Pets question

[Caligulette]

Caligukid is four. We lost our dog this past year (as in, our dog died), in June. I'm thinking about getting a wee pet for the kid (and me) to learn to take care of. Gerbil? Not a hamster, as I have been bitten by hamsters before and still hold a grudge. Has anyone any experience with a kid and a wee pet?

[Qingdai]

Don't get a breeding pair of anything, especially gerbils.

I like a hermit crab, they are hard to accidentally crush.

[livius drusus]

A ferret might work for you, although four is a little young. Do you think he's capable of being responsible for a litterbox?

If not, I vote guinea pigs. They're easy to care for, pretty as a picture, and if you handle them daily, they're really quite snuggly.

[Julie]

Gerbils suck worse than hampsters. they do nothing, sleep allll day up alllll night, never really hand tame. They stink even when the cage is cleaned daily. They live like 2 years MAX.

I like Rabbits myself, but that depends on your little one because rabbits can not be handled rough AT ALL.

Cavies are good too.

Mostly I perfer birds. Something hand fed like a Lovebird or a cockatiel. Nice to look at, everyone can play with it. Easy to care for. Cheap and easy to feed (pellets, a bit of seed and the kid gets to share their Raw fruit or veggies with it....good way to get them to eat that!)

Only thing is Rabbits and birds all have a 10+ years life span so they are not to be taken on lightly. Cavies live around 7 years.

No matter what you get, chances are you can find it in a rescue. My last 6 birds were all rescues of one kind or another.

(bunnies can be litter trained!)


*edited to add...I love ferrets. DAMN good pets. NOT good with children. Unless you can find an older adult one. Ferrets can go through a nippy stage when teething and at puberty, plus many people find their smell offencive ( I don't, but I'm one of the 2% of the population that don't find skunk offencive either, speaking of sunks make really really good pets, even better than ferrets!)

[ms_ann_thrope]

I like a hermit crab, they are hard to accidentally crush.My baby brother's hermit crab got "cooked" by the heated seats in my mom's car whilst on the way to Show and Tell one school morning. :(

How about a nice aquarium?

[Qingdai]

Early childhood seems fraught with opportunities to learn about the fragility of life. There was an incident with a plastic baseball bat and an aquarium that I vividly remember from age 6. On the other hand, I do have fond memories of being lulled to sleep by neon tetra swimming back and forth.
It's really hard to make a judgement about a pet for someone else. It depends on your space (indoor only? Outdoor?), how gentle or responsible you expect your son to be and how much hassle you are willing to put up with.
There are always chickens, at least you get eggs and willing compost machines.

[seebs]

I'm a big fan of cats as all-purpose ideal pets. Not everyone agrees.

[Brimshack]

CATS AM GOOD!!!

[lisarea]

I third a cat over a cage pet, as long as you like cats.

The thing about cage pets is that they're a little too easy to forget about. Walking around the house pets are at least walking around the house and getting all up in your shit when they're hungry or thirsty or need attention. Cage pets are much more likely to kind of fall down the priority list when other stuff starts going to hell. Not that you would, but unless the house adults are pretty much already in love with a rodent or reptile or bird or whatever, it's a probably counterintuitively larger burden to commit to daily handling and care of a pet that lives in a cage mostly than it is to one that is literally getting under your feet all the time.

However, if you do decide to go with a small pet, don't just believe anything anyone tells you about two gerbils, for example, just HYPOTHETICALLY AND ALL, being two boys and not a breeding pair, unless you're prepared to accommodate a wall of terrariums, about 24 miraculous gay virgin births, and one horrific Easter Morning Bloodlust Massacre.

And no matter what, make sure it's something you really want to commit to in terms of both time and money. Four year olds can't really take the responsibility, but they do take the biggest hit when something goes wrong. (See: Christmas Morning Sea Monkey Horror.)

[Chris Porter]

I've grown up with animals, I'm crazy about animals, and my advice is, if your kid isn't crazy about animals, don't get one you think would be a "learn to be empathetic" pet. I mean, a kid that has no interest in animals isn't going to learn a whole lot about the animal, but will learn about you and your interaction with animals. So get something you like.
Options not mentioned: lizards/iguanas, chinchillas, sugar gliders, snakes

[Sock Puppet]

I would absolutely not, NOT, recommend a cockatiel. They can easily live up to 35 years, which is a LONG time to be stuck with something so annoying. In addition to the whole caged-animal problem, they shit like you wouldn't believe and, in the case of males, have a wide variety of calls, all annoying as hell. A cat that wants attention will hop up on your lap, sit on your face, etc. A cockatiel will scream bloody murder until you pay attention, then scream again when you stop, no matter how long you spent with it.

