You may think that the easiest pet of them all is the humble goldfish – and you’d be right and wrong. While they definitely don’t need walking and they won’t break the bank in fish food, you may end up spending quite a bit of time and energy just keeping them alive. This family pet will need a regular supply of aerated water and this means investing in a pump. Aquariums need regular cleaning and maintenance and this will probably all fall to you to do.
Best kid-friendly pets
Quite simply, the small mammals that need no walking, minimal cleaning and can live quite happily on family food scraps.
- Hamsters
- Guinea Pigs
- Mice
- Rats (Dr Harry’s favourite choice for a kid-friendly pet!)
- Rabbits
But if your heart is set on something a little more interactive and you’re happy to invest the time and love on a dog or cat, these are the breeds most temperamentally suited for children:
Dog:
- Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
- Cocker Spaniel
- Golden Retriever
- Great Dane
- Labrador Retriever
- Maltese/ ShihTzu cross
- Pug
- Whippet
Cat:
- Abyssinian
- American and exotic shorthair
- Birman
- Burmese
- Manx
- Persian
- Ragdoll
- Somali
16 May, 2026
I had a guinea pig growing up. She was adorable but they only live 5 years and her death broke me as a kid. Plus Mum and Dad did a lot of work maintaining them – fresh hay, water, and having to move the cage around as well. We just get a domestic short hair cat usually. On our third as a couple and this one came from the SPCA. Totally agree that fish are hard work – all those filter cleans and water changes. My eldest wants a fish again, and I’m just digging my heels in at the moment.
We have had a Labrador and a Burmese cat which we recently had to get put to sleep the kids loved her so much. I have also tamed up wild kittens they make great pets.
we had a guinea pig which was a great pet growing up – we could even take her travelling with us in the car.
We have a family cat but would love the get a new puppy. The only thing that worries me is that dogs need so much more care than cats and I also worry how the cat is going to react! He didn’t like our old dog and was quite mean to him 🙁
We definitely spent a lot of time and money on our pet fish! Personally I wasn’t a fan and much prefer something interactive like our pet cat, a beautiful rescue from the SPCA. My daughter recently learned that it a Norwegian Forest cat and has learned all about the breed and happy to tell anyone who will listen about our Viking cat!
We would like to get some fish as we aren’t allowed any other pets where we live at present. We do want to get a small dog when we move next though. My Mum has 2 Burmese cats (brother and sister), they are the funniest things and really act human like at times haha
Personally I think you can’t go past a good old rescue animal, both our cat’s and rabbit have been from the spca. hadest part about adopting an animal is not being able to give them all a home. 🙁