Best pet?

[HippieChik]

My 7 year old has been asking for a guinea pig. I've been doing some research on the best small pet for a kid his age. Any suggestions? I really don't want something that is going to stink or take a crapload of time to clean up after.

 

P.S. We have a cat (outside cat) and we had a dog, but we couldn't house break him and he was too small to live outdoors, so we sent him to live on the farm with grandma, whose house he doesn't pee in...go figure!

[-Rooster-]

check life expectancy of the guinea pig. I dont think they have long lives. Which you have to deal with the poor kid getting attached then losing it. Its sad. :'(

 

Ball python- Is a great pet, problem is they eat mice.....so thats probably out. We have 3.

 

Bird- They live a long time. they can get noisy if you dont pay attention to them. but relatively easy to maintain. Food and water every day and there good. cockatiel is a great size for a small child. parakeets are IMO more disposable LOL. They easly are affected by stress.

 

iguana- Great pets...can live many many years...we have a 15 year old one. She is about 5 foot long with tail and all. But they start out small and feisty....make sure you handle it alot when its young.

 

 

Hmm....I could go on and on!

[Prime-VR]

Guinea pigs live for like 5-6 years. We just got one for my daughter who is 6. Clean up is once a week and all you do is dumb the stuff in the cage. Not much to it. They need attention and they really don't bite. My 2yr old son grabs him and holds him all the time.

 

The only thing I would say is make sure that if you buy a Guinea pig make sure it's not a female. More times then not if you get one that is in a cage with others you will bring home a prego pig. That is no fun. Then you got to find homes for the babies.

 

Also they don't eat a whole lot. You can give them carrots and apples and stuff.

 

Great pet for a younger child.

[xxJager_bombeRxx]

My 11 year old is on her 2nd pig. The 1st one lived to be 5 1/2. Very easy to maintain. Great for kids. You can let them out of the cage and they "popcorn" all over the place. It quite a funny thing to watch.

 

[iDnTyX]

Ferrets: Fun but can be aggressive and scratch. Also smell bad too.

 

Ball Python: I Had one & liked him but theres not really much a kid can do with them. Also when feeding, make sure you tell someone you fed him. Like me my brother fed him ten minutes before I decided to put some water and clean his tank. Bastard Snap and bit me.

 

Birds: Fly and Poop really cant do nothing with them.

Hamster's: Smell bad and reproduce like no other. Some are aggressive some are just stupid.

Lizards or other reptiles: Usually feed them dead or live prey, not sure if you want that.

Turtles: Live long but stink and don't really do much.

Fish: Well you just look at them.

 

Question is, do you want a pet just to look at or to actually play with hands on. If so your best bet is probably a guinea pig. If you want to try the dog again, get a Lab and train it from day one ;D . They are great with kids. I have a husky, very energetic but requires allot of grooming which is the downfall of having them.

[BigMoneyNacku]

 

The only thing I would add is about a dog. Kennel train him. Especially if it's an indoor dog. Every time I've kennel trained a dog, they've turned out to be great pets. If you aren't sure about kennel training, there are a plethora of books to help. Our current dog stays in her kennel while we are gone. She heads in as soon as we put our shoes on.

 

 

 

[[SoW] Lucky_Saint-]

iDnTyX ]

Ferrets: Fun but can be aggressive and scratch. Also smell bad too.

 

Ball Python: I Had one & liked him but theres not really much a kid can do with them. Also when feeding, make sure you tell someone you fed him. Like me my brother fed him ten minutes before I decided to put some water and clean his tank. Bastard Snap and bit me.

 

Birds: Fly and Poop really cant do nothing with them.

Hamster's: Smell bad and reproduce like no other. Some are aggressive some are just stupid.

Lizards or other reptiles: Usually feed them dead or live prey, not sure if you want that.

Turtles: Live long but stink and don't really do much.

Fish: Well you just look at them.

 

Question is, do you want a pet just to look at or to actually play with hands on. If so your best bet is probably a guinea pig. If you want to try the dog again, get a Lab and train it from day one ;D . They are great with kids. I have a husky, very energetic but requires allot of grooming which is the downfall of having them.

