Pets for kids - am I'm missing something...

[Littlelunch]

Or is there really nothing suitable for our families need?

DD10 and 5 would love a pet. We have a family dog (an elderly lurcher) but they as desperate for pet guinea pigs.

We are doing to visit a rescue next week but already having done so research, it's not going to work. The space they'd need would take over our smallish house and finding a suitable location for them that wouldn't disrupt everyone's sleep is impossible (I've kept guinea pigs before so I know how noisy they can be).

Rabbits are a no go due to our garden set up (astro turf) and the fact that they don't really make great pets (I've also kept rabbits over the years).

Cats are a no because of the dog, my hubby's hatred of cats and the fact that I don't really want my furniture destroyed.

Hamsters - meh, have kept those too and they weren't great pets and don't last.

Rats sound good but smelly, same issue with space and probably need more interaction than we can guarantee what with work/school/clubs etc

Fish - also meh.

Is there anything I'm missing that might offer a good solution? I believe gerbils and chinchillas pose the same issue as hamsters and guinea pigs sadly.

A family member has a budgie. OMG it is SUCH a character! A lovely little thing, mimics their chat and has bonded in particular with one family member, will fly to a finger etc.

@Littlelunch Another 'thing' to distract them? Why, what 'thing' am I already trying to distract them with exactly?
Clearly, you're just here to make uninformed but judgemental statements about my parenting - so please do jog on. I'm not interested.

No, I'm not making 'uninformed but judgemental statements'.

I'm thrown by your description ..................
the word 'pet' implies something different to the phrase ' something that is suitable for them to handle ie friendly that they can interact with '

I loved my budgies as a kid - but are they morning people? Birds wake at dawn - blackout blinds and all. My dad ended up building a heated “aviary” in the garden (this was basically a shed with a netting extension & an oil radiator with a thermostat. Budgies loved it though.)

Also, my elderly dog ate my last budgie when we were letting her fly round the house (as we often did). Beloved dog was jealous that his favourite person (my dad) was interacting with the budgie in his presence when previously my dad didn’t really have time for the bird. Budgie had incorrectly lost her fear of the elderly dog. I didn’t see it happen but it was just before a road trip. A formative memory is my dad taking me to the lake at Carlise(?) services and telling me that my beloved budgie had come on holiday with us… inside the dog!

Circle of life and all that. We didn’t have budgies again.

Female rats aren’t smelly if cleaned twice a week - boys smelled more (I used to keep them).

I would get any I said, but then I got a hamster, we too have a old dog, he will be 15 soon and kids wanted another pet, after a few weeks they got bored of it, it's in my room (along with the dog who's half blind & deaf), I love him.

Hindsight? I wouldn't have got another pet but he is part of the family now and they are fun!

So boring but super cute once tamed

Not boring I meant 😂

I think as long as their cages are cleaned regularly, the smell is definitely manageable. Gerbils are more lively than hamsters and very cute and inquisitive. They need to be handled frequently from young to get them used to it.

I mean it doesn't sound like you like small caged pets, and doesn't sound like you have space for a bigger pet so no. If you don't have time for something like a rat then it doesn't sound like you have the time for another pet either?

I don't think you should get a pet just for children to pet tbh

I love my gerbils. They aren't boring and are very clean animals, with proper cage set up they shouldn't smell. They are very inquisitive and friendly if tamed

But they aren't dogs. Interaction is on their terms. Some gerbils are very friendly and happy to be picked up but no gerbil is ever going to be happy to sit there and be stroked in the same way as a larger animal.

You either need to lower your expectations of what getting a pet will entail, not being handled doesn't make it a bad pet, or wait and get another dog in the future

Dogs and cats are the only pets worth having in my view, animals you can form a real bond with. I'd wait til the dog dies and then get another with the kids in mind, a cuddly puppy they can really get involved with from the start.

So glad you are not getting guinea pigs. Just for anyone else reading, guinea pigs are not suitable as a child's pet (unless they are really the adult's pet and the child helps out)

They absolutely must be kept in pairs and never singly (or a group of females plus neutered boar)

Never buy from PAH. They bring gps over in huge numbers from Spain. Not well bred so often not healthy at point of sale. Some are mis sexed by the store and pregnant at point of sale.

Use a reputable rescue or hobby breeder.

They are classed as exotics so are VERY expensive when ill (think hundreds of pounds)

Boars can be difficult to pair up as adults. A bereaved boar will usually accept a baby boar. Or female. But then you have the expense of neutering the male.

They are prey animals and hide illness well. They must be weighed weekly as weight loss is often the first sign of illness.

