Present inspiration for an animal mad kid

[Sarri]

My 9 year old daughter is animal crazy. The main things she wants for christmas are actually gifts for our pets - a new scratching post for the cat, a castle for the fish in the aquarium! She really is struggling to think of things she'd like for herself - does anyone have any brilliant animal related ideas?

I'd love to get her something like a zoo keeper for a day outing, but she's not old enough for the days at our local zoo, you have to be 18.. Thanks so much hive mind!

Could you travel to one that does a junior zoo keeper for a day? Make it a girls trip with hotel stay. My DD is animal mad too and I hope to plan this for her.

Adopt an animal from online where she gets regular updates and a teddy.

Does your local zoo do a season ticket? Or somewhere similar? (My DD was fascinated by birds, and there's a WWT site near where we live, although there aren't many around the country...)

Can you adopt her an animal she gets to visit.

We adopted DS2 a penguin once and had great fun trying to recognise him from his photo.

Of you're in the South a donkey from the donkey sanctuary, I mean adopt one. We did this as a family one year and when we visited all the donkeys ran away from me.

It was at that age that my DD got into animal photography, which was then her main hobby all the way through secondary school (hence my name here). She started out with a basic camera. Just a thought!

Volunteer day at local donkey sanctuary.

Adopt an animal such as peguin/polar bear.

Sponsor a guide dog.

Zoo experience.

Does she like Lego? There are lots of animal themed sets, have a look on the Lego site, they have an option to search by interests

www.lego.com/en-gb/categories/animals

Riding lessons? Stable management lesson? Pony trek?

• if a strong reader, buy "My Family And Other Animals" (Gerald Durrell)
• Subscription to National Geographic Kids
• Bird feeder for the window
• Join local wildlife trust and spend next year visiting during different seasons
• pond dipping kit

Hamster?

Depending on budget groupon oft
ten do alpacas walks around the country. If you have a huge budget then

www.safari-lodges.co.uk/home-mobile/

Depends where you live.

An alpaca walking trek
A birds of prey experience
Visit to a sea life centre
If you are within a two hour drive go to Horsey Gap between Christmas and new year to see the wild seals.

You can buy tracker jewellery that has qr courses linked to turtles swimming about so she can track their journey.

A subscription to National Geographic Junior magazine

Fish tank for her room

Horse ride on the beach or a lesson

You can get cushions printed with pets photo on 🥴

Love the idea of the tracking jewellery. Thank you as it's a great idea for my impossible to buy for sister. Just a warning for anyone else interested in this, there are a whole host of fake sites offering this jewellery according to some of the turtle charities. The only one that they seem to endorse is myfahlo.com/en-gb

WOW, half an hour and so many awesome ideas, thank you, thank you! This will keep us busy for several years!

She will love SO many of these ideas.. lots of more accessible animal experience things and the turtle tracking thing is amazing, she will LOVE that! The wildlife lodges are waay over-budget but it's one to save up for!!

What about a hottie? (Just Google 'Animal hottie and lots come up). Something to open 'for her' and practical too?

Following for mine

James Herriot is very readable for children too.

Sloth experience was a hit with DC at a similar age.

My little one has a subscription to Eco Kids magazine. Loads of articles about animals