What type of rodent(s) would you recommend as a pet?

Rats. I know most people hate rats but they are actually great pets.

Do you know a good taxidermist? ;-)

Seriously, we kept hamsters when I was a kid and loved them. Low maintenance, low odor, low noise.

Not the same one, of course, but we kept them for years. One got away once and was missing for weeks or months. We were amazed when we found him, as we always had a house cat at the same time. There was mom, dad, and 3 kids (3 years apart) and the hamsters seemed to be one thing we all enjoyed.

Personally, I would never have another guinea pig. They’re really messy, smelly, noisy (in some cases), and have little discernible personality.

I’m a big fan of gerbils. They’re incredibly low maintenance. Since they’re desert animals, they barely urinate, and their poop is almost dry and odor free. We keep ours in a glass tank with about 8 inches of shredded aspen bedding, so they can do what they love: tunnel. It’s like having a mammalian ant farm. We change the bedding every couple of months. Just throw in a handful of their dry food every other day and top off the water bottle (which goes down very slowly).

A killer rabbit of caerbannog.

Thanks all. Another thing I forgot to mention is that I think it would be important to consider animals that don’t mind being handled.

@tom_g & @thorninmud I was going to mention that the squeal of guinea pigs always unnerved me. Eek.

I think that depends a lot on the individual animal, @tom_g, but we used to get our hamsters out and pet them and let them crawl around on our arms, shoulders and heads all the time.

SuperMouse!

They say gerbils can be habituated to handling if started young, but we never did since we’ve always had cats around and didn’t want to take the risk of having a gerbil jump free. They are quite bold about climbing onto The Hand That Brings the Kibble, though.

Oh, and bonus: gerbils are nature’s way of recycling toilet paper cores. We throw all ours into the tank, and the gerbils reduce them to new bedding within a couple of minutes.

Oh god, guinea pigs are the worst. I’d suggest a hamster. They are easy to take care of as long as you are responsible and they are sweet little things. Just make sure you house them in a structure that is safe and hard to get out of.

@mambo I agree about hamsters. And, although we didn’t have it back then, they can be somewhat entertaining IN the cage, if you have one of those Habit Trail things with different levels and brightly colored tubes.

@ibstubro Oh my. I remember being 13 years old and using all of the money I had to buy different extensions and tubes for my hamster cage. You can turn those cages into twisty-turny little hamster mansions.

@mambo we had a wire cage, similar to a bird cage, and we liked our hamsters anyway. :-) Of course, that in the day when you had to get UP to change the TV channel from one to the other. lol It took a lot less to entertain. Today, we’d probably would have a hamster mansion 5 stories tall.

It may also be worth noting that the majority of rodents are nocturnal so the kids might need to keep in mind that their cute little pet might be hiding in their bedding to nap during the daytime and not be alert to any cooing and oohing by lookers on.

I have admittedly never had a pet, but obsessively researched rodents as a kid in my attempt to convince my mum to let me adopt one. They can be quite the mischievous handful from what I have heard from a close friend who has kept both rats and mice since we were kids. They are also prone to hormonal irritability since most rodents are too small for the average vet to perform surgery on. I do know that rabbits can be fixed though! And they live much longer, healthier lives as a result.

Rodents will eat and eat and eat though. And, as some have noted, the smaller ones are definitely escape artists so get a good cage! In general, I don’t think they enjoy being handled too much (though from my limited experience, rats don’t seem to mind!) and any petting sessions need to be monitored carefully as the animals are natural prey.

Although I personally would adopt a rabbit in a heartbeat if I could (they might be a bit too high maintenance for a starter pet since they live longer and require much more room), I would probably suggest a rat. I think they have a good size, lifespan, and amount of personality for a starter pet. They can be so sweet and clever.

We had hamsters when we were that age. Cute as buttons. The hamsters were, too.) The little guys would fit in a shirt pocket or go into a sock. Lots of fun. They also don’t live too long.

We once had a rabbit but that was awful. He was afraid of loud noises and got startled easily which resulted in kicking and scratching. I don’t know if they are all like that but ours was.

I kept ferrets when I was a child. My favourite was a brown one, who I named “Coto” after one of the co-stars of Beastmaster. They are darling little playthings.

Look! You can even leash them!

D’awww…
More cuteness

Yes to RATS! They are cute, highly intelligent, funny, but, on the down side they only live a few years and are prone to respiratory isses. House them in well ventilated enclosures, use pine shavings as bedding to absorb urine and smell. Feed them a laboratory pellet diet with plenty of fresh foods, fruits, veggies and various other tidbits. They LOVE grapes, peas, corn, and all sorts of other foods.

Rabbits are cute, but need more space, are rather boring, not much personality and need lots of oat hay and roughage to be healthy. Never feed rabbits lettuces and cabbage or celery, causes intestinal issues and blockages.

Hamsters are cute but mostly nocturnal and not very bright, prone to being moody and biting. haha

Guinea pigs ( cavies ) are also not very bright, smell, and need tons of hay and fresh veggies, lettuces, for their high Vit. C needs daily.

You could also get a rabbit called a Flemish giant. They are a very large breed of rabbit that can be potty trained to use a litter box and put on a leash. I had two of them for a while. They are very sweet.

Ferrets/polecats, cute as fuck but needle sharp teeth will chew on anything that moves.

@ucme Ferrets are not rodents, they are carnivorous weasels.

I loved my carnivorous weasel.

