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There are no other pets or children in the house, this child will be keeping the pet in their room and be responsible for it's care and feeding. The parents will be supervising the care-giving, but the child will be responsible for providing the care or the pet will be re-homed.

Dog & cats are excluded from consideration as they can not reasonably be contained to the child's room. Reptiles are excluded for other reasons.

The space available to be designated "pet space" is 24 inches or 60 cm wide and about 16 inches or 40 cm deep. The pet can be allowed supervised access to the child's room, but not to the rest of the house. The child is expected to be entering college in 5 to 8 years and the status of an existing pet at that point is problematic.

Of pets generally available from rescues or pet stores what should be considered?

Preteen "a boy or girl not yet 13 years old" (but thinks they are old enough to handle responsibility)

James Jenkins
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    While it's better than the original question in terms of broadness, I still think there's the problem of being opinion-based. I think it would still be a better fit for a discussion-based format like the chatroom. – Spidercat Nov 01 '14 at 15:03
  • I am really not sure "what pet should I get" sort of questions work well, as people are going to have varying ideas on what is good, or safe, or what have you - it becomes a very broad opinion based thing. –  Nov 03 '14 at 15:28
  • I think this is a GREAT place for the "what pet should I get" type of question. We can help guide them in how to decide, they can see multiple opinions, and if there is a "bad" answer they can see the comments of why it is "bad". I think that is really important because they may have been thinking the same "bad" answer and the comments of why it is bad would help them. – Beth Lang Nov 17 '14 at 20:23

1 Answers1

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A small rodent (like a gerbil, mouse, or hamster) sounds reasonable because you can provide exercise, care, and feeding in that small of a space.

A fish tank with a couple guppies, an aquatic frog, something similar that doesn't need more tank size than that would also work.

Cats, dogs, guinea pigs, and rabbit's all need to much space to work for this situation.

Beth Lang
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