Death of a pet

[lou 26]

How do I break it to my 4 year old daughter that her guinea pig has died? Sorry if this sounds silly. Weve been out all day and arrived home and the poor mite was dead in her cage. My daughter only started school two weeks ago and is finding it difficult atm and she was upset that she has to go to school tomorrow and so i told her the guinea pig was asleep. Once she was in bed ive buried the guinea pig in the garden but how do i break it to her? I know shes going to be really upset and Im dreading telling her. Id be greatful if anyone has any advice on how to deal with it.

[jane1098]

when my daughters hamster died we bought her another exactly the same. till this day she doesn't know the other one died. we only did this because she takes death very badly after losing someone so close. im not saying to do this hunny but this made it less painfull for my daughter. we eventually told her when she was six and she took ok.

[lou 26]

thank you jane. I think im feeling guilty atm because we werent here and the poor little thing was on her own and must have suffered, so that part of it has upset me. When my daughter gets up in the morning I can tell her the guinea pig is ill and had to go to pet hospital but once she gets home from school im going to have to tell her. I cant keep on putting it off and have to remove the cage from the house at some stage! :>(

[jane1098]

whatever you do my thoughts are with you. x

[lou 26]

Thank you jane, thats really kind of you xxx

[Myriad2112]

When I came home from school, my mother had left the cage door open and my mouse had escaped, 30 years later she admitted that it had died and that instead of being faced with a dead pet she had let me believe that it was free to play in the fields once more. I was never sure if this was the right or wrong thing to do.

[LittleMissxx]

she may be stronger than u think. Mine died last month. kids had their tears but were very understanding. We bought two new ones. i think right from the start b4 u even purchase ananimal they need to know that these things will inevitably happen. aw...... how old was yours ?

[tiny e.a]

I agree that she should be told it has died, she's still very young and so will be quite resilient to the news, being not really able to understand what death really means. I would say something quite to the point rather than beating around the bush, like, 'I have some very sad news, (guinea pigs name) was very ill today and has died.' Tell her that if she feels sad about it she can talk to you.

[dot.hawkes]

i do think it would have done no harm to her for the guinea pig to be buried whilst she was there, it is a natural part of growing up and I'll bet we all experienced the sadness of burying our beloved pets in the garden.

[lou 26]

I agree with you dot, its only because shes not settling into school (tears every morning) that i did that. I didnt want ther to have any more upset at the time. Otherwise I would have told her at the time. I told her last night when we were home from school, she was upset for a while but then said can I have another one? She asked me to take her down the garden tonight and show her where the guinea pig is buried and she sat for ages talking to her, bless.

Then in her four year old wisdom she said "If we have another guinea pig mommy, when that one dies we can bury it next to the other one and they can be friends"

LittleMissxx - the guinea pig was only one, poor mite. She was fine on Saturday. On Sunday morning before we went out she was a little lethargic but nothing untoward, or so i thought. :>(

[lou 26]

thank you for all your replies xxx