Play the Littlest Pet Shop Game!

What can we use instead of cardboard, index cards, tokens, dice, or toy pets if we don't have them?

Use a flattened cereal box or poster paper for the board, cut printer paper into 18 card pieces instead of index cards, use coins, buttons, or bottle caps as tokens, substitute a spinner app or a numbered paper cup for dice, and print pet pictures or draw pets on paper if you don't have toy pets.

What should we do if the Care/Trade/Event piles get mixed up, tokens spill, or cards run out mid-game?

Color-code and clearly label the 'Care', 'Trade', and 'Event' piles, keep tokens in small bowls at the board center to prevent spills, and reshuffle discarded cards into each labeled pile when that pile runs out.

How can we adapt the rules to suit younger children or older kids?

For younger kids simplify each Care card to a single icon and shrink the board to fewer spaces with everyone starting with one token, while for older kids write numeric rewards and complex Trade rules and raise the win condition (for example to 15 tokens) for a longer game.

How can we make the game more creative or challenging once we've played it a few times?

Let players decorate the cardboard board, write themed custom Care/Trade/Event cards (for example a 'Birthday' Event that gives +3 tokens), add specialty spaces with mini-challenges, and then photograph the finished game to share on DIY.org.