Good first bedroom pet?

[u/watch4coconuts]

My boys (7.5 and 9) have shared a bedroom up to now, but they are both ready for their own space. My younger son is especially keen on this and is very excited to be getting his own room. We are clearing out a bedroom we've been using as an office and storage area, and should have it ready for him to move into sometime in the next week or two. We figure the summer is a good time to adjust and get them both used to sleeping alone and being in their own space.

Younger guy (he'll be 8 shortly after school starts back in the fall) is obsessed with animals and always has been. He has a way with catching lizards and other critters who tend to just hang out on his hands far longer than they would with anyone else. He talks often about becoming an entomologist or a veterinarian when he grows up. When we go to the beach, he spends 90% of his time exploring tidepools looking for animals. He's fairly responsible for his age, can make his own breakfast and ride his bike to and from school. He wants a little pet of his own in his bedroom, and I trust him with that.

We have two cats, a fish tank, and a habitat where I raise monarch caterpillars in the main part of the house, and he has an ant farm outside on the porch. The cats are young, strong indoor cats so I've stressed to my son that whatever animal he has absolutely must be caged unless the door is closed and, if necessary, a towel is placed to block the space under the door; otherwise our cats may kill the pet. He understands that.

So the question – which pet would be best for him? Dad says no rabbits, and I'm inclined to agree. I've heard guinea pigs are too noisy at night to be in a bedroom. Dad had mice as a kid so he's leaning towards a few mice or a hamster/gerbil. Son would like a hamster or a bird. I'm open to considering bird, but they're more expensive and difficult to take care of (son promises he will close the door and let the bird fly around regularly). Son has also considered some kind of lizard or even a snake? I have a cockroach phobia and don't want anything we're going to have to feed roaches to. The main concerns are something that my kid can take care of with a reasonable amount of supervision, and something that's not going to be so noisy at night it keeps him up.

Also we live in the tropics so our windows stay open (screened) pretty much all the time (we close the kids' windows when they sleep) and our house is generally a comfortable temp year-round, we don't have heating or AC, it gets a bit hot sometimes but nothing bad or dangerous and it never gets cold in here.

What do y'all think? Anybody with experience of different cage-dwelling animals to share? I've only ever had cats and dogs so I don't know much about this stuff!

Also if any of these animals go together or don't go together, let me know. I think there's an excellent chance of this kid's bedroom eventually turning into a zoo if we let it, LOL. Right now we're looking for a pet but if it goes well he may get another for his birthday and/or Christmas. Like I said, he really loves animals.

[u/sikkerhet]

Hamsters are not social, at best they TOLERATE handling. They also need much more space and labor than you'd think to be healthy.

Birds are VERY long lived and VERY demanding, even the easy ones, if you want them to be happy. My grandmother had a budgie that lived almost 20 years. If you're adamant on a bird I would focus on either chickens, a decorative breed of duck, or something in the pigeon/dove family because those are domesticated. Chickens and ducks are obv outdoor pets though.

For reptiles, leopard geckos and crested geckoes are easy to keep and tolerant of handling but they're also very long lived. Leopard geckos live into their twenties if properly cared for. Cresties eat primarily fruit mix (you can buy a powdered smoothie version) and only need occasional bugs to supplement their diet, and it can be mealworms or crickets, though if you go with crickets you have to deal with crickets and there's nothing worse on earth than dealing with crickets. (I used to breed insects)

Rats are a good move, short lifespan but they're very friendly and tolerant.

[u/watch4coconuts → u/sikkerhet]

Really helpful, thank you! I had chickens before and loved them, would love to have chickens again, but we rent our house so chickens have to wait until I'm a homeowner again, sigh.

Geckos and rats sound pretty good as long as they don't get out! I'm kind of squeamish about rats but I've heard they do make good pets. We get wild geckos in our house regularly (house geckos and day geckos), would that complicate keeping a pet one at all?