My featherboy is 25 years old, afflicted with gout, and can no longer be allowed out of the cage without designating a room with a dropcloth. He can no longer eat seeds of any kind (too much fat), and there is not a pellet currently in manufacture that doesn't make his crap stain horribly and smell worse. He needs regular vet visits to check his uric acid levels.

I had no idea what I was getting into as a teenager. I certainly wouldn't shackle one of these to a 4-year-old.

[LadyShea]

Caligukid is four. We lost our dog this past year (as in, our dog died), in June. I'm thinking about getting a wee pet for the kid (and me) to learn to take care of. Gerbil? Not a hamster, as I have been bitten by hamsters before and still hold a grudge. Has anyone any experience with a kid and a wee pet?

I dislike gerbils and hamsters, just my opinion.

I loved my ferrets, but they are a bit more needy than their little wee rodent counterparts, but so much fun.

Rats actually make excellent pets. They are, in my experience, smarter than hamsters or gerbils, and somehow just more petlike.

[Naru]

I would absolutely not, NOT, recommend a cockatiel. They can easily live up to 35 years, which is a LONG time to be stuck with something so annoying. In addition to the whole caged-animal problem, they shit like you wouldn't believe and, in the case of males, have a wide variety of calls, all annoying as hell. A cat that wants attention will hop up on your lap, sit on your face, etc. A cockatiel will scream bloody murder until you pay attention, then scream again when you stop, no matter how long you spent with it.

My featherboy is 25 years old, afflicted with gout, and can no longer be allowed out of the cage without designating a room with a dropcloth. He can no longer eat seeds of any kind (too much fat), and there is not a pellet currently in manufacture that doesn't make his crap stain horribly and smell worse. He needs regular vet visits to check his uric acid levels.

I had no idea what I was getting into as a teenager. I certainly wouldn't shackle one of these to a 4-year-old.

As someone who works in a veterinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate cockatiels.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

If I should die before I wake, no way in hell does lisarea get my kitty! :ohnoes:

[freemonkey]

Rats actually make excellent pets. They are, in my experience, smarter than hamsters or gerbils, and somehow just more petlike.
Rats do make excellent pets. I was sad when mine died.

[livius drusus]

My college roommate had a pet rat named Chloe. She was smart and sociable. I liked her a lot.

[Julie]

LOL here I included 'tiels because so many people love them. I personally HATE the fuckers. But I love birds.

(Note I did not mention Cats. Cats are Evil evil evil horrible grosse gah!)

Didn't think of rats! If you are looking for a small hampster/gerble/cavie type thing Rats are wonderful pets! Just make sure you have a vet near buy that can treat it.

[LadyShea]

My college roommate had a pet rat named Chloe. She was smart and sociable. I liked her a lot.

I was surprised, actually at how smart and sociable they can be. I expected a pea-brained gerbil-like thing and found rats to be more similar to ferrets.

Anecdotal, of course.

[livius drusus]

That's been my experience too. Like ferrets, rats are observant, intelligent problem solvers, only they're more cautious than ferrets, which is a good thing especially with a small child.

[lisarea]

If I should die before I wake, no way in hell does lisarea get my kitty! :ohnoes:

Oh, crap. That does sound bad.

To clarify, I was a little kid when the gerbil thing happened, and my primary role was in discovering it and distracting my younger siblings so they wouldn't see it.

The sea monkey thing was when my son, who was probably three or four at the time, tried to reconstitute a package of dried sea monkeys with plain tap water. When I told him they were probably dead, he collapsed in a heap on the floor, sobbing inconsolably and screaming "I'm sorry, sea monkeys, I'm sorry!" The fact that they were just brine shrimp didn't mitigate his guilt. It was horrible. It can be difficult to overestimate the effect things can have on really little kids.

(Oh, and a couple of months ago when we took our fifteen year old cat to the vet, the tech who did her initial exam thought she was two or three. You probably don't love your kitty enough to pay for all that Botox and shit, though, DO YOU?)

[Uthgar the Brazen]

(Note I did not mention Cats. Cats are Evil evil evil horrible grosse gah!)

