There are more and more places to adopt a virtual pet online- and the pets are more cute and lovable all the time. So why not adopt one today. It won't cost you anything!

Kids and grownups alike love to have an online companion to look after. Some of these creatures live in big online worlds that you can explore and where there are other players to meet. There are all kinds of games to play and activities to get involved with. A warning- sometimes these worlds can be too tempting and you just don't want to come back!.

One of the great things about these virtual pet worlds is that they appeal equally to girls and boys. Some of the activities involve dress up, some involve fierce fights with other player's pets. Often, the graphics are so good that you feel as if you have wandered into a Disney Movie- except that here you can move around, chat, build things, start clubs and do stuff no movie maker ever thought of.

Moshi Monsters

Moshimonsters hasn't been around long but it is growing fast. It lets you adopt a pet monster and look after it while it grows up. There are a lot of games to play and other players to chat with.

The moshimonsters are a lot more smart than other online pets. For one thing, they understand how well you look after them. If you let them down, they can start behaving very badly. They scream, they fight and it needs a lot of care to get them back to being happy and playful again.

So remember, If you want to take your monster from a z-level baby to a fully grown up, A-level MonSTAR, you need to pay careful attention.

Moshimonsters has over 1.5 million online players. The video above gives an idea of why it is so popular.

http://www.moshimonsters.com/

Neopets

Neopets was the first of the big online virtual pet sites and is almost ten years old. It was made for college students but nowadays many children use the site. The whole thing is free and you get three pets to adopt and play with.

The site is massive and the range of things you can do is enormous. There are clubs and guilds to join. Regular new competitions appear. You can team with friends to take part in quests. A popular club is the astronomy club.This gives you a telescope to look for the constellations of stars in the sky. If you find them all, you get a prize.

There are many other things to do. You can set up a shop to earn neopoints (nps) or you can play games to get rich. Once you have enough points you can ‘buy’ things for your neopet home. Some players like to train their pets to fight in battles. Some like to spend their time dressing up pets or building a home.

Neopets is one of the best sites if you like to play with friends, make teams to compete in cups and quests or like regular and unusual challenges.

neopets.com

Note to Parents

There are adults, as well as children, on the Neopets site so care should be exercised. Access to messenging is restricted for participants under the age of 13.

neopets.com/privacy.phtml

Neopets Jr

This a simpler version of Neopets for younger kids with more controls over chat.

neopets.com/mini

Adoptme.com

While many pet sites have cute monsters to adopt, Adoptme.com offer virtual pets like dogs and horses which are beautifully drawn and friendly in a Disney way.

You give your pet a name and choose whether it is a boy or a girl. Then you are given some money everyday to look after it.

Some fun things to do with your virtual pet:

• You can enter it in pet shows and win prizes.
• You can chat with it.
• If you have a myspace or facebook page or any kind of blog or website you can show it off to other people.
• You can dress up your pet
• There are many games to play like tic tac toe, tennis or checkers.
• If you think your pet needs to be a bit more serious you can find it a job where it can earn money to spend in the shop.

adoptme.com

Go Pets:

A big, beautiful site with a three dimensional world to play in. The pets can to be fully customised so your pet is exactly the way that you want it to be,

After you adopt your virtual pet you can feed and play with it, play games like Peggle,and Bejeweled. decorate the land they give you with houses, trees and flowers, train your pet in farming or cooking (and many other fun things), create special clothes and furniture.

You can also earn lots of shell money, take part in quests or just talk to your online friends.

http://www.gopets.com/

Mara pets

You are allowed up to 12 pets in Mara. You can adopt one or trade with other players for money won in Mara’s many games.

Once you have a pet, you need to take good care of it. There are many games to play including dress up and celebrity dress up. If you like to fight virtual battles the battle arena is for you.

Some Place Places to Visit in Mara

The Biala Icecaves:

This is a scary place to visit. Lots of pets have been lost here. If you are alert and look carefully, though, you can find magical places that will give you lots of Mara money (MPs), top health and sometimes magic stats.

Job Center:

If you find your pet a job, he will earn money everyday that you can spend in the shops.

Jobs include doctor, vet, actress. astronaut and even thief- though I'm sure how much work a thief really does.

Be careful though, if you don’t don’t look after your pet, and he doesn’t go to work, he will lose his job and all that lovely money!

Battle Arena:

Pit your pet against other pets in fearsome contests.

Shops

The shops have clothes to buy and things for your Mara pet home. If you look around it is amazing just how much choice there is- and of course you can always open your own shop. Maybe you will get Mara rich!

Games

There are dozens of free online games at Mara including- strategy games, dress up, cards, flash games and puzzle games.

There are also plenty of quests to take part in and prizes to be won.

http://www.marapets.com/

Buildabearville

This not strictly an adopt-a-pet site. It is more of a build-a-bear-friend site. It deserves a mention for its great graphics. It is especially girl friendly.

You can make your own bear in the bear workshop and explore the virtual world of bearville. One place to visit is the fabulous fashion district where you can get a makeover.

Games include:

Underwater adventures where you and your bear friend face many hazards but also see many wonderful things.

A pie eating contest. How many pies can can one small bear eat?

http://www.buildabearville.com/gettingStarted.aspx

Foopets:the most realistic virtual pets online

There is no massive online world here but the fabulous, lifelike graphics deserve a special mention. Great for the virtual pet lover who dosen’t want to spend too much time in other worlds.

http://www.foopets.com

Virtual Pet worlds with Other Planet settings

•  petnebular.com has fantastic creatures.
•  rescreatu.com A new online world. Worth a visit if you have already tried the others.

Virtual Pet Freaks Forum

This forum is the place to talk about all the various virtual pets you can find online.

http://virtualpetfreaks.forumotion.com/

For parents

It is worth checking the privacy policies of each of the sites and also how much control there is over chat between the players. You might need to choose the approbriate settings for your child.