This article should conclude my discussion about choosing the right pet for your family. If you’ve missed my other posts on the matter, please check out Picking the Perfect Family Pet: Cats, Dogs, and Fish and Picking the Perfect Family Pet: Rabbits, Rodents and Reptiles. For the devoted readers out there who have already passed through those posts, welcome to the grand finale! Here is my final bit about the different pets you can choose from for your family.
Birds
Birds are beautiful to look at, and they can be incredibly loving if you buy the right species of bird. The problem with that theory is that the really loving ones usually cost a lot of money. The same can be said for the really pretty ones too. If you want a parrot that can talk to you, you have to be willing to put in the training time to make that happen. That’s not as easy as you think. On top of that, you have to clean a poo-filled cage all the time if you have a bird as your family pet. If you let the bird out to fly, 
he or she will make a mess all over the house. For the most part, a bird may be too chaotic for your family.
To top all that off, birds are very noisy. If you want to get some peace and quiet to study for a distance learning course, you probably won’t get that at all. You’ll have your bird begging to get out of the cage, and you may be forced to go to the library just to study. You have to determine if that is a sacrifice you are willing to make.
Bugs
I’ll assume you don’t plan to keep a cage full of Giant African Hornets in your house, so for this part, I’m mainly referring to spiders and scorpions (which I know aren’t technically “bugs”). A lot of people like the idea of having a creepy crawly as a pet. I’m not one of them, but my husband was for a brief moment. Tarantulas and scorpions are far from the ideal pets for most families, just from the safe perspective alone. Do you really want a giant stinger near your newborn? Nope, didn’t think so.
Spiders and scorpions usually aren’t hard to take care of, so you may have some success with one from that regard. Nevertheless, they’re scary looking, and they can actually terrify your children if they’re really young. Tarantulas don’t attack unless they feel threatened, but when they bite, the pain can be dreadful. You might want to stick with a milder pet that has fur without a matching stinger.
Hermit Crabs
Hermit crabs are some of the most basic pets you can get for children. They don’t do much of anything, and they’re very easy to take care of. As long as you have a little food out and a wet sponge, the hermit crabs are going to survive just fine. You can buy pretty little shells for them, which kids love, or you could even paint your own if you research which ones the crabs like. They have to move into new ones as they grow, so you need to always have a few around for them to check out.
The problem I have with hermit crabs is that they are really just shells that move over night. You hardly see them playing around, and when you do, they’re not moving quickly at all. Mine always seem to crawl out of their shells and refuse to go into new ones, so they don’t live long in my house. You may have different experiences in your family.
So, which one is right for you?
I’ve now offer you nine different pet options for your family, with vast details about the good and bad sides of them. It’s up to you to select the pet that you feel best suits your family. I’m no animal expert, so you may want to consult with a local pet store before you make your final decision. Pick something that suits your availability, finances, personality, schedule, and everything in between. As long as you think long and hard about what pet you want to get, you should be able to adopt a new, loving member of your family.
Ironically, my cat is asleep on my feet as I type this…