Quote Originally Posted by dab_20 View Post
I had a guinea pig when I was about 10 and I loved her! I took care of her by myself, she was affectionate and loved to be held.

If he is leaning towards a reptile (like many little boys would!) I think they are not too hard to care for. I know my brothers had a few Iguanas... they were about 15 at the time. As long as you help set up the cage and thermostat, I'm sure he'll do well to care for it everyday with minimal help.

Good luck with finding him a pet
I'm going to disagree with that. In general I think reptiles are more difficult to care for than other little pets. Because of their very large size and complex diet I definitely wouldn't recommend an iguana. Don't get me wrong, I think iguanas are awesome pets (one of my favorite), we had one for years (died last year of cancer at age 11), but they aren't for most people.

I do think leopard geckos are nice little reptiles and a great beginner reptile, especially for a kid. They're (in my opinion) one of the easier reptiles. They stay small, but are big enough to hold. They're diet isn't too complex, and like Snakemama said they're setup isn't too difficult and it's pretty easy to maintain. We've used both under the tank heaters and overhead heat sources and have found we prefer overhead. It's really just preference, the important thing is they have a heat source (and never use a hot rock- NEVER).