What Pet to Get--Or Not

If the above questions have led you to decide you’re ready for a classroom pet, begin thinking about what kind of animal would be best. First, don’t ignore your personal preferences. As the pet’s care will fall primarily on your shoulders, it’s important that you’re comfortable with the animal. To help you decide which species best suits your tastes, needs, and caretaking abilities, read pet-care books and talk to other pet owners.

Off-Limits as Class Pets

• Wild Ones  As a rule, exotic or wild animals (including chinchillas, frogs, hedgehogs, lizards, prairie dogs, snakes, and turtles) are not suitable as pets. Wild animals belong in their natural habitats and have needs unlikely to be met adequately in a classroom setting. Keeping a wild animal in the classroom could also encourage children to bring wild animals into their own homes, resulting in potentially dangerous or inhumane situations.
   
• Reptiles  Reptiles of any kind, including pet turtles, should never be kept with children because they carry Salmonella, a bacteria that can cause serious illness in humans and other animals. Reptiles can transmit Salmonella to people even without direct contact. 
   
• Hamsters  Though they appear less likely to carry Salmonella than reptiles, there have been cases of hamsters transmitting this bacteria to their owners.  In addition, because hamsters are nocturnal, students may become disinterested or tempted to disturb the animals while they sleep. In rare cases, mice and rats have also been linked to cases of salmonellosis.

• Rabbits  Rabbits generally do not make good classroom pets for a number of reasons. As prey animals, they're often stressed by loud noises. Rabbits are crepuscular, meaning they're active at dawn and dusk and sleep during the day and night. While they enjoy petting, rabbits are generally timid and don’t enjoy being picked up or otherwise handled. (Although children love to pick up and cuddle animals, most rabbits feel safe only with four feet on the floor and will struggle if they are held.) In addition, rabbits require large cages, ample exercise time out of their cages, and considerable cleaning and health care. They have fragile bones and sensitive digestive systems and when problems arise, often require urgent treatment.

• Birds  Birds tend to be noisy and acutely sensitive to drafts and changes in air temperature.

Your Best Bets for the Classroom
These animals can adapt well to school life and are relatively easy to care for:

• Some Small Rodents  Healthy pet rodents such as rats, gerbils, and guinea pigs present less disease risk and are more suitable as class pets. When selecting pets and setting up housing, be sure to consider the animals' natural behaviors. For example, guinea pigs, mice, and rats are fairly social. To alleviate the boredom and stress inherent in captivity, it is best to house these animals with companions of the same species. To avoid breeding and fighting, select two females.
  
  Remember to always keep good hygiene in mind when these animals are in class. Any students who handle a pet rodent should wash their hands with soap and water immediately afterwards. Use plastic gloves when cleaning your class pet’s cage and wash any surfaces s/he crawls across.
   
• Goldfish  Goldfish kept in a filtered aquarium may be a good choice if any students have allergies or aren’t ready to handle an animal.

For more detailed information on providing classroom pets with proper care and housing, adequate space and privacy, and environmental enrichment, visit http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/rabbit_horse_and_other_pet_care/ and consult pet care guides.

Keep in mind that your local animal shelters and rescue groups may be a good source of healthy small mammals in need of good homes. Should you choose to adopt one as your classroom pet, use the experience to teach students valuable lessons about the important role of animal shelters.

Alternative Activity Ideas

Whether or not you get a classroom pet, here are some fun activities that can help students appreciate and respect animals.

Lend a Hand. Have students sit in a circle on the floor with you. Start the game by naming an animal. The student to your right should describe one way people can help that animal. For example, if the animal is a cat, possible answers are: have cats spayed or neutered; keep cats indoors; bring stray cats to an animal shelter. The same student should then name another animal, and the student to his or her right describe one way people can help that animal. The game continues until all students have had a chance to share their ideas.

Animal Tales. Have each student write (in first person) an autobiography of a pet or wild animal. Students who choose a wild animal should include details about the animal’s habitat, diet, and behavior. If the species is endangered, they should explain people’s role in the problem and what the animal might wish we would do differently. Students who choose a pet should include information about the animal’s dietary, grooming, shelter, and exercise needs, as well as veterinary requirements. Have students illustrate covers for their animal autobiographies and bind their stories with yarn.

From Birds to Butterflies. Help your class set up birdbaths, birdhouses, and feeding stations around your schoolyard. Design a schedule that allows students to take turns filling the bird feeders and changing the water. Since birds might come to rely on your feeders for at least a part of their diet, continue feeding them throughout the year. You can also plant a butterfly garden or hummingbird garden and have children identify and record the various species they observe.

Unpopularity Contest. Ask students to call out names of animals they fear or dislike. Write their responses on the chalkboard. (The list might include such animals as alligators, bats, flies, mosquitoes, snakes, and spiders.) Explain that every wild animal plays a valuable role in an ecosystem. Have each student research an animal from the list and make a poster emphasizing some positive characteristics of that animal. Display posters in your classroom or school library.

Buggy Behavior. Have students investigate ants’ food preferences by leaving a variety of foods, such as honey, bread, fruits, and vegetables near their nesting areas on school grounds. Students can then record which foods the ants seem to prefer. A schoolyard compost pile provides another opportunity to study insects and other invertebrates. Combine lawn clippings, leaves, soil, and fruit and vegetable waste. Once decomposition has begun, have students use field guides to identify the behavior of the various critters who take up residence in the compost. Then have them prepare ethograms—written inventories of natural behaviors—describing one or more of the species being observed. Each student should also illustrate at least one species. Display illustrations and ethograms in a bulletin board titled “Cool Compost Critters.”

Fascinating Friends. Have students conduct behavioral studies of their own cats and dogs. (Suggest that those who don’t have a pet study a friend’s or neighbor’s.) For example, they can time a cat’s or dog’s response to an auditory stimulus. Standing in one room while the pet is in another, students should produce an unfamiliar sound (such as by blowing a whistle or rattling a pie tin) and record how many seconds or minutes it takes the pet to investigate. The pet should be rewarded with praise or a small treat upon arrival. Have students repeat this exercise once a day for a week and then construct graphs with the data they’ve recorded. They might find that the time the pets take to respond decreases each day.

Make Wishes Come True. Contact an animal shelter and ask for a wish list of needed items. The operation of an animal shelter requires a lot of supplies—and not just animal care items. In addition to pet food, towels, blankets, cat litter, and pet toys, shelters need cleaning and office supplies. Once you know what your shelter needs, have your class coordinate a schoolwide collection. Assign some students the job of publicizing the collection by creating posters and writing announcements to read over your school’s PA system. Have others set up collection boxes for donated items. Finally, schedule a time when you and your class can drop off the donations or have someone from the shelter pick them up.