Our first pets were a pair of zebra finches. They are awesome little birds, fun to observe. For the most part they cannot be trained to accept human contact, so they just stay in a small cage and do their thing – grooming, eating, chirping to each other, building nests, laying eggs and even raising young! (Important note: they must be kept in pairs. If you don’t want more birds, you must remove the eggs as they are laid.)

Having two children with HFA, and zero experience living with animals myself, these birds were ideal. Their care was cheap and easy. The kids needed to learn only one rule:  DON’T OPEN THE CAGE. They understood enough to not want the birds to get hurt, so they obeyed the rule. Once they mastered this  we ventured into other animals.