At what age should you buy your child their first pet?

Question

And what is a good first pet to have that will teach the child responsibility (of cleaning up after the pet) and caring for another living thing?

Answer 1

At 5 or 6. Buy some simple like a turtle and fish and teach them how much to feed them and how to clean the tank/bowl.

Answer 2

My wife and I are planning on purchasing a puppy for my daughter when she is 7 (right now she's 3). We're still arguing over the breed. My wife is a behavior therapist and believes that a child at around 7 should be able to take on some responsibility for the care of the pet and also have the ability to treat the animal with respect.

Answer 3

i think a child should be surrounded by pets as they're growing. Like for instance if you have a dog when the baby is one, or if the kid is older then get a pet, Babies tend to observe what you do...how you clean up after the dog and so on....so when they're older about five of six they are able to clean up after thier pets because they have experience. I think a suitable stage where a kid can have a pet is about 5 or six, but its even better if the pet is small and lives in a plastic box like a gerbil, because its much easier to clean up after it and it requires only a small amount of space. In that case your kid can learn the skill of responsibilty as well as love for the pet.

Answer 4

My daughters wanted their own pets at the ages of 10, and 13.. up until then of course we had pets, a dog, cats.. the usual family pets. But one Christmas they decided they were ready for their own pets. Before they could get their pet they each had to write a report about the pet they had chosen, how to take care of it.. etc. They each wrote an excellent report, and they each got their respective animal. The 13 year old a budgie, and the 10 year old her hamster. They loved and cared for their animals very well.

Answer 5

My kids started asking for a pet when they were 6 and 5, what I did was got an egg and blew the yoke and crap for inside of it and rinsed it out really well. I told them if they were able to keep the egg in one piece for one week, then they would get a pet because it showed that they were responsible enough to take care of something fragile. We made the eggs a place to sleep and kept reminding them that is was very important to take care of the egg. Well, one egg was broke by the next day and the other made it 2 days.

Answer 6

With my experience I think that between the ages 8-10 years old is a good age to learn responsibility. Any younger and the parents are the ones doing all the work. The children will learn nothing. Hope this helps

Answer 7

Ive had pets since birth. So, naturally my son has as well. In fact, he'll be 1 in Jan, and we're buying him a puppy for christmas.. lol.

He'll probably be the main care giver of a pet when he's school age.

Answer 8

I would say about 4 or 5 or 6 maybe

Answer 9

We have 2 cats and a 9 month old son. I would like to get a dog, as I think it's an important part of childhood. (It was for mine.) I've decided to wait until my son is old enough to ask for one. That way when he does I can say "Why, yes, son, we certainly CAN get a dog!" lol

But hey, that's just me.

Answer 10

when they can finish all of their homework at a decent time at night. some kids need help until like 9:00 at night, that's no good if they have to feed kitty.