First Pet

Noah has been on a "when-can-we-get-a-pet" campaign for some time now. We had a trial-run with minding the neighbors fish, but as predicted the kids interest lasted all of 1 day. Then it was Mum and Dad who were feeding the fish (in their defense the fish were extremely boring tetras-type fish, not even goldfish).

Still Noah continued on his when-can-we-get-a-pet campaign and finally he had us cornered in the Flower Power Pet Shop a few weeks back. We gave in and bought not 1, but 10 pets!

Silkworms.

We had 2 happy little boys on our hands. And their interest has endured through the whole metamorphosis! Gathering mulberry leaves, watching the worms eat feverishly through leaf after leaf. Absolute wonder as they spun their silk cocoons.

I admit that during the cocoon-phase the container started to collect dust after a couple of trips to preschool for news. But then the first moth (silk-butterfly as the boys call them) hatched and absolute wonder returned. Releasing the moths was also a huge highlight.

So far 4 of the 10 have hatched and the boys have released the fury little moths into the garden (though thankfully not too close to the veggie patch given how quickly those worms devoured the mulberry leaves we picked for them).

What an awesome pet. The food is free (& meant we got an excuse to eat mulberries), the animal changes and so keeps the children's interest and curiosity peaked, and then we get to let them go at the end! Win!

What pets have you had that required little maintenance but kept the kids interested?