Hello all!
I have a three year old male beardie named Haymitch who is basically spoiled rotten. I recently got a new apartment and can no longer keep him, but refuse to give him away seeing as how he's my baby! I work at a childcare center and have spoken with my director about making him my class pet in my 3yr old classroom, to which she thought would be a great idea!
Now, I need your help! Do you think it's a good idea? And if so, in the state of Kentucky I must have every parents permission in order to have him in the classroom, so if you were me, what would you say to the parents?
Thanks all! :mrgreen:
Hi there....you may get different answers but I am leaning toward no. For one, if you buy a reptile from a pet store like Petco, they usually have you sign a document acknowledging that reptiles carry salmonella....and the great majority of them do. All it takes is for one child to get sick and the Daycare would be out of business. It would be different if there was no chance of the children touching him, that could work, but that's probably not realistic where you have very energetic and curious children. There would also be the risk of Haymitch getting dropped, being tormented, etc.
Too bad you can't keep him...is it part of your lease agreement ?
Hi there....you may get different answers but I am leaning toward no. For one, if you buy a reptile from a pet store like Petco, they usually have you sign a document acknowledging that reptiles carry salmonella....and the great majority of them do. All it takes is for one child to get sick and the Daycare would be out of business. It would be different if there was no chance of the children touching him, that could work, but that's probably not realistic where you have very energetic and curious children. There would also be the risk of Haymitch getting dropped, being tormented, etc.
Too bad you can't keep him...is it part of your lease agreement ?
The permission slips the parents have to sign would keep the daycare out of trouble if a child got sick.
If anything children would not hold them by themselves, I'd be there always.
Yes no pets of any kind on my lease
You could point out to the landlord that the beardie lives in a tank and it will never annoy the neighbours or become a pest to them (I wouldn't tell the landlord it's a display animal - like fish in a fish tank even if you do give it lots of time out to roam about.
Introducing your beardie to the little kiddies would need to be done gently (for the beardie) as it wont be used to lots of little noisy children running about or looking at it or poking it - very stressful for the beardie, but it will get used to it) or that keeping lizards and reptiles is a hobby.