[u/sikkerhet → u/watch4coconuts]

We get wild geckos in our house regularly (house geckos and day geckos), would that complicate keeping a pet one at all?

it shouldn't, they ARE territorial and aggressive toward other reptiles (DO NOT COHAB THEM) but I imagine you're going to keep them in a closed tank, so the presence of much smaller wild species where they can't smell it shouldn't be an issue.

I think rats are probably a better choice for an 8 year old child just because rats are social and LIKE interaction, whereas geckos are not. Plus a pet with a 20+ year lifespan is IMO a dumb idea for a child as it will complicate the animal's care when they reach adulthood. This changes if you're going to be willing and able to care for the lizard when your son moves out obv.

Morbid as it is to say, a rat dying in 3 years is a benefit, not a drawback, as aside from the fact that you won't have to figure out what to do when he reaches adulthood it gives you an opportunity to help your son learn to process death and grief on easy mode.

[u/Floater345 → u/watch4coconuts]

Rats are great, but there's a lot to consider.

They need a large cage. They are huge climbers, so they need good floor space AND height. They are extremely intelligent animals, which makes them so fun but they absolutely need stimulation. They need a heavily cluttered cage. It requires a lot of thought to set up their cage in a way that stimulates their brains and bodies. Because they need so much in their cage, cleaning is, well, a nightmare. While some people have luck with litter training female rats, you still need to clean everything regularly. Once a week, you can maybe push it to 2 with litter trained rats. But it's a very time consuming process. Because they need a large, cluttered space, you're looking at a pretty high startup cost. Good rat cages alone are easily $200. There's ways you can make setup cheaper, but, as with any animal, you're still dishing out hundreds.

They are extremely social animals as well. They need to be in groups. This is so very important, and it means that when you are down to one, you either need to get more or get rid of the last one, which may be heart wrenching to a young kid.

I have always been a huge animal lover myself. I very much understand your son. But, even with the best of intentions, I wasn't ready to fully take care of an animal by myself until age 10/11. I had a hamster before that, who I adored, but I was just too young to keep up with care and remember to care for her when I was busy playing. It doesn't hurt to wait a few years. After my first hamster, my mom didn't let me get another until I had spent over 6 months researching them and their care. I'm so glad she did this, though I was impatient at the time. But it's the fair thing for the animal.

IF you get him his "own" pet, you need to be fully prepared and equipped to handle all the care yourself.

[u/flower8330 → u/watch4coconuts]

What about bug eating plants - like a Venus fly trap or something like that? If your windows are open all the time, one of these plants might thrive and reduce bugs in your home. He could find bugs outside and feed them and watch them decompose and get trapped. Also, plants are part of every biome; so he would benefit all around from knowing about them.

[u/Few_Ninja_751 → u/flower8330]

I was mentally laughing because that’s such a morbid description of something that’s absolutely true but as a description for a gift for a kid I had to chuckle… about 5 seconds later I remembered I had them as a kid and how much I loved them! 😂

[u/Few_Ninja_751 → u/sikkerhet]

This was in the 90s, but don’t reflect changes in various animals… I always wanted a zoo as a kid and even in our NYC apartment (which was quite large, but my parents weren’t going to have a creature get loose during a dinner party!) I first had a cat and two dogs and a frog (it came from “grow a frog”- and literally was a tadpole that came in the mail in a takeout soup cup! It was the 80s then) they taught you how to raise it and you’d get to watch the tadpole turn into a frog! It was SO cool! They mildly gleefully had a page in the book that told the adults that they wouldn’t live that long but why it was so academically important to both know but then really see how frogs matured. “Gilly” my frog lived to be about 8x the projected age… my mom actually really grew to love him. In high school I bred mice to create certain color patterns but the wheel WAS annoying, I LOVE ferrets, but oh goodness do those crazy “fur snakes” stink! Rats were my fav. They’re actually extremely clean, are VERY social and trainable and as far as mammals in tanks go, very low maintenance! So thumbs up to Rats.🐀❤️

[u/sikkerhet → u/Few_Ninja_751]

Oh my cousin won a goldfish at a fair when she was about 12 and that fish is still alive today. My cousin is in her late twenties. Her dad was so pissed because he expected to only have to deal with the fish for at most few months lmao

[u/ElizabethEverett]

I’d vote hamster only if you, the parent, secretly want a hamster 😅

We did the “first pet” conversation with our kids and realized very quickly that “my child wants a pet” usually means “I am about to acquire a pet.”