:glare:

[Uthgar the Brazen]

You probably don't love your kitty enough to pay for all that Botox and shit, though, DO YOU?

I take good enough care of her that she doesn't need Botox, hippie!

[Qingdai]

However, if you do decide to go with a small pet, don't just believe anything anyone tells you about two gerbils, for example, just HYPOTHETICALLY AND ALL, being two boys and not a breeding pair, unless you're prepared to accommodate a wall of terrariums, about 24 miraculous gay virgin births, and one horrific Easter Morning Bloodlust Massacre.

Change that from massacre to mass suicide and that is almost identical to my gerbil experience. Although I also found out I am allergic to hamsters, gerbils, rats and mice around that time.

[lisarea]

You probably don't love your kitty enough to pay for all that Botox and shit, though, DO YOU?

I take good enough care of her that she doesn't need Botox, hippie!

Oh, what do you do then, Oprah? Get her aura cleansed? Visualization exercises? Stick detox footpads on her to leech out dangerous toxins and cellulite?

Or did you just spring for the facelift?

[Adam]

I'll third or fourth or whatever the objection to gerbils. If you like antisocial little rodents who sleep all day, make noise all night, and smell like a litterbox all the time, you can't beat a gerbil. I had several of them and several hamsters when I was younger, and the hamsters were always much friendlier and more willing to be handled.

Neither will hesitate to snack on a deceased cagemate, btw, so you might take that into consideration if you think the child involved would be traumatized by discovering such a turn of events. Also, if you happen to get albino hamsters, don't ever put them outside in a their cage in direct sunlight to "get a little air", because the Caligukid will never, ever let you forget what you did, even into his/her thirties, assuming said kid is as big a shit as I am.

Also, I'm with seebs. Cats are an ideal all purpose pet. They're independent enough that they don't need constant attention, but friendly enough to play with or pet, and they remind you when they need to be fed.

[Adam]

Oh, what do you do then, Oprah? Get her aura cleansed? Visualization exercises? Stick detox footpads on her to leech out dangerous toxins and cellulite?

Or did you just spring for the facelift?

Uh...personal cat trainer? Duh?

[Ensign Steve]

As someone who works in a veterinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate cockatiels.

As someone who worked in a vertinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate iguanas.

[lisarea]

Oh, what do you do then, Oprah? Get her aura cleansed? Visualization exercises? Stick detox footpads on her to leech out dangerous toxins and cellulite?

Or did you just spring for the facelift?

Uh...personal cat trainer? Duh?

Oh, trainers. That's what poor people get when they can't afford liposuction and body lifts and stuff, right?

I admire your pluck!

[lisarea]

As someone who works in a veterinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate cockatiels.

As someone who worked in a vertinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate iguanas.

As someone who once had to walk through the VFW hall to get to a sushi restaurant, let me say this: I really, really love uni.

[Ensign Steve]

Stop it. Now I want sushi.

[Sock Puppet]

I can't believe, in light of recent developments in this thread, that no one has yet suggested the perfect pet.

An eel. Think about it. As long as you train the little ones to let it sniff their hands before they pet it, of course. If it doesn't work out, you can grill it.

Okay, maybe I just really, really want some unagi.

[Adam]

And that's different from the cockatiel because...?

[Julie]

Plucking a 'tiel is harder than preping an eel.

[Chris Porter]

Rats actually make excellent pets. They are, in my experience, smarter than hamsters or gerbils, and somehow just more petlike.
Rats do make excellent pets. I was sad when mine died.

I was upset when mine died, too. Died on the way home from the vet's. Respiratory disease, as common as muck in pet rats, and difficult to treat. Not fun when a pleasant, friendly, clean and interactive pet dies within a year. I returned my second rat back to the breeder, as I didn't want to watch the other one die. I have asthma, it's not pleasant watching another animal exhibit the same symptoms as myself, and no way to help them.

The thing about rats is that they are pretty intensely social, more so than cats, so make sure if you get one, have the capacity to interact with it, or provide it with a companion.

[godfry n. glad]

I have a debt to cockatiels...or, to be more exact, a cockatiel. My wife had a male cockatiel that she'd gotten as part of a pair. The poor male was literally hen-pecked, so she got rid of the female abuser and she loved her finger-trained cockatiel who spent most of his time on top of his cage. However, while we were watching television, with our back to the hannukiah, it set fire to a plastic faux neon channukah sign. Had Simon the bird not gone stark raving mad (unusual for him), the house could well have burnt down.

