Zhu Zhu Pets How They work...are They Actually Fun?

Yeah- 7 might be a little old- she will probably get bored. It really depends on what kind of kid she is. My 4 year old daughter has one and plays with it on a fairly regular basis. She has the car and garage but doesn't really use them. She has a plastic shoe box that she uses as it's "house, she has more fun dressing them up and has a few outfits including PJ's- those are much cheaper than the house and/or tunnels. We do have a lot of tile but it does run on the carpet- just slower.

My daughter is 9 and I bought her two pets and she bought one of the baby ones. No accesories. She played well with them for a couple of weeks. She has a horse stable (it's huge) and turned that into their house and made beds for them, etc. She got quickly bored with them and gave them to my 3 year old. The 3 year old put it in her hair and it got all tangled up and tore her hair out. Needless to say, I vote no. I'd get her ONE and see how well she plays with it. That way, you're only wasting $10. Lol. ;)

I agree, I think they are better for younger kids (3-5 year olds). I have a 3 year old son and a 5 year old daughter and they love them. We get them for all their friends/cousin's birthday because they love them so much. The kids that we have given them too also love them. I think that you have to keep adding to the "house" to keep it interesting (luckly they are in expensive for the accessories and such). My kids get to earn money to buy accessories.
Also, they are good for kids who want a pet. They can "take care" of them. If they get bored after a couple weeks you can explain that is what happens with a real pet but you can't just toss a cat in the toy box.
The hair thing that someone brought up, its true. There is a warning on the pet itself about it. my daughter has hair passed her bottom and she got it tangled...we just cut it out and reminded her to not to lay down on the floor while playing (unless her hair was pulled back), same with any moving toy...
As for the batteries, I would say that my kids play with them as often as any other toy and we have had theirs almost a year and we have only changed the batteries once.

GOOD LUCK!

Our 7 year old son got some for Christmas last year (he is now 8) but doesn't play with them much at all... it was cute when he got them and he played with them a little here and there... it is a nice thing to play with at somebody else's house LOL

My neighbor's daughter has one. (13 yr old, but w/ downsyndrome) The house/tunnel she had was very cheaply made. I thought it was going to break when I put it together for her. As long as the gerbil thingy stays in the house and tunnels, then it will be fine to use anywhere in the house. I doubt it would work well at ALL on carpet. It's kinda cute, but my neighbor got bored with it very quickly. I haven't seen her play with it since she got it. I know I won't be buying it for my son, unless I just got the gerbil and not the house. But we have hardwood floors.

We bought dd a pet for her 4th bday...Her 2 yr old bro loves it! It does go on carpet and is creepy in the furby kind of way....he loves to chase it thru the house, under the couch, see where it will come out of hiding. My dd hasn't played with it since she got it...she mentioned something about she thought it came with everything, like the whole little city and lots of critters...typical 4 yr old. I honestly don't think she would like it any more with the tunnels and rooms (running around a track vs. running around the playroom?) so I am not adding to the zhu zhu pet collection...just my thoughts...it seems like a one trick toy to me..watch the hamster run in circles...when you get bored watching, what else do you do? But my kids are younger and not the target audience LOL!

We bought a lot of the set for our daughter last Christmas and it was a dud. If you know your daughter REALLY wants them, you may be fine. However, our daughter hardly uses hers. It's kind of become a joke in the family because it took a lot of work for me at the time trying to access all of the pieces (searching eBay since store shelves were empty, etc.). The circle section is flawed in that the mouse can push out the blocker pieces on the sides. When our daughter did use her mouse, she preferred it out of the expensive plastic tubes.

Ah I am very familiar with the little rodents. My daughter is 7 and has an army of them and loves them. She would play with them 24/7 I think if it wasn't for the battery drain. After a full day of nonstop play they are dead, but I think the dog fur in the wheels add to the drain. They take 2 AAAs. I think if it was one or two it wouldn't be so bad, but again she has an army. One of these days I hope to replace all of them with rechargeables, but its so expensive up front. We have hard wood floors so we don't need the cage. My daughter also has created houses and tunnels out of cardboard and paper. Accessories will depend on your daughter, mine really is just into the zhu zhus. Good luck.