Children’s Pets

We have a beautiful border collie dog named Millie. Millie is now a much quieter dog than she used to be as she has passed her 13th year. She has always been brilliant with the children and other than her slight tendency to bark at things in the sky, she is also a very well behaved, outside only dog. We now have some recent animal additions to the house, that I would like to introduce to you:

Hermit Crabs

Below are “Active” and “Sleepy”. They are Hermit Crabs and are the loved pet of Little Rascal. We have had Hermit Crabs as children’s pets before in our house, with not a lot of success. Little Rascal first received the tank complete with heat pad and two crabs for a birthday present (all my sisters put in togehter). As the Hermit Crabs come from Queensland, they really didn’t enjoy Melbourne’s cold autumn (he received them in April last year).

After we lost the first Hermit Crab to the cold, we moved them into a warmer area of the house, but it wasn’t long before the colder mornings took their toll. We did get more Hermit Crabs but they didn’t last too long either.

So now we are trying in spring to see if the Hermit Crabs can cope better in Melbourne’s warmer weather!

Axolotl

The other new addition is the still to be named axolotl (Mexican Walking Fish). Thinker had seen a documentary on the axolotl and decided that he would save his pocket money and buy one. Thinker already had the tank and filter etc (another group birthday present from my sisters!), so he only actually had to purchase the Mexican walking fish.

Thinker didn’t even have to buy food. Axolotl’s eat worms and our compost is teaming with worms, so he simply goes to the compost, then rinses the worm and drops it in the tank. For a creature that doesn’t move around a much and has poor eye sight, it can move very quick to devour its lunch!

Responsibilities Of Pet Ownership

Before making these purchases, we had serious discussions with both children on the responsibilities that come with pet ownership. With a human addition to come to the house soon, the last thing that I want is more cleaning and feeding!

So both boys accepted that to have these animals as pets, that they would be fully responsible for the feeding and cleaning that is associated with the pet. I have to admit to having my doubts as to whether they would indeed do this, but to date they have both been very keen to take care of their new pets.

We are only a week into having them in the house, so we still have some time to go, but so far the new additions have been successful. The smaller two children will spend large chunks of time just watching the Hermit Crabs and the axolotl and all children love watching feeding time of the axolotl.