Looking To Add A Daycare Pet...

[SunflowerMama]

Who has a pet for the daycare kids to help care for?

We used to have a dog but right now don't have any pets.

I would love a pet that is easy to care for but also can help teach the kids a bit of responsibility when it comes to caring for a pet.

I'm sure fish would be nice and are super easy but does anyone else have a different pet that is good for the kids?

[Little People]

I have a Sphynix Cat. She is all 4 paws declawed and she is the perfect pet

[Cat Herder]

I can't think of any animal I dislike enough to put in a room full of infants and toddlers all day....::::::

I would maybe go with gerbils or a bunny?? :confused:

[dEHmom]

I say fish.

But if you are really interested.....


Find a few ADF's (African Dwarf Frogs). They are itty bitty little frogs. They don't require much at all, but if you mix them with any kind of other fish, then feeding becomes a hassle for these guys.

Alone....you'd drop in a cube of frozen bloodworms or some Frog N Tadpole Bites and they will hunt them and eat them.

With fish....You have to turkey baster feed the froggies so the fish don't steal all their food before they find it.



If you manage to pick up both a male and female, the male will sing his songs for the female, they will "hug" literally, and do a little dance, and then lay eggs. Eggs are reallllly hard to raise into tadpoles (require a lot of time hatching sea monkeys to feed the taddies), but I've successfully managed to raise 3 tads into frogs! So I now have 5 frogs (mommy, daddy, and 3 baby froggies).

They only grow to about an inch to an inch and a half full grown.

They are not super messy, and alone they wouldn't need much in terms of cleaning, just make sure they have clean water, food, and hiding places and they will be happy!

They are incredibly fun to watch as well.

[AfterSchoolMom]

I can definitely tell you what NOT to get - a guinea pig. They are smelly, messy, and high maintenance. They also take up a huge amount of space.

[nikia]

We had a turtle until dcg brought lice and my dh sprayed the furniture and didnt remove his aquarium

DH in this instance does not stand for Dear hubby ::

I liked the turtle, we would feed it different things that it could eat like worms, crickets, feeder fish and then we would take it outside. It was a different, fun kind of pet.

[Zoe]

The thing with fish is that it would be easy for the kids, but a huge hassle for you, depending on the size of the tank. If it's just a bowl, then fine. However, that darn water needs to be perfectly balanced! My husband maintains a tank and it's such a hassle sometimes!

I'm only saying this as a person who agreed to fish, not knowing how much maintenance they require. I thought it was just a "plop them in the tank and feed them" sort of thing! ::

[dEHmom]

The thing with fish is that it would be easy for the kids, but a huge hassle for you, depending on the size of the tank. If it's just a bowl, then fine. However, that darn water needs to be perfectly balanced! My husband maintains a tank and it's such a hassle sometimes!

I'm only saying this as a person who agreed to fish, not knowing how much maintenance they require. I thought it was just a "plop them in the tank and feed them" sort of thing! ::

no no....

bowls are MUCH more work than tanks.

as long as you don't over stock your tank, you really shouldn't have to do a whole lot to it. If you feed the appropriate amount daily/semi daily, then you only have to do about a 25% water change (which is just cleaning up the gravel on the bottom) once every week (I let it go longer but I know my tank).

That's a common misconception with fish keepers. The fish keep dying, they keep adding more and more to the tank, not realizing that each fish needs it's own room to pee/poop and get oxygen in the tank. If you throw 2 goldfish in a 10 gallon tank they are going to die. I have 3 goldfish in a 30 gallon, along with an otto, and snail, and 4 frogs (soon to be 5 frogs). This is overstocked, and yet, I only have to change my water out every other week. Sometimes longer, but that's cause I'm lazy. And they are all happy and healthy. If my water was to go bad for any reason, the frogs would let me know for sure.

Salt water aquariums are ALOT more work. Does your husband have saltwater tank?

I have never done the "chemistry" part of fish keeping, and i've never been unsuccessful.

[Blackcat31]

I'm going to suggest a Chia-pet. They are pretty easily cared for, self contained and are able to withstand being left alone for long periods of time. No rabies shots, no vet checks and if it dies, you simple re-grow!!