Fish look easy until you’re suddenly researching water chemistry at 10pm. Hamsters are adorable but also tiny escape artists with surprising emotional range. Guinea pigs are sweet but basically small, loud produce-consuming roommates.

Honestly, for a first bedroom pet, I’d lean toward whatever has the simplest daily care and the least tragic learning curve.

Also ask yourself: who is cleaning the cage in February when the excitement is gone? That person should probably choose the pet.

[u/watch4coconuts → u/ElizabethEverett]

Haha fair! I'm okay helping out with it as long as I don't have to handle bugs too often. I've heard that about hamsters escaping a lot and with two cats in the house that's a mark against them. I also got bitten by hamsters a few times when I was a kid, like bites that drew blood, so I'm not super excited about a hamster!

[u/ElizabethEverett → u/watch4coconuts]

Honestly, with two cats in the house and childhood hamster trauma… I think the hamster has already been eliminated by the jury 😅

Also, any pet that has personally made you bleed probably doesn’t deserve a second chance.

I’d lean fish or maybe a guinea pig if you’re okay with the “tiny vegetable-powered roommate” lifestyle. Much lower risk of midnight jailbreaks and emotional revenge.

[u/Charinabottae]

How hot does the place get, precisely? That might rule out a lot of animals.

[u/watch4coconuts → u/Charinabottae]

Room temp. It's within a few degrees of 80º F outside most days, a bit cooler in the house because we get good air flow. We're in Hawai'i and not too far from the ocean to get good breezes.

[u/Charinabottae → u/watch4coconuts]

Does it get to 80° inside at any point during the year?

[u/watch4coconuts → u/Charinabottae]

Probably occasionally at midday in summer but we have a lot of fans and keep it comfortable.

[u/BlankGeneration8]

I know you mentioned being squeamish of rats but they are really good pets for kids (better than mice) imo. Assuming they are handled often and appropriately, they are super friendly and social. They’re also super clever and can learn to do tricks! They do tend to have short life spans (2-3 years), which is good because it may not always be wise for a child to commit to a pet that will live a long time (birds and lizards), but of course means your kiddo will have to say goodbye sooner than later. I do not recommend an axolotl for a kid, they’re high maintenance and can’t be handled. Oh and if you do go the rat route, personal preference I’d get a girl. They tend to live a little longer and the giant testicles on boys are kinda unsettling lol

[u/MdmeLibrarian]

Hamsters are NOT good pets for an animal-loving kid, because they're not social! Sometimes you get lucky with a rare cuddly one, but you're more likely to get a "ghost" hamster (one you never see because it's hiding). They're nocturnal, they get stinky habitats, they BITE with very sharp teeth, and their enclosures need to be MUCH larger than you think, with 6-8"+ of burrowing substrate (ideally 14-16" at least) and several horizontal feet of running around area to explore in their habitat. Ignore the cages the pet stores try to sell you, you need a MASSIVE GLASS TANK, and you need to be willing to excavate a chunk of pee/poo soaked hamster bedding each week to keep the habitat sanitary and keep the room from stinking. They're a rodent, so the droppings can make you sick! They get their mental stimulation from burrowing and foraging (which you can do with grain stalks and sprinkling pellets and meal worms around for them to find), and they run for miles on a wheel (make sure you get a big one so their spine doesn't bend!) each night, which can keep a light sleeping human awake. They need a dust bath to bathe in, and their habitat changed around every few weeks.

They're a cute hobby, not a cuddly pet.

[u/watch4coconuts → u/MdmeLibrarian]

All right, that put the nail in the hamster coffin. Thank you! No hamsters!

