Should You Buy Your Child A Reptile As A Pet?

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Learning More About Pets Pet ownership can be tricky, especially if you aren't a natural caregiver. However, knowing how to look after animals is essential to making sure that your pet lives a long, healthy, and comfortable life. On this website, you will be able to find out all kinds of great information about pets, since every species is different and unique. Check out these posts for awesome information that could help you to know which animal is right for you, and which varieties tend to need the most care. After all, doing your research ahead of time could really pay off in the end.

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Animals can help children develop a lot of valuable traits, such as compassion, empathy, and responsibility, and all kids should experience caring for pets. Choosing the right pet is critical, though, as not all animals are good companions for children. If you're considering buying your child a reptile instead of the traditional dog or cat, here are three things you should consider first.

What Is Your Child's Personality Like?

Whether a reptile will be a good pet for your child will depend a lot on what he or she is like. Many reptiles are not rambunctious and energetic animals like other common species of pets (e.g. dogs). They are not domesticated creatures and are not accustomed to being around humans, though they can become used to their owners after a while. Most reptiles require specialized care in specific environments and must be handled gently and with great respect toward their still-wild natures.

In fact, if they had to be categorized into a personality type, most would be introverts because they're perfectly happy hanging out by themselves in their cages snacking on bugs and napping on warm rocks. Thus, these animals are probably best for children who are calm, who are gentle, and who have long enough attention spans to attend to their reptile's needs (e.g. feeding it and cleaning its habitat).

A reptile may not be appropriate for kids who are aggressive, high-energy, handsy, inattentive, irresponsible, or forgetful. It's essential that you're honest about what your child is like and their level of maturity when deciding whether or not to let them have an exotic animal like a reptile as a pet.

Are They Prepared to Care for Adult Reptiles?

Reptiles are small and cute when they're babies and adolescents, but they can grow to be pretty big as adults. They can grow so large, in fact, that kids may be unable or unwilling to care for them properly. For instance, African spurred tortoises measure about 2 to 3 inches when they hatch but can grow up to 33 inches and 231 pounds when fully grown.

Snakes also often fall victim to being abandoned because of their size, but some of them have the added issue of becoming more dangerous as adults. Boa constrictors, for example, can grow up to 13 feet or more. However, they are also ambush predators who kill their prey by essentially squeezing them to death.

Before adopting a particular reptile, do your research to find out what the animal will be like as an adult and determine whether your child—or really, the entire family—can handle the reptile when it's fully mature.

Can Your Child Handle a Reptilian Lifespan?

A pet's lifespan may seem like a strange thing to consider, but it's important to factor this into your decision. Some reptiles have shorter lifespans, but some have very long ones. It's not unusual for turtles to live to be 80 or older, for instance.

While it can be devastating to care for a pet only to have it die within a short period of time, having a pet that lives for decades on end can be problematic, too. Your child may outgrow the animal and get bored with it or, more commonly, experience life changes that make it challenging to continue looking after the reptile (e.g. moving away to college). You need to consider the long-term implications of having a reptilian pet and plan for a possible future where the animal may live longer than your kid.

For help selecting the right pet for your child or to learn more about the different reptiles available, contact a resource that has reptiles for sale.

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