The best pet invertebrates for children are stick insects, triops, mantids, snails, millipedes, and isopods. Here are our top recommendations:

The Indian stick insect is a popular, docile and very easy pet to care for. They grow a couple of inches, and eat bramble, which you can find almost anywhere in the UK, as well as online.

Giant African land snails are another top pick for children, coming in many different shell and body colours to pick and choose from. These gastropods feast on household veg, and will need a little cuttlebone and dried insects to keep them healthy, which can be purchased here.

Our top praying mantis species for children are the giant Asian mantis, a hardy, sizeable, and docile mantis species perfect for handling. Other recommendations include the ghost mantis.

The giant African millipede is another great choice for children, being super simple to care for, docile, and growing to a large size.

Isopods are all very simple to care for, feasting on decaying leaves and whatever else you offer them. They have a surprisingly large community of keepers, and come in many different colours.’Clown isopods’ and ‘zebra isopods’ are popular easy-care species.