If your answer to the lifestyle question was travels a lot then you’ll need a low maintenance pet like a cat, rodent, reptile, or fish. A pet that you can leave enough food and water for short trips and for longer trips have a friend come over every couple of days to refill the supply. These types of pets won’t miss you like a dog will when you’re gone.

Cats. When choosing a cat, you’ll also want to pick one in its adolescence. They aren’t as rambunctious as kittens and less likely to claw and bite while playing. And when you have a small child, the cat is bigger and less fragile in little hands. Adopting is best for a family cat but if you want purebred, Ragdoll cats come highly recommended by experts as being very gentle, laid-back, and friendly. Other things to consider: males are more tolerant of young children than females and indoor domesticated cats are a necessity. Feral, or undomesticated cats, won’t be happy as an indoor family pet and you can expect a lot of scratches in demonstration. Always check with the adoption provider if the cat gets along with children.

Rodents. Caged animals such as rabbits, rats, hamsters, gerbils are fun pets for children to watch but not really handle. They also are messier than cat with cage clean up but have the convenience of cats in not needing constant affection or constant watch while on your travels.

Reptiles. Reptiles have the ease of only needing to be fed every few days but you have to be careful of breeds — turtles can carry salmonella. You also have to be comfortable feeding the animal live crickets or in the case of snakes rats and mice. Depending on your child this can be a neat thing to watch or traumatic so make sure you know your child’s tolerance and feed the animal after your child is in bed if needed. Reptiles are less messy than the rodent breeds but no where close to cuddly.

Fish. Fish are by far the easiest animal to take care of. While they don’t have any “play” value they can be entertaining for kids to watch. They would also enjoy sprinkling in the fish flakes. Tanks do need to be cleaned but if you have a good filter system it doesn’t have to be very often.

A happy pet is a well-placed pet. Make sure the pet you choose, is right for your family, and you can’t go wrong.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 26th, 2008 at 10:36 pm and is filed under Pets, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.