Oh yeah, bet you can’t tell the difference between a weasel & a stoat though eh…eh?
Ones weasely wecognised & the other’s stoatally different :)

^ Ha.

I have no idea what a stoat is.

@Seek_Kolinahr I’m surprised you kept them as a child. The only ones I’ve ever been around were fairly high maintenance and prone to bite. I came within a hairs-breath of owning one, once. Albino…orange with red eyes. VERY cool! The owner went to prison and I was #2 in line to adopt. #1 accepted.

Chinchilla.

A stoat is one of the cutest buggers out there, I absolutely love otters though, they my favourite.

Awwwww….

Well, my daddy was a really hands-on parent. He was the one who brought Coto home. Before Coto, we had gerbils and cats. Shockingly, my cats were hardcore city slickers and were too good to perform such plebian acts as chasing rodents.

I was never bitten by a ferret. My aunt was, by hers. But then, she was a grownup.

Well, after I wrote it, @Seek_Kolinahr, I thought DUH…kids are probably more likely than adults to be a good caretaker. I’m surprised you’re parents ever put you on the course, is more to the point.

Otters are cute.

And evil

Yeah I know, bit like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, beautiful but deadly…or was that her beaver?

I missed a ” personal attack”? Well damn…someone fill me in, this little weasel wants to know! lol

How could there have been a personal attack in this thread? lol

I just watched a documentary on Wolverines, they are the largest evil weasel out there and amazingly cool. I want a Wolverine. haha

@Coloma I made a clearly jokey remark in relation to your post, i’ll pm you as these subsequent posts are bound to be removed.

^^^I can take it, I’m not a thin skinned weasel. ;-)

@Coloma Kinda why I said it :)

I should have known that a question concerning what pet to get my young kids would end up in a discussion about Sharon Stone’s crotch. :)

Thanks for all of your (serious) responses. I am going to have to build a pros/cons list for each animal, and see how they match up. I hadn’t heard about guinea pigs being stinky, but it seems that the consensus here is that they are. I also need to figure out how big of a cage I need, and will it end up taking up too much room. And there is the nocturnal thing. I’ll try to post my summary of pros/cons, including the comments here, soon.

Come on… how cute is this? Hamster. in a sock .

@tom_g If you go for rats, get two females. They are good companions, don’t get as big as the males and do not have giant rat balls. lol
House them in a 20 gallon aquarium with a screened lid and give them little boxes for nests, climbing options, and keep them stimulated with new things to do. It can be an experiment in increasing brain size via stimulating environment. They really are great pets, learn their names, eagerly await you bringing treats, taking them out for play time.

@Coloma: “don’t get as big as the males and do not have giant rat balls.”

stuff of nightmares

I would prefer rats. They are very loving and playful and kids would love them. They are pretty easy to care for. But make sure you get them from a reputable breeder, and never a pet store.

I’m with @Seek_Kolinahr, ferrets are AWESOME! They bounce around like Tigger, love to hide and play, I’ve always wanted one myself but I’ve always had dogs around. With their high energy, I’d think they’d be great for kids.

^ But what about that funk? I have only seen one ferret, but the smell was worse than a skunk.

^ and can the 5yo withstand nips?

@tom_g Just have the ‘stink’ gland removed.

@ibstubro I’d say some are better natured than other, so I’d try it out first or pick a sweetie. Seek may have more about that since she owned one. The ones I’ve played with were sweet and fun.

Oh, gosh, my ferret experience was 20 years ago.

Highly subjective list

No to:
1. Rabbits
Rabbits need a lot of space. I don’t see why they get locked up in cages. They like to bite and scratch (people). They are cleaner than guinea-pigs, but that’s not saying much, and they love to throw out all their bedding.

2. Guinea-pigs
Guinea-pigs are smelly, but if you clean out their cage once a week, it doesn’t get too bad. What I ‘d be more worried about is the handling, if kids are involved. They don’t bite, usually, but they just don’t like it. I spent half my childhood trying to get those little things to not be afraid of me. If you do get guinea-pigs, get grown ones that have been tamed. They say it can be done…I’m not so sure.

3. Mice
Much too delicate for kids of all ages, and they don’t like being handled.

Yes to:
1. Rats
I’ve never had rats, but they seem like awesome pets. Kind of like little dogs, but cleaner. You can teach them to do tricks, and they love to be handled. I’m actually thinking about getting some. The males smell, I’m told, so I would get two girls.

2. A hamster
Hamsters like to live alone, they’re nocturnal, and their bites hurt like hell. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone with children, normally. However – from what I know about your kids, I’d say they might be able to handle even a somewhat complicated pet. (Unless you’ve been bragging ;] ) Hamsters adapt to their family’s schedule, so if they live in an area where there is some action, they are usually awake from about five/six p.m. Once they are tame – which is not too much work – they don’t bite. Until they are, handle with care. They are incredibly cute, they keep their cage clean, and until they can be handled, they are fun to watch. And as a bonus, you and your kids get to read this book, which is told from a hamster’s point of view and a lot of fun. May be too intense for the five-year-old.

I’ll vote for rats too. I kept them for many years. They should be kept in pairs or small groups (of the same sex, if you don’t want hundreds) and they need lots of interaction, but they are smart and affectionate and they don’t smell if you keep their living environment clean. If you get females, be aware that breast cancer in female domestic rats is almost 100% endemic, so they tend to live only half as long as males.

Unusual modding here, normally any references to a removed post within the same thread are also removed, I assume to avoid derailment. Not a huge deal, but ever so slightly inconsistent.