my wife would be completely against it anyway just because of what it is) and a lizard (leopard gecko or bearded dragon). Anyone had experience with either?

Thanks for everyone's input so far.

TripleB

We have a hand fed parakeet, and he is the best pet ever. Extremely easy to care for, and very personable. He is a member of the family and spends all day with us. He has a large vocabulary, and amuses us by saying "I love you!" Whenever he sees us. He is extremely affectionate and interactive. They are a true parrot and very intelligent. They therefore require a lot of human interaction. Ours has free range of the house all day long, although he chooses to spend many hours in his cage.

How about volunteering at a local animal shelter or serving as pet foster owners for abandoned/rehabilitated animals? Both allow you to test interest in a wide variety of species and require that your children sustain responsibility for the animals. Adoption should be for the life of the animal, and you want to ensure that your family will be willing to meet that commitment.

For liability reasons I seriously doubt that a shelter would allow a 7 year old to do this without full on parental supervision

We actually really enjoy our fish tank. It was a bit of trouble to set up, but fun if your child likes to use the water testing kit and have a little scientific record and so on. And the fish have more personality than you might think. There is quite a bit to learn about fish tanks and fish, but the upkeep is not very difficult. You just change 25% of the water once every week or two and change filters, feed the fish, scrub the walls.

Yes, so the parent attends too.

I'll bite.

I was a vet tech for many years, and I grew up with LOADS of pets, both domestic and exotic, large and small.

We have had:

fish (bettas, tropicals, and koi)
cats (we're on our fifth cat in my DD's lifetime-- though she has sensitized to them, it's taken almost 16 years, so not bad)
dogs (the third dog kind of pushed DD over the edge of the atopic bandwagon, I think-- she's now allergic to THEM, as well)
budgies (parakeets-- we had three, but the cat + budgie thing was a bit more than we bargained for, let's just say, so we gave them to another relative)
insects
alpacas (yes, really)
rabbits (DD and I are now both highly allergic-- sensing a trend, here, are we?)
pigeons
fancy bantam chickens

As a child, I had at various times-- a ferret, a pair of rescued squirrels, guinea pigs (cavies), gerbils, hamsters, dogs, cats, parrots, a chinchilla, cockatiels, rats, and my father once rescued... um... a barn owl. This doesn't include the pigs, horses, ponies, cows, and random other livestock like sheep and chickens and goats...



I'm too highly sensitized to rodents now (occupational exposure) to ever have one in my home again, unfortunately-- rats ARE great pets. Just as well, though, given DD's rate of sensitization. Rodents are the world's WORST idea for anyone with allergic tendencies, though, I'll say that.

I would definitely look at a budgie. They are a pretty easy pet-- and they are a very good companion, in that they like being "with" their human families in the same basic way that a dog does. Ours used to enjoy chatting with me while I cooked in our kitchen, which adjoined the room where they were caged. I recall my cockatiels having the same gregarious and pleasant nature about human interaction.

The one problem with fish, insects, or reptiles is that they are not really interactive in quite the same way that a warm and snuggly kind of pet is. Some songbirds (finches, canaries) are this way, too.

There is a wildlife rescue/rehabilitation center near us that allows people to keep a small mammal (gerbils, rats, etc) for a week at a time for a small fee. They give you all the supplies you need, too. Seems like it would be good for kids who say they really want a pet, but maybe aren't really up for a long-term commitment.

Just to echo, pay very close attention to the average lifespan of this pet. Not all teenagers are thrilled to tend a gerbil, iguana, etc. On the other hand, it can be really rough to lose a deeply beloved pet in the high school years...

My own personal boundary is, no pets that don't love you back. That cuts out all the fish, reptiles, amphibians, and rodents. What it does leave, though, is birds, which can be highly social and affectionate (particularly the parrots). So if your kid wants a "real" pet (not just a kind of live exhibit), and you can't do a cat or a dog, I would go for a bird.

I personally have not had rats. I have two cats and don't imagine rats would live for long in my house. But one of my BF's kept rats for a number of years. They don't live that long, only a few years. And it's easy for a kid to learn to care for them on their own. Plus they are fun to play with and quite intelligent. They kept several while her kids were 10 till ~16. My friend wanted a pet that wouldn't still be around when her kids went off to college so she could travel without worry.

But turns out my own daughter was allergic to their rats. Came home with hives after playing with them once. If you have someone allergic to cats who frequents your house, I might not introduce them to a rat.

Did you know there are certain breeds of cats that don't cause allergic reactions. I am slightly allergic to cats even though i live with them. I had a Siamese growing up and I never reacted to him ever but I do to different breeds. Might want to check that out if the allergy reason is the only thing keeping you from a cat. I have a personal preference for cats, they are overall easy to care for, are fun to play with and good for snuggling.

We have mice. I have mice would be more accurate but they are nice little creatures and fairly easy to care for and transport. If my children calm down in the next few years I might get myself a cat to share with them.

How about a guinea pig (cavy)? I never would have given them a thought, but we cared for the school piggie during some weekends and vacations, and long story, sort of inherited him as a full time pet. He was great- cuddly, content to sit in laps or to be dressed up and paraded around (DD did a lot of pet clothing design and sewing at the time, and he was very patient). He was fun to feed (loved dandelions in particular, which we have in abundance). The kids made all sorts of habitats and mazes for him, both inside and out (and didn't seem to mind that he usually just sat in one place).

The main downside was cleaning the cage, but we managed to get by weekly, and it's easy for kids to learn to do it, with some help. I also think they are social animals, and books suggest they do better with a buddy piggie, but ours came to us solo and seemed ok.

We have a crested gecko. The species was recommended to us as being more likely to be interactive than other lizards of that size, and more easily accustomed to being handled.

