My nephew wants a snake..

My sister has 6 year old twins (soon to be 7) and is in a dilemna. Her son is dying for a corn snake (well, he wanted a boa constrictor, so this is a compromise). My niece wants a hamster. The only place to put the cage is in her bedroom and my sister is worried about the smell and the noise at night (exercise wheel, chewing food, making nests). Anybody have any other suggestions for something soft and fuzzy for my niece. My sister has been told that a guinea pig is a great first pet but I think their cages have to be quite large and her bedroom is small. Any ideas (I was thinking caterpiller )

 

Isn't your sister afraid of the snake wanting to eat the hamster?

Does it have to be something fuzzy? What about a turtle or some fish?

 

Snakes are great pets!! Turtle would be a good idea or maybe a lizard as they ar great pets too! Think she is kinda stuck if you wants something small and fluffy as all their cages will smell and they do make a lot of noise during the night ( ive had mice, rats,gerbils, guinea pigs, rabbits and ferrets!!) Have to say that mice are the smelliest rodents! x

 

Guinea pigs squeal and loudly at that. Hamsters make very little noise. I would say a fish but not turtle (too much bacteria that they can carry).

 

My nephew has had a multitude of pets, many of them living in cages/glass containers. One thing my SIL found was that you can keep a hamster or guinea pig, or other small rodent style animal in a fairly small cage, IF you are willing to get it one of those balls to runaround in. Then you will have to put up with it in the rest of your house.

He has had mice, hamsters, turtles, ferrets, lizards, rats, and more I'm sure I'm forgetting. I think the only one he didn't have was a snake! Keep in mind they do take work, even if they are small, and many do smell....um.....not pretty. If you are worried about a snake eating the other animal, it can happen, but only if one or both are out of their cages, in the same room. My SIL had more problems with the cats than she did with any thing else. She did have one cat that loved to play with the hamster in the ball, but she also had a period of time that the regular cat food was the mice she was buying every other day!

I would recommend fish.

 

My Godbrother owns a reptile store in St Catharines. From a very young age he had scaly things. There was this one time when 3 freshly fed snakes got loose in his mother's car.....

Gerbils are good starter pets but for the quiet/ease of care angle I like the fish. (I had a hedgehog and it was the easiest pet ever but it does have some high maintence issues around socialization and they aren't good for little kids)

 

Besides what everyone else has suggested what about a bird of some kind? I know that some of them don't mind being held and are nice and then at night when it's time to sleep you can put a blanket or something over the cage so they are quiet.

 

I had a dwarf hamster. They don't need a large cage but it does get smelly just like any other animal cage. They don't usually live very long either. My mom had one and so did my SIL and brother (they had several). They were all very friendly. They are fast though I would be afraid it or any other animal like that would get out and the snake would get it.

 

There really is no other place in the house to keep the cage? We used to keep my gerbil's cage in the basement and it worked out fine.