[countrymom]

The thing with fish is that it would be easy for the kids, but a huge hassle for you, depending on the size of the tank. If it's just a bowl, then fine. However, that darn water needs to be perfectly balanced! My husband maintains a tank and it's such a hassle sometimes!

I'm only saying this as a person who agreed to fish, not knowing how much maintenance they require. I thought it was just a "plop them in the tank and feed them" sort of thing! ::

we have a fighting fish (a red one named hotdog) and we have a tank with a filter in it, never have to do anything but feed it and add water because it evaporates. Its acually the easiest thing to take care off.
We have a cat (front and back declawed) all the kids love him. We have a hamster too, but he is in my ds's room. We had a guinea pig (he passed away after christmas, it was sad as it was mdd's pet) I DO NOT RECOMMEND A GUINEA PIG--LARGE CAGE, THEY SMELL AND THEY NEED TO HAVE THEIR BEDDING CHANGED ALL THE TIME. The kids loved "sugar" but I hated cleaning the cage every couple of days. Hmm, frogs would be cool.

[Zoe]

no no....

bowls are MUCH more work than tanks.

as long as you don't over stock your tank, you really shouldn't have to do a whole lot to it. If you feed the appropriate amount daily/semi daily, then you only have to do about a 25% water change (which is just cleaning up the gravel on the bottom) once every week (I let it go longer but I know my tank).

That's a common misconception with fish keepers. The fish keep dying, they keep adding more and more to the tank, not realizing that each fish needs it's own room to pee/poop and get oxygen in the tank. If you throw 2 goldfish in a 10 gallon tank they are going to die. I have 3 goldfish in a 30 gallon, along with an otto, and snail, and 4 frogs (soon to be 5 frogs). This is overstocked, and yet, I only have to change my water out every other week. Sometimes longer, but that's cause I'm lazy. And they are all happy and healthy. If my water was to go bad for any reason, the frogs would let me know for sure.

Salt water aquariums are ALOT more work. Does your husband have saltwater tank?

I have never done the "chemistry" part of fish keeping, and i've never been unsuccessful.

See, this is why I am admittedly (I think I said that in my PP) a fish dummy! ::

No, my husband doesn't have a saltwater, it's freshwater. I was just more or less mentioning the whole maintenance such as cleaning the tank and cycling the water before adding the fish because I had no idea you had to do this before we got the things!

Yes, once the tank has become self-sufficient, then it's not so bad. It's the initial set up that I personally think is more effort than some people who are new to the fish thing realize. But that's just me. My husband is the expert, not me!

We used to have our tank upstairs with the daycare, but the kids running around seemed to scare our fish (we have a type of African Cichlids), so we moved it to the basement (which was the initial goal with that tank anyway). In my situation it wasn't the best pet for my daycare.

[DCMomOf3]

I can definitely tell you what NOT to get - a guinea pig. They are smelly, messy, and high maintenance. They also take up a huge amount of space.

so are bunnies.

[dEHmom]

bunnies smell just as bad as guinea pigs.

hamsters kids will want to hold (some hamsters are biters too)

As for the cycling of the tanks....yes this is a must do....but i never once did in all 5 of my tank setsup! And nothing ever happened. Just don't overstock. that's the biggest nono.

The African Dwarf frogs need about 2.5 gallons each. So if you bought 2 then a 5 gallon tank would do. You wouldn't need a filter in anything 5 and under. But you could add an air bubbler ornament or something if you wanted just to keep the water moving. If it sits it goes smelly. So keeping it moving would keep it fine. If you decided to go 10 gallon tank, you could keep 2 frogs and maybe 1 fish like a fighter fish, or something smaller. Goldfish are messy, but I like them. Even a few guppies in a tank would be neat for the kids because they like to reproduce like crazy so good teaching topic :P

the African dwarf frogs are completely aquatic. They cannot stay out of water EVER.

[Crystal]

We have:

A White's Tree Frog
A Red Eared Slider Turtle
A Ball Python Snake
2 Dogs
Fish
Salamanders


The kids share the responsibility of feeding and caring for them. They love all of our creatures!

[JeepGirl6]

We used to have sugar gliders before starting my In-Home Child Care( before I moved out on my own with my boyfriend). They are very lovable and the children will love them. They are so adorable!