AS soon as they show interest in having a pet after the age of 4. Then we will start with goldfish and move up slowly as they get older to hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, reptiles, then cats/dogs if we want another cat or dog as a family.
When they're old enough to care for them on their own without their parent's help.
Small animals are usually looked at as good kid pets, but they're really not the child's responsibility - I bet most of the time it's the parents who clean the cage. Definitely NOT a fish, especially not a salt water fish, that would be too hard for a kid to care for properly unless they've very dedicated. I think a pair of rats would be a good first pet. "My" first pet was a guinea pig when I was 3. I got to say she was mine but my parents did all the work.
When they're old enough and mature enough to care for them without a lot of help from my husband and I--I'm thinking around 7 or so? I think a pair of same-sex guinea pigs would be great.
When they can properly care for it themselves. 9-10 probably. While I'd like to say we'd start with a fish I don't make a good fish parent so we'd probably start with a rat(s). It's also a pet I'd be okay taking from my kid in the case that they can't/won't care for it themselves.
1. Depends on the kid and the pet. Some kids take their responsibilities seriously, and others don't. And some pets can be very easy for one person to take care of (hamsters, gerbils, etc.), while others are going to be more of a group responsibility from the start (dogs are pretty hard to train if you can't get the whole pack... or at least the higher-ups in the pack... to enforce proper behaviour).
2. Depends on points above, and also on what other pets may already be in the house. I started on hamsters when I was nine, and that went fine. But right now I have cats, and don't foresee a point in my life when I won't. If I got a hamster now, I can't imagine how it wouldn't be living in abject terror. Even if I always kept the cats out of the room with the hamster cage, they'd still be able to hear and smell predators all the time. That can't be healthy.
So at this point, any hypothetical kids would have to be older, fairly mature, and want cat-compatible pets.
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Small animals are usually looked at as good kid pets, but they're really not the child's responsibility - I bet most of the time it's the parents who clean the cage. Definitely NOT a fish, especially not a salt water fish, that would be too hard for a kid to care for properly unless they've very dedicated. I think a pair of rats would be a good first pet. "My" first pet was a guinea pig when I was 3. I got to say she was mine but my parents did all the work.
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2. Depends on points above, and also on what other pets may already be in the house. I started on hamsters when I was nine, and that went fine. But right now I have cats, and don't foresee a point in my life when I won't. If I got a hamster now, I can't imagine how it wouldn't be living in abject terror. Even if I always kept the cats out of the room with the hamster cage, they'd still be able to hear and smell predators all the time. That can't be healthy.
So at this point, any hypothetical kids would have to be older, fairly mature, and want cat-compatible pets.
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