We invested a fair bit of time and money up front in order to create a low-maintenance pet. We put together a vivarium with soil, water and live plants, which hugely reduces the cleaning (we wipe the obvious parts out once a month or so, and take it apart for a thorough clean and rebuild once a year). We bought an automatic mister to keep the humidity accurate, and use a timer to control the lights. So we can leave for 4-5 days and do nothing; we usually have someone pop by and add in some food once if we're gone a week.

She eats a fruit-based powder, and the occasional bug for fun and protein (cost: about $25/ year to feed). The bearded dragon requires regular mammals, not to mention far more space. I have been told that sharing a room with bearded dragon after a meal is not so pleasant too... But they are a more interesting animal to interact with.

As mentioned, do consider lifespan. Our crestie may live 10 or 20 years. Be extra careful with turtles, as their needs vary widely and they are often sold without proper warning: as some may live 100 years and hit hundreds of pounds, and require quite specific diets to keep healthy.

The crestie is definitely not snuggly, doesn't play, and won't make you feel loved after a tough day. But she is beautiful, interesting, and will hang out with people if you keep her accustomed to it.

Some people love hermit crabs. Some people love sugar gliders. These have both been sold through temporary kiosks at our local shopping mall. Personally I'm wary. One mom shared that sugar gliders, upon reaching maturity, will screech a mating call throughout the night as they are nocturnal. Cute, but possibly not too practical.

Some people love guinea pigs. Some people love rabbits, but I understand they may susceptible to colds and have a short life span.

We've had cats, dogs, hamsters, fish, turtles, snails, even sea monkeys (tiny brine shrimp), and butterflies which were great for scientific discovery of the lifecycle. Bought the ant farm, but somehow never sent away for the ants.

If your child is 7 and has not yet had a pet, I think I'd recommend the butterflies. There is a short period of caring for them, before setting them free. A tip would be to coordinate their growth and release to coincide with warm weather.

When thinking of pet selection, it depends what you're looking for in terms of investing time and effort, and what you are hoping to gain from the experience.

DD14 has both aquatic frogs and a leopard gecko (two different tanks). The frogs are pretty much a desk decoration, but DD14 really likes the gecko. Feeding time is fun as Avari (the gecko) totally attacks the food you put in her cage. She'll also run to the front of the cage and excitedly watch whenever one of our cats wander through DD14s room.

Initial set-up can be a little pricy, but once your tank is set-up, water, crickets, and vitamins are quite affordable.

Best of luck,
--S.F.

OK, does anyone remember this Far Side cartoon? A young boy is holding like an ant farm labeled 'roach farm' and the dad is saying something like: "If you show you can take care of these little guys, we'll get you a puppy."

We have had the same three hermit crabs for almost four years now, and they're still going strong with very little maintenance. Once you get the tank set up properly (do the research--pet stores will steer you wrong here), there's very little work involved. They're fun because you can feed them all kinds of food, take them out of their habitat and hold them/let them run around for short stretches, and add accessories to their habitat to keep them entertained. It's also fun to see them change their shells and move from smaller to bigger shells as they age. Plus, they're cute! The biggest thing against them (in my mind) is that they're wild-caught animals.

We kept a crayfish for a year once. It was a school project with crayfish left over, I brought it a full aquarium kit. We enjoyed it. But after a year it started to grow algae and I mistakenly tried something to get rid of it. Killed the hermit crab as well. But it's worth a try. We had the crayfish when my daughter was 8 and my son 4. Friends were unsuccessful at keeping any alive for any length of time though.

We have also had hermit crabs at one poing but I don't remember them lasting a real long time.

"Some people love guinea pigs. Some people love rabbits, but I understand they may susceptible to colds and have a short life span."

These were two of my favorite pets as a child (along with cats and mice), I used to dress them up and everything. I had a lot of rabbits though and none of them ever got a cold or even seemed ill at any point. They lived a long time, one of them for over 10 years. The biggest threat to my rabbits was my dad, he ate them if I didn't clean their pens often enough.

My rabbits escaped and got eaten by the dogs when I was on holiday _ two years in a row after which I gave up.

Another cat person here. Furry, purry, affectionate, clean (if you arrange things properly), independent, with distinct personalities and style - what's not to like? Agree with all the posters who question whether your SIL's allergy is a true impediment. Is it a life threatening or disabling allergy? Then of course a cat is out. However, I was never allowed a cat as a kid, nor my brother a dog, because my mother was allergic. Turned out our parents had to take in my brothers dog because of work and family commitments, and with that particular breed (Rough Collie) my mother did fine. Then we got two cats because we had a serious mice infestation I our historic house, and again, turned out my mother did fine, occasionally itchy eyes, but no breathing problems whatsoever. How often does your SIL even come over? Does she stay overnight? (We do make sure no cat ever touches my moms bedding). When friends come over who are allergic, we put the cats out and vacuum. One prefers to visit in summer when we hang out in the backyard rather than the house, in winter she asks us to her house. One used to take a couple antihistamines before staying over. Turned out that after her latest pregnancy she did fine, too, we have no idea why. Maybe it depends on the season.
I do not mean to make light of allergies at all, but they come in very different severities.

Edited to add that if cats are definitely out, I'd vote for a budgie/parakeet.

The cat might appreciate it if you shared the mice...

We have a gerbil, guinea pig, and hamster along with two dogs. The rodents are their responsibility but its my responsibility to make sure the dogs don't eat them :-)

Some may be interested in the "new" Dr. Seuss book, What Pet Should I Get?

We've had cats, dogs, a sugar glider or 2 but never had butterflies. Butterflies may be something we look into.