The Best Pets For Children

Children love animals, they think that they are cute. Most children like furry animals - like dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, tarantulas.... Tarantulas? That's what our 3 year old wants for his birthday! His revelation got me to thinking. What makes the BEST pet for a child?

Our son loves spiders - small, large, garden, bedroom, bath....he wants to pet them and stroke them. A friend of ours has a son fascinated by snails and slugs - he comes home from school with pocket fulls of them! Children are great aren't they?

Personally, I'm a big fan of spiders too - I kept a tarantula for 10 years, and she was fascinating. I saw her eat, I saw her shed her skin (those things in your shed or garage that look like dead spiders are actually spider skins), I saw her spinning webs. As they are so large, you can see everything they do clearly - they are extremely easy to keep, relatively cheap to purchase, fascinating to watch and can live for up to 20 years! Amazing. I obviously, therefore, encouraged our child's enthusiasm to have a spider for his birthday! I think I'm more excited than him, although every day he asks if it's his birthday yet!

This came in a week where we have received 6 new additions to our extended pet family - 4 guinea pigs and two rough green snakes. The reptiles are mine and the mammals my wife's. We already had 17 fish (all in one tank), 2 cats, a dog, a hamster, 2 rabbits, a western hognose snake and a bearded dragon! With the new additions, that makes 31 pets...good job none of them are too much trouble!

I love reptiles and spiders - they absolutely fascinate me. I have wanted a rough green snake ever since I first saw them in a book about 22 years ago! So when I went into my favourite reptile stockists and saw two for sale, I couldn't resist asking to handle them. I fell in love - I didn't mean to come away with them, but I did! After 22 years, it was impossible not to - when the proprietor first handed me one, I was overcome with emotion, holding back the tears I let this beautiful and fascinating creature slide across my hands. Wow!

My wife has always kept guinea pigs. Ever since she was a child - personally I could not see the attraction, and 4? Okay so it started as one, as a companion for our male rabbit, which then needed one of its own with it, thus one became two. Then our second rabbit needed a companion (!) - along came number three - but the rabbit did not see eye to eye with the guinea pig (she's grumpy!), and therefore they were separated. "Can't leave him on his own," said my wife, "they MUST have company!" and so number four arrived. Two males and two females.

I have always had rabbits and think they are lovely, but never had guinea pigs. I now see the attraction! How cute are they? None aggressive, small, easily handled, and very tame, not to mention easy and cheap to purchase and care for! Perfect. They are my wife's but one by one as they came to our home, our children claimed them. The oldest had a hamster and therefore was not bothered. The middle child named the first guinea pig "Sparkles", but then said she wanted one of her own - number two was called "Wriggles" and our younger daughter has taken ownership. Number three came along and our youngest and I took ownership - I named him "G for the P-I-G" (or G Dude for short). So when number four came along my wife took ownership before she got it home! "Jazz" is "G Dude's" brother and they are living happily together.

Now I am converted, I see exactly what is good about guinea pigs. On top of everything already mentioned, they live a decent amount of time - 6-8 years - compared to say a hamster or mouse (around 2 years). They are beautiful pets, and because they are so easy to handle and have great longevity, they make the perfect pet for your young child. Your child will find them easy to love, to feed, to fuss, to handle, to melt over! For a first pet, you could not choose anything better than a guinea pig - and when your child talks to them, they will chatter back, and that's guaranteed!!

With furry best wishes

Dale Preece-Kelly

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