28th July 2008

Summer Holiday Pet Care

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If your child has been badgering you for a pet now could be the best time to give in, while your child is at home to take care of it. To help you, Interpet has published a new set of books on caring for small animals, and we have four to give away.

Having a pet during childhood teaches many valuable lessons and gives a child happy memories of a loyal friend to play with. If you think your child is ready for the responsibility of a pet, the long summer holiday could be a good time to introduce it, while the child is at home and able to bond with their new friend and also learn to take care of it. We all know that most pets which ostensibly belong to children are looked after more of the time by mum or dad, so perhaps starting now, when there are no excuses about homework or not having time to clean out the cage, will lay some valuable groundwork.

First, let's look at what kind of pet might suit your family. Very young children can get on well with pets. I take my own toddler to visit animals regularly, either to feed the ducks or fish at the park, to the zoo occasionally and quite often to the local pet shop to point at the rabbits, hamsters and tropical fish. She enjoys looking at them, but she doesn't understand that gerbils could bite her, or that rabbits don't like to be carried around like a dolly and then dropped on the floor, so I'd rather not buy her a small pet right now. Her best friend is our dog, who was a member of the family before she was born. He's very tolerant of her and puts up with a lot of tail putting or being force fed carrot sticks before leaving the room rather than growling or snapping at her.

I say this about toddlers because you may have one at home and it's the older, school aged children who want to have a pet. When they go back to school and it's just you and the baby, make sure the pet you choose isn't either going to be tortured by younger siblings or little fingers aren't going to be nibbled on through cage bars.

Dogs and cats are probably most able to cope with the rigors of childish experimentation. They can get out of the area if a child is playing too boisterously and they do like to play games anyway. As adults we often don't make time to play with our pets, or we get bored of throwing the ball on the twentieth go. Children can go on and on, inventing new variations on your pet's favourite game and tiring both of them out, which makes for a nice quiet evening for you. But dogs and cats are a massive responsibility. No longer can you go away even for the night without considering who's going to look after them. They need regular vaccinations which can be expensive, and dogs in particular need someone at home most of the day, training classes, and a walk every day. When you go on holiday, it's also a lot easier to persuade a neighbour to feed your cat, rabbit or goldfish than to look after your dog and boarding kennels or pet care services can run into hundreds of pounds for a two-week break.

For these reasons, many families choose to start their children off with a small pet. What's great is that even a gerbil can teach your child many valuable lessons about the world. It has to be fed regularly, the child must pay attention to the temperature in its room, whether it has clean water and whether it's been cleaned out enough. This is often a battle ground for families, with children making up every excuse not to clean out a pet and mums first to crumble in the standoff when they worry that the pet is suffering. But a school-aged child is perfectly capable of wrapping up some dirty newspaper and laying down fresh. It's a smelly job, but not a technical one.

"Owning a pet gives a child a sense of control," says Primary School teacher Ruth Marsh. "Children often feel controlled by their parents telling them what to wear, what to eat, where they can go, what time to go to bed and so on. If a child has responsibility for a pet, they get to experience a more parental role, making sure the pet is comfortable, well fed and properly exercised."

Parents and teachers can use this as a teaching aid too: for example, the child will agree with you that he won't let his gerbil out of the cage in the garden because it might run off and be eaten by a cat. You know this but the gerbil doesn't it just wants to run and play. When the teacher tells you to stay in the playground and not to climb over the fence to go to the sweet shop she's trying to protect you, just like you protect your gerbil.

A five-year study of 600 children aged 3-18 years revealed that pet-owning children who are slow learners or whose parents have divorced cope better with life than those who don't have a pet. Scientists found that the pet-owning children had higher levels of self-esteem and functioned better emotionally than those without pets. Children with low self-esteem may talk to, or confide in, an animal in ways they would not with people. They are often more confident in performing tasks they find difficult with an animal simply because the animal does not care if mistakes are made, nor will the child be afraid of looking silly in front of the animal. In the USA therapy dogs are now often used as part of a children's reading programme. Children read their books aloud to the dog. The dogs appear to listen intently, do not interrupt and do not correct the child. The children's reading ability has greatly improved.

One thing we don't like to think of, but which is a very important childhood milestone is the death of a pet. Hamsters, gerbils and rabbits don't live very long so it's likely that your child will experience grief while they are still young. "A child's reaction to the death of a pet is often overwhelming," says Ruth. "They haven't experienced grief before and they just know that they feel awful and they can't see an end to it. As they eventually start to get over the death of their mouse or rabbit, they learn that life will improve again, even without the loved one there. This is so valuable to them when they experience the death of a relative later in life ñ they know that grief is a process and they do go through it with some hope of coming out the other side."

If you're convinced now is the time to get your child a pet, but not sure which one would suit your family, the RSPCA has a great microsite for children, which gives lots of information on different animals and lets you try out a cyber pet - a virtual pet that lives on your desktop. You have to look after it, just like a real pet, making sure it has what it needs to be happy and healthy. Check it out at http://www.rspca-cyberpet.co.uk/which.html.

Once you have an idea of the kind of pet you think is right for you, you might want to buy a book giving you a bit more detail before you take the plunge. A new set of books, about small pets and how to care for them, has just become available from Interpet Publishing. The most popular pets are covered over six titles - Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, Hamster, Chinchillas, Ferrets and Gerbils. This is a newly launched 'care and advice' series targeting pet owners who are eager for a broad overview of their pet's needs.

The new books offer more than a quick introduction. They provide an overview of each pet and move on to cover all main aspects of the pet's care thoroughly and in a lively and easy-to-understand way. The books help owners make the best of pet-ownership introducing the reader to a host of accessories and equipment to enhance the whole experience. The books contain plenty of colour photographs to fully explain the text and to engage children's attention. Each book has a suggested retail price of £8.99.

Book Giveaway

Interpet Publishing has kindly offered PetHealthCare readers a copy of each of its new titles on rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and gerbils. To win one, simply email editor@pethealthcare.co.uk with your name and address and which of the four pets you'd be most interested in owning.

You can see the full Interpet Catalogue at www.interpet.co.uk.

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