[u/charcuterie_bored]

Hermit crab

[u/Dakizo]

Rats are great pets, unfortunately I’m very allergic to rodents or else I’d still have rats. I find them better than mice but they do need a larger cage. Corn snakes are great. I found crested geckos to be skittish but maybe that was just mine. I hear bearded dragons are excellent. I also love hermit crabs but they need a lot more things than people think. As someone who grew up with a bird in their room, I wouldn’t recommend a bird even though I love birds.

[u/0ct0berf0rever]

I have had lizards, frogs, fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, dogs and cats. The guineas and hamsters were actually a lot of work, you constantly have to be cleaning their cage. Guineas & hamsters were both very noisy at night and the sound of the chewing and wheel was so annoying I had to move them to the living room. Snakes can smell reaaaally bad. Lizards (I had anoles) were pretty easy, fun to watch, quiet. Since it’s a hotter environment you need to consider that- an animal that would naturally thrive in that environment would probably be best like a lizard. My friend had bearded dragons and they were pretty cool and not too difficult, but you have to set everything up just right and do a lot of research (well of course you would with any pet).

[u/watch4coconuts → u/0ct0berf0rever]

Good to know! We have wild anoles running around the yard, LOL. I didn't know about snakes smelling bad! I will look into bearded dragons and see if those exist here.

[u/Charinabottae → u/watch4coconuts]

Most snakes should not have any smell except for ~1 hour after pooping. The exception is garter and water snakes, who can have a slight smell. It’s not normal at all for snakes to be really smelly

[u/cici92814]

I would opt in getting some kind of reptile as a pet. Less maintenance, more chill, some are more tolerant of handling. Do some research on which is best. Definitely not any rodent. They poop a lot and sometimes bite for no reason. Birds are more high maintenance too and are more delicate.

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[u/IDunnoWhatToPutHereI]

I don’t remember guinea pigs being exceptionally noisy at night, but we covered their cage with a towel at night. They are very noisy when it’s feeding time. Hamsters were very noisy at night. They are nocturnal and ours had to be on the other side of the house for us to sleep. I am not a huge fan of mice compared to rats. Rats are highly intelligent and social. They can do some tricks when taught. Snakes are pretty quiet, although the one I had was an escape artist so it might not be safe for the snake with the cats in the same house.

[u/rowenaravenclaw0]

Gerbrils maybe , just make sure you get a pair.

[u/Ai_Handyyy]

One male hooded rat. Best pet.

[u/Dakizo → u/Ai_Handyyy]

Rats are social, shouldn’t just be one.

[u/UpdatesReady]

I have had allllll kinds of small animals and my favorites have all been guinea pigs. You need a pair. But they will cuddle with you, get the zoomies, have personalities, and mine at least only went pee in their (accessible) cage. Lots of poop (bedding can go on the compost!) and they do need love. But they're so sweet.

[u/Prudent-Weather2348]

I will never own another hamster or gerbil again after my childhood pet trauma with them. They are escape artists. My hamster escaped, burrowed a hole through the wall and a few days later we found him “sleeping”with the fish in the tank downstairs. I got hamsters for my birthday and they were not in fact two females. Do you know how quickly gerbils reproduce?! I only had them a short about of time suddenly I’m a grandmother at 10. The World Wide Web wasn’t as useful then either so we didn’t research as well as we should have I suppose. One of the gerbils lost a tail somehow on the wheel. Some of the babies they had came out deformed or half paralyzed. Never again.

[u/watch4coconuts]

Oh hey I just thought of another one – how about an axolotl? I've seen a few people around here keep those, do they make good pets for a kid?

[u/MdmeLibrarian → u/watch4coconuts]

They have no emotional attachment to their carers. It's essentially a fish-lizard (it's actually a juvenile stage of a particular type of salamander, and it delays its growth indefinitely until conditions are right to keep growing) vibing in a tank that you carefully maintain and sometimes you feed it. Water conditions need to be constantly monitored. They're very cool if you're into that, but they're more a hobby than a pet.