Children and Pets

My 10 year old has a dog. She is responsible for him. She has to be reminded daily to even feed and water him. She got a hamster and was real good with it, until it bit her because she had food smells on her hand. Now she has nothing to do with it. All children are different. They all take responsibility differently. If you do decide to get a pet for a child, be sure it is something that YOU have time for, as it is likely the job will become yours. Give them as many tasks as you think they can handle, but be sure feeding, watering, and play time are taken care of every day.

Each child is different and for this reason I feel that it would be a different age depending on the child . But in most cases I would say a school age child could learn to be responsible to take care of a pet . They could feed or water the pet or even if it was just taking the pet outside or going for a walk with the animal .