 

 

 

ferrets are awesome im on my second one now fiesty and get into EVERYTHING put lil magnet holders on ur cabinets and such costs about $10 and takes about 5 min to install them u can kinda let them freeroam get a girl one though the males spray and smell like ass great with kids love to play and mine watches me play socom lol loves the gunfire which is funny to watch him react to it they also have dont take much to feed they can use the cats litter box too so theres no mess they live a decent amount of time too

 

as a side note check make sure ur kid keeps her backback zipped up i had an incident my sophmore year of highschool i opened my bag 3rd period and out popped sarge onto my desk

[HippieChik]

BigMoneyNacku ]

 

The only thing I would add is about a dog. Kennel train him. Especially if it's an indoor dog. Every time I've kennel trained a dog, they've turned out to be great pets. If you aren't sure about kennel training, there are a plethora of books to help. Our current dog stays in her kennel while we are gone. She heads in as soon as we put our shoes on.

 

 

 

 

We had a 4 year old golden retriever that lived outside in a very large fenced in pen. We'd let him out every evening to exercise. One day, he ran off and never came home. So we decided to get a bassett hound. We found a breeder and purchased one. He was inside/outside. (My mother-in-law has one who lives outside on the farm with no trouble.) Well, we lived on about an acre with lots and lots of woods around. Didn't really think we'd have trouble letting him roam. My husband found him dead in the street about 3 months after we got him. So then a few months after dealing with my son crying daily about missing his dog, we decided to try the small inside dog. Rescued a chiweenie from a shelter. We kennel trained him. I'd take him out on the leash to pee ALL THE TIME! And he got to where he'd pee just a little outside and then come in and pee OR crap. Well, being the OCD clean freak that I am, I wasn't having any of that. In the meantime, grandma had babysat him for a week and he never peed in her house. She became VERY attached to him in that one week. (My father-in-law recently passed.) So after she'd call and ask about the dog before the grandkids, we decided that she might have needed him more than us. So he lives with her now.

 

And here we are...my son wants another pet. He was asking for another dog. We have since moved into a neighborhood. No one has dogs and I don't want the be the neighbor with the barking dog in the backyard, irritating everyone. And I sure don't want to go through the hassel of training a lap dog again. That dog ended up being mostly MY responsibility since I work from home and I don't want all that responsibility. Hell, I have two kids and a husband that works 70-90 hours a week, and a part-time job. I don't need anything else on my plate!

 

So, we were considering the guinea pig. But I've been reading and what I've read makes it sound like you have to change out their bedding and water EVERYDAY! That's too much upkeep. Maybe a pet rock?

[Prime-VR]

HippieChik ]

So, we were considering the guinea pig. But I've been reading and what I've read makes it sound like you have to change out their bedding and water EVERYDAY! That's too much upkeep. Maybe a pet rock?

 

Some people say to change the water and bedding everday. Screw that. The water is every other day an the bedding is every week. Once a week is MORE then enough. It would cost way to much to change that crap everyday.

 

Your son should be able to do ALL the up keep if he really wants the pet. The deal with my daughter is I will help her but if her mother or I have to start doing all of it then it will be GONE.

[Neoblackhound]

I use to have fish, easy to feed, and with filters the tank wouldn't get bad but once a month or so. Fish where always fun to have when i was a kid.

[SnowBud]

I would go with fish as well. Super easy, inexpensive for the most part, unless you buy a huge tank.

[HippieChik]

SnowBud ]

I would go with fish as well. Super easy' date=' inexpensive for the most part, unless you buy a huge tank.

[/quote']

 

We actually have a very nice tank that we haven't set up since the move. And I personally love fish. We talked with our son some last night and he wants something he can hold and interact with. At this point, I think we are leaning towards a guinea pig. I just need some more time to get used to the idea.

 

Do guinea pigs stink? I can't handle that.

[Prime-VR]

HippieChik ]

Do guinea pigs stink? I can't handle that.

 

Only if you don't clean their cage.

[Nino_Nemasis]

Puppy black lab ...pure breed or mix doesnt matter...give your kid some responsibilities for the pup, like groom the dogs hair, and let it out to go to the bathroom. Definitely have the dog be an indoor dog and take her out while shes young to meet people and other dogs so she gets used to them.

 

My father got me my dog in 03, shes house trained, she loves other people but the only problem is she doesn't like other dogs, my mistake I suppose. She loves the outdoors and doesn't mind lounging around the house all day while we're not home. Great dog to grow up with a kid.

 

My Jenny Black lab/australian sheppard