Pet Guinea Pigs for kids

Has your child been begging for a pet?  My son wanted a pet to be all his and after much discussion, we decided on a guinea pig and off to the pet store we went.  We fell in love with the Abbys – their tousled look was so adorable.  Their fur went every which way – lots of cow licks!  We needed a cage, a house, a water bottle, a food dish, some chew toys, bedding, hay and pellets – and of course the guinea pig – and we were all set.

Guinea pigs are lovable little creatures.  We often take Benji out of his cage to cuddle.  He squeaks with delight and sometimes will lick our faces.  He even will start to squeak when we come down the hall.  Guinea Pigs are fairly easy to maintain as their dietary needs can be satisfied with quality pellets, some fresh fruit and vegetables, clean timothy hay and fresh water.  It is important that the pellets contain Vitamin C as their bodies cannot manufacture it on its own.  There are also certain fruits and vegetables that they cannot eat – but lists are easily found on the Internet.

Their cages should be cleaned once a week – they do poop a lot and the bedding gets soggy from their urine.  It really isn’t time consuming cleaning the cage – but our son’s room does get dusty from the shavings and our vacuum gets clogged sometimes when vacuuming up the spilled shavings and hay.

We brush him often as Guinea Pigs do shed a lot.  Interesting enough, only the white fur on him sheds, the tan does not.  We have to clip his nails too as the grow long and curl under.  We are fortunate that he has white nails as it is easier to see where the quick starts so we don’t clip too much and cause bleeding.  Guinea Pigs teeth also always grow, so good chewing toys are necessary to keep them ground down.

In conclusion, Guinea Pigs are a great little pet for a child.  They are loving and easy to take care of.

Play is essential to healthy childhood development.  It allows children to find their creativity, while building upon their social, cognitive and emotional strengths.

Storytelling, nurturing and role playing are important ways of fostering imagination and learning skills.

Puppets are a great way to inspire parent and child moments and young storytellers.

Dolls and stuffed animals make perfect companions for nurturing or pretend play.

Play mats and soft block sets will encourage the development of cognitive and motor skills.

Dress up clothes will take the creative minds to the land of make believe.

Every once in awhile, you hear on the news about a kids lemonade stand that gets closed down because they didn’t have a permit or something like that.  It always gets me angry.  I do remember all the things we used to do as kids to make some extra money and wer were never bothered.

Our family was taking advantage of a sunny day to go bicycling along the wonderful bike trails in Madison WI and Dane County and I noticed that the walnuts were starting to fall.  It reminded me of when I was a kid living in Decorah, IA at the time.  We lived on about 10 acres that had tons of walnut trees on them.  My father told my brothers and I that if we gathered up all the walnuts, we could sell them.  We spent our afternoons outside when we got home from school filling boxes and boxes full of the walnuts that had fallen to the ground.  It turned out to be quite alot of walnuts that we ended up hauling to the curb, but unfortunately, we were never able to sell them.

When we lived in Goose Rocks Beach, Maine – there was a blueberry farm down the road that all the local kids would pick pints of blueberries and get paid by the amount picked.  It was great fun and earning some money of our own was always great. 

My brothers and I also collected sea glass, shells, driftwood and anything else the sea had washed up and crafted little decorations from them.  We set up a roadside shop and sold the items to tourists passing by.  We called our shop DEC DEK – down east crafts by down east kids.  We each made alittle bit of money and at an age too young to get a workers permit for a summer job, we appreciated anything we could do to make money.

Hopefully kids will still be creative and ambitious in their pursuit of lemonade stands and other ideas for earning some extra money.  Valuable lessons and good work ethics at an early age.