An animal to help my son?

[bananasmoothie]

I've posted about my son before...quick re-cap...

6 years old, terrible behaviour at school (so much so that he has a behaviour report card and has to sit on his own), bad behaviour at home (shouting, cheeky, throwing things, violence) and bad behaviour outside (again cheeky etc).

One massive interest he has is animals, he will talk like a 10 year old about various animals, where they live, what they eat, their life cycle etc...he is obsessed with dinosaurs to the point where he has memorised the complicated names of a large selection of them and he takes a huge interest in his dad's snakes and lizards (we live seperately) holding them, helping take care of them and learning about them.

I've heard that animals can be like therapy to kids with "Problems" and I'm seriously considering buying him either a cat or a corn snake hoping it will give him something to focus on, something to make him feel "important" and give him responcibilty that he actually wants...

What do you think? am I mad? what would you do?

Have you asked him what sort of animal he would prefer?

I remember when my brother was being difficult and went to see a psychologist he said that my brother needed a dog.

I have asked him and he said he wants a lizard but I'm not too sure about the insects hanging around the house (which they need to eat), the snakes just eat dead mice which I'm fine with...

I would love a dog but I just don't have the patience/money to take care of one unfortunately

Sounds like a great idea, but I did the same for my ds, he sounds similar to your ds, same age as well. I've bought a number of pets over the years and have ended up caring for them all. Would you be prepared to clean out a lizard's cage every time? (Though I can't imagine you'd have to clean it out too often) I think you can buy dead insects for lizards food in certain pet shops.

Have you considered taking him horse riding? Its not too expensive if you look around particularly if the child is willing to help out, which might be good for your ds - invlve him in the care of an animal and use up some energy?
Where I used to work we had a lot of kids with 'behavioural' issues helping out, they were brilliant and loved the horses, but at the end of the day they could go on holiday, have a day off etc with no repercussions for the animal or the parent....

My DS1 asked for a Komodo Dragon for his 6th birthday, he ended up with a leopard gecko which is now 4 years old. It is extremely easy to look after, we feed ours on wax worms, which aren't too wriggly and can't jump around. He won't chase crickets. If you need to go away for the weekend you don't need anyone to look after it and it rarely needs to be cleaned out. DS1 really struggled at school in his early years, but animals have always been his big thing especially reptiles. The major expense is in setting up thereafter it is really cheap. We also have cats and guinea pigs, but the gecko is our lowest maintenance pet. Thus my fave