3rd birthday present for daughter?

kenco

Thinking of getting my daughter a small Aquarium and couple of fish for her 3rd birthday. Not sure if its appropriate at this age?

Anyone out there have any thoughts experience?

Thanks

Wook

i wouldnt do it. not at that age.
i would not buy any live animals at that age.

Ayla

I agree with Wook, 3 is a very young age to be "given" pets. I respect that you may want to teach your child about animals, etc, but perhaps a better route at this age would be to get the fish yourself and let her "help" take care of them? That way when she's older she may be more open to the idea of having and actually taking care of her own pets.

Also, if you get the fish yourself, you're acknowledging that you're responsible for them, and therefore you won't get frustrated with the experience when she inevitably gets bored with them after a few days. It's not fair on the fish to be flushed just because your young daughter decides she doesn't want to take care of them.

kenco

Thanks folks

I think my misgivings where justified from your posts. I was planning for it to be a shared experience (i.e. her helping us take care of her fish, etc), she does have an interest in animals and as much as we can we try to encourage it but there are not too many options in the 'burbs. Hence the idea of fish but think I'll put in the back burner for a while

Thanks again

tSubh Dearg

Just slightly off topic but I remember my 3rd birthday as one of my first memories and I got a wonderful hobby horse that I played with for years and years and which is still in my parents house in one piece (bar a loose ear) waiting for my children

Orion

Wook wrote:

i wouldnt do it. not at that age.
i would not buy any live animals at that age.

I disagree. I got my twins two gerbils at that age. They loved looking after them. We eventually brought them back to the shop because the two alleged females turned out to be miracle ones and we kept getting more gerbils (we sold the young back to the shop before anyone thinks anything suspicous happened to then ). So then we got them a guinea pig instead.

I personally think it's good for kids - even at that age - to have something to look after. OK we do most of the feeding and we clean the hutch but they still get involved.

I wouldn't get fish tho. They're too easy to kill as we found out. We'd got a small aquarium with 3 fish in it. Came down one Saturday morning to find that the girls had decided to feed them. Their intentions were good obviously but the result was the entire box of food upended into the tank = 3 dead fish.

Avoid rabbits - they kick and bite so not good with young children. But any other small mammal is easy to keep and care for.

run_Forrest_run

yeah, fish tend to die quite easily and they are very messy feckers also! You will need to keep the tank clean and if it is a large aquarium then it can be tedious.

I had some tropical fish and one turned out to be a bully and used to attack the other ones, taking all the food and resulted in the smaller ones dying...try explain that to the child

Oryx

I agree fish are difficult as they keep dying. And the tank needs more maintenance than youd imagine. But small kids are strange in their attitude to a pet dying. We've had a few pets die over the years and our son was curious about it and asked a few questions, but basically just shrugged and went to watch Lilo and Stitch. Didnt upset him at all. I think because his concept of it is limited.

No matter what pet you do buy, it will end up being your pet, rather than your daughters. At three her interest will probably be brief!

WindSock

She would probably appreciate a fish toy more than a fish at that age