I've had bunnies. Angoras and mini-lops, mostly. Mini-lops make great pets, if they're not locked in their cage all the time. We rabbit-proofed the entire back yard so they couldn't escape, but a couple of them became indoor/outdoor bunnies, and one was all-outdoors. They practically box train themselves. They keep themselves cleaner than cats, and the fecal pellets are not odor offensive and very limited outside the litter box (plus, the bunnies eat them for digestive balance). We had one smart little mini-lop who had run of the house and would jump up on me when I was reclining on the couch watching television and snuggle in between my torso and arm for naps. If you go with a rabbit, I can provide all sorts of hints...the biggest being that if it is allowed indoor run, you will need to protect your electrical wires. They have very sensitive digestive systems and a major cause of death is intestinal blockage created by owners giving them large quantities of lettuce (a big NO-NO), or not giving them treatment for ingested hair (bunnies cannot vomit).

I like the idea of a rat, or rats. I like mice, too. I'm not sure why gerbils are getting such a bad rap for night activity, as I've always experienced hamsters, guinea pigs, rats and mice to all be primarily nocturnal (meaning the damn exercise wheel squeeks all frikking night).

Cats are great pets because of the traits both seebs and Adam have noted. In addition to letting you know when meal time is, they also have a very effective method of making it clear the handler is being too rough. If you go the cat route, I highly recommend a trip with Caligukid to the Humane Society or Animal Control to spring one of the inmates there. I think both allow potential adopters to spend time in a kitty room to get to know the inmates. Once you take a cat home, YOUR training starts.

[Dingfod]

As someone who works in a veterinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate cockatiels.

As someone who worked in a vertinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate iguanas.As someone who worked in a veterinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate poodles.

[ShottleBop]

We've had good luck with bearded dragons and our grandkids. The beardies are friendly, like to be handled, and eat crickets and mealworms.

[Ymir's blood]

As someone who works in a veterinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate cockatiels.

As someone who worked in a vertinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate iguanas.As someone who worked in a veterinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate poodles.As someone who works in a office, let me say this: I really, really hate humans.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

As someone who works in a veterinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate cockatiels.

As someone who worked in a vertinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate iguanas.As someone who worked in a veterinary office, let me say this: I really, really hate poodles.As someone who works in a office, let me say this: I really, really hate humans.

I'd :glare: at you, but:

a) You're responsible for the lovely oceans, so I suppose I should cut you some slack, and

b) I tend to agree

[Dingfod]

Oh, I agree too. And so do I. Me too!

[godfry n. glad]

I tell folks that I'd have a really decent job if it weren't for the damned patrons.

[Ensign Steve]

I don't even have patrons. I just hate my coworkers.

[Caligulette]

I
However, if you do decide to go with a small pet, don't just believe anything anyone tells you about two gerbils, for example, just HYPOTHETICALLY AND ALL, being two boys and not a breeding pair, unless you're prepared to accommodate a wall of terrariums, about 24 miraculous gay virgin births, and one horrific Easter Morning Bloodlust Massacre.

And no matter what, make sure it's something you really want to commit to in terms of both time and money. Four year olds can't really take the responsibility, but they do take the biggest hit when something goes wrong. (See: Christmas Morning Sea Monkey Horror.)
Oooh, we had the two-year-old and sea-monkies horror. There's still guilt on his part (self-inflicted) over having dumped them out.

I kind of like the gay virgin birth scenario- that'd shut the Fundie Christian Pet Shop Guy up but good!

The sea monkey thing was when my son, who was probably three or four at the time, tried to reconstitute a package of dried sea monkeys with plain tap water. When I told him they were probably dead, he collapsed in a heap on the floor, sobbing inconsolably and screaming "I'm sorry, sea monkeys, I'm sorry!" The fact that they were just brine shrimp didn't mitigate his guilt. It was horrible. It can be difficult to overestimate the effect things can have on really little kids.
Erm...I tried to change my seamonkeys' water when it looked just too too cloudy and I was feeling badly for them. I very carefully fished them out with an iced tea spoon and put them into the new fresh DEADLY water and watched them all die one by one. Oh....This was about 30 years ago and I still feel the blood on my hands....