They live a long time if well cared for. 8 years is common. But think 5 years plus as minimum.

They are better housed indoors. They can go to an outdoor hutch during summer but they are not hardy for outdoor winter living without a heated hutch.

Never, ever house guinea pigs and rabbits together. This was common in days gone by and you still see it on some petting farms. It causes guinea pigs immense stress and rabbits can kill pigs.

Guinea pigs need to live with their own kind.

Mice. I've had so many throughout the past 20 years. They have lovely little personalities and if kids can understand to handle them carefully, they're pretty much perfect. The females are much less smelly than the males.
I had many long before I had a child, then had even more from DD being 5 to now 12 almost 13. They don’t live long which is the only negative. 2 years at most. But they are so worth it. They're very clean and clever.
I’m down to 2 left out of my 8 we got 2 years ago, but so much love has gone into them and they've always given it in return.
I've had rats too and they're the only pet I don't want to get more of because they take up such a huge place in your heart, it's devastating when they go. Not that mice don’t, it's just that rats live that much longer and you connect with them hard.

We do have 9 cats and 2 ferrets as well. Our 2 rabbits and 2 guinea pigs have succumbed to old age recently. Our house has always been a zoo. It's definitely had a huge effect on DD growing up loving them and helping take care of them.

Do you have room for chickens? They are amazing pets. And you get eggs!

You've got a pet. It's a dog. That's it.

Chickens would not be good with a lurcher.

I wouldn't keep any prey species in a house with a dog or cat in it, however carefully I might think I could keep the animals separate, or however decrepit/lazy/toothless the dog or cat might be. Apart from the fact that accidents happen and animals sometimes behave unpredictably, just the constant presence of an obvious predator in the home could be harmful to the smaller pet.

Domesticated animals may have been bred to lose their fear of humans and be (capable of being) calm and friendly around us, but they still have their inbuilt physiological and psychological responses to the odours of predators like dogs and cats which hunt small animals like them. To something like a rat — a small prey animal with an extremely acute sense of smell — you're making them spend their entire lives trapped in a world which stinks of predator. Predator odours affect the stress hormones, reproductive hormones, and other biological functions of prey animals. They learn to live their entire lives in the presence of something they're hardwired to be wary around, with no safe refuge. They might be able to adjust to some extent and behave relatively normally, but I think it's unfair to make them live their lives like that.

Is getting another dog an option, while your current dog is still around? Or would she be stressed out by a puppy/younger dog?

It does sound like a dog is the only kind of pet you will get sufficiently excited about, and let’s be honest it will be you doing the work. (also agree with pp that prey animal plus lurcher is a bad combo). So another dog it is, either now or later if your old girl won’t cope.

With a lurcher in the house?

There's ferrets. They are very funny to watch but you need more than one, preferrably three. They do have a smell, need neutering and as the kits tend to bite, better off with adults from a rescue.

My dc had snakes and bearded dragons when they were younger... Ds got a corn snake when he was 2...it lived til it was 12. Well handled and easy to keep once you get the initial set up sorted. Bigger tank when they grow though!! Keeping frozen mice in the freezer isn't for everyone though...

African land snail or fish

It depends on the age of the kids. But hamsters aren't a bad pet. They obviously prefer being active at night, and need cleaning out regularly. But they're quite cute. If the kids can care for the hamster successfully then they can go on to something bigger. Hamsters only live a couple years.
You're right that rabbits and guinea pigs are harder to care for.
It's a shame about cats as they can live with dogs. What is it your husband 'hates' about them? They are by far the easiest pet. And the cutest in my view.
My mates kids keep fish, which they seem pretty entertained by. They are 4 and 7. And are responsible for the feeding and cleaning etc. so you could also go for that? Not cuddly but very pretty to look at.

^This^

As our Labrador got older we got a Labrador puppy for ds3 (10). I got a dog when I was 10 and I walked him and cared for him and was broken hearted when he died (when I was 21). Ds already had a strong bond with the older dog that we got when he was 3 months old. We wouldn’t have got another dog if we hadn’t wanted one and been prepared to care for it ourselves but it’s worked out very well generally.

I should also mention that after going through rabbits, hamsters and budges before said dog, l had been known to declare that a dog was the only pet I would ever have until a family member died leaving a cat with nowhere to go. I took the cat and to my amazement, it was love at first sight. So amazing that I got another one for my 60th birthday. I am now a dedicated cat parent. If you were waiting until your lurcher passed on then I could highly recommend cats or kittens (get two). Fortunately they get on very well with my lab.They are so little work and so rewarding.