Classroom Pets

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Home : 2004 : July : 14

Classroom Pets
By Cathy-Dee

You should also be sure that your school does not have a policy [against pets]. Many schools do not allow pets because of allergies. Also think through things like holidays, cost of food, time required for taking care of
the pet,e tc., With young children they can help a bit, but you pretty much have to be the main caretaker which can add a lot of work depending on the type of pet.
With your suggestions.....
Fish - talk to a pet store to find out what is the easiest and most hardy variety of fish. This is probably the easiest pet for a classroom. Be prepared to deal with "death" though as fish tend

to die more frequently than other pets.

Hamster/gerbal - nice pets but unless you can spend a lot of time for the first 2-3 months taming them they can easily become biters. If they are simply to be watched then it isn't such a problem, but you often have to catch them to put them somewhere so you can clean their cage.
Hamsters tend to be easier to tame. They are also night animals so they may spend most of the day sleeping and thus not really be interesting to the kids.

Rabbits - I wouldn't go this route - larger rabbits need to have their cages cleaned usually every 2-3 days otherwise the smell of their urine is overwhelming. The dwarf rabbits can go a week without cleaning but they tend to be more agressive. As well if you let them loose be prepared for many chewed items, wires, etc.,

Frog - probably on the same lines as the fish.