[lisarea]

Erm...I tried to change my seamonkeys' water when it looked just too too cloudy and I was feeling badly for them. I very carefully fished them out with an iced tea spoon and put them into the new fresh DEADLY water and watched them all die one by one. Oh....This was about 30 years ago and I still feel the blood on my hands....

Oh man, that's weird. You, me, and my son should start an online support group for people coping with sea monkey survivor guilt. My kid pretends he doesn't remember, but I'll bet he really does. And I know I still feel like a monster for not paying closer attention and for being so insensitive about it at first.

[Caligulette]

I wonder how many of us have been traumatised by mass sea monkey extinction. I am an inadvertant genocidist.

[Adam]

Meh. The sea monkeys deserved it for just being stupid shrimp and not the anthropomorphic fish people they claimed to be in their ads.

[Caligulette]

I protest. It's not as if they had thumbs and pencils with which to portray themselves as such. The ad-men are complicit in their extinction.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

I protest. It's not as if they had thumbs and pencils with which to portray themselves as such. The ad-men are complicit in their extinction.

You've been used! I suspect a dark, vast conspiracy. :shiftier:

[Caligulette]

Anti-brine-ists are everywhere, you know.

[Caligulette]

We got the Seamonkies On Mars edition. After - I think- four days of waiting, I finally see some very tiny creatures dressed in space suits.

[Logan]

Caging any living thing, no matter it's level of sentients seems totally wrong to me.

I do appreciate/accept why we keep some endangered etc. species in captivity , yet I always get back round to the fact I would rather die a free man knowing I was the last of my race, than live a lifetime captive.

Guess I have far to many contradictory thoughts on the matter to be of any real use hear......I'll get my coat.........

Logan

[Caligulette]

:bow: All Hail The Great Sea-Monkey Liberator! :bow:

[Uthgar the Brazen]

"As god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"

[Julie]

I had sea monkeys once...but bought frozen not freeze dried....they were for feeding to my Beta.

:shakehoot:

[Caligulette]

Sooooo....We still have them, but it was a close call. Caligukid was staying with my sister in law while I was at work this afternoon, and I got home to this:

SIL: You know I'm really near-sighted, right?
Me: Yah.
SIL: And you know how I don't read instructions or stuff like that, right?
Me: Yaaaah? (I'd already seen the kid, so knew he'd not been sold or cooked.)
SIL: So I thought that thing by the lamp was a snow globe....
Me: ??
SIL: I shook it once, but they're still in there. There are still a lot of them, and most of the water's still in there. I just don't know if we lost any of the little critters. I'm really sorry.
Me: It's ok. (I mean, what? I should yell at her?)

We lost maybe an inch of water, and indeed it does look like the "critters" are still there. I had never counted them, and we have not named them, so it would be really hard to tell... I like to think that everyone's safe.

[erimir]

I like Rabbits myself, but that depends on your little one because rabbits can not be handled rough AT ALL.
[...]
(bunnies can be litter trained!)Yes they can. We had a litter trained bunny named Cocoa when I was in elementary school. He used to belong to the school, but we adopted him when they decided they didn't want him anymore. And its poo pellets weren't a problem because altho he would seem to always get excited when we let him out of the cage and leave a pellet after each of his first few hops out of the cage, the dog would follow him around gobbling them up. Sounds gross, but it wasn't actually bad for the dog.

The reason they eat their own poop sometimes, as Ding mentioned, is their digestive system rather than having multiple stomachs to digest their grass diet (like ungulates), simply puts everything through twice. So they'll eat pellets that have been through once, but not those that have been through twice.

At any rate, b/c I liked Cocoa so much I always wanted another rabbit. I did eventually get one for Christmas when I was 12ish. But I admit I didn't take very good care of her, b/c I didn't let her out of the cage enough or handle her enough (and to a lesser extent clean her cage enough) so we gave her away to a client of my parents after a couple years. I kinda feel bad about it, b/c she would've been a better pet and a happier one had I just handled her and let her out for a little while every day.
"As god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"They can! Just not the kind of turkeys you can buy (and thus drop from helicopters).

[Corona688]

Caligukid is four. We lost our dog this past year (as in, our dog died), in June. I'm thinking about getting a wee pet for the kid (and me) to learn to take care of. Gerbil? Not a hamster, as I have been bitten by hamsters before and still hold a grudge. Has anyone any experience with a kid and a wee pet? Guinea pigs are altogether less bitey and more cuddly.