What age would you buy your child their first pet?

April 22, 2013

At 14 months of age our twins have started to take an interest in animals, especially R. When we go to the park they both point at the dogs and watch them with amazement. When their favourite animal TV show comes on, R will point and make her way to the TV before standing right in front of it and watching all the animals. I can’t wait for the weather to brighten up a bit so we can take them to the farm. In the meantime we called into a pet shop on our way home from swimming one day to show the girls the animals.

They both loved watching the guinea pigs, rabbits and degu’s wandering around. They were also quite taken with the fish! This lead me to think about what age would you consider getting your child their first pet? I don’t mean a fish tank but something more along the lines of a furry companion, such as a rabbit etc? Twin Daddy and I are thinking about getting a small fish tank for the girls but we have to find somewhere out of reach for it to go first.

If you don’t already have any pets, at what age would you consider buying your child’s first pet?

Emily

I started Twin Mummy and Daddy in 2012.  

Over time Twin Mummy and Daddy has gone from strength to strength. I write about our family life, my love for running and our passion for adventure and travel.  

We’ve also started living a more eco-friendly life. As such I also write about our zero waste journey in a bid to encourage others to think about the impact they have on the environment.

I’m a keen runner and in April 2019 I ran the London Marathon for an amazing charity called WellChild. It’s one of my biggest achievements to date. I raised over £2,000 for the charity and learnt so much along the way.

This year we’re passionate about spending time outdoors. We’ll be sharing our travel, days out and camping adventures right here on Twin Mummy and Daddy.

1 Comments

  • Coco C

    April 24, 2013 at 1:24 pm

    Hi there. I love pets! My little girl is now 20mths old and we already had 2 cats and 3 rabbits before she was born. When she was 15months we also got a guinea pig, which is her pet really. Since about 18mths she's really changed around our pets. I'm the biggest animal lovers around so I've always let her be around them but in the last 2 months she's learnt to stroke them nicely (rather than hit them, pull their tails, go for their eyes etc!) and they've warmed to her more now that she's learnt to be gentle. She comes and potters around in the garden while we're feeding the furries outside and watches me clean the hutches. She watches cbeebies on the sofa with the cats now too. So to answer your question, I'd say between 18mths-2years in my experience. Rescue pets who have previously lived with kids (like our piggie and cats) are a good bet as they're used to being with a family. Hope that helps, I think it's lovely for kids to grow up with animals x

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