I’m thinking about getting a pet mouse or hamster, any dopers out there got one? when you first got it how much did the whole package cost you ? You know like the wheel, the water bottle, and a medium sized cage. In the store i go to mice are 3 dollars and hamster are 8 so i get that part but I dont wanna waste too much money on a pet thats gonna die in a week. Are you happy with your mice ? Was it worth it , Do ya think?;j
Make sure you have a nice tight cover. A little wild mouse got in and knocked up our domestic mouse and we end up with a hoard of very wild little pests!
Mice aren’t as loving as rats are. All my rats really grew on me. After months I could have cared less about the mouse. I don’t even know what happened to our mouse.
I have two male mice (kept in seperate containers 'cause males fight unless they are brothers) and three female mice kept in a 10-gallon aquarium. I don’t breed them, but the reason why I have so many is a long story. Anyway, I love them, but that’s because I’m one who likes low-maintence pets. I would get a mouse more than I would get a hamster, 'cause mice are more social. The hamster I had a few months ago was a mean-old bastard. And mice are pretty cheap, too (at least the ones I got). With my female mice, I took a big risk and got feeder mice (mice that are sold to people who feed them to snakes or other animals). Luckily my mice were healthy. After that, most of the feeder mice I see are terribly unhealthy, but then I got them at PetCo, so that tells you something.
If you want a pet mouse, the good idea is to get a female mouse, more than one because, like I said, mice are social. The risk there, like with any pet store animal, is that the mouse might be pregnant 'cause pet stores never seperate male and female mice.
For a standard cage, it can be up to fifty, but I don’t think any more (depending on what cage you get).
Mice generally live up to a year, maybe more.
Thanks. I would get a rat , but i just cant get over those long naked tails. In my youth i got to keep a hamster for a few days, and your rightr he was a mean little F***er
If you look hard enough, you might find a tailless rat. Also, just picking one up now and then, the tail would become a non-issue.
I worked in a petstore for several years during college, and I’d always encourage people to get rats as pets instead of mice or hamster. Hamsters are solitary, so you’ll only be able to keep one per cage. They are also nocturnal, so unless you handle your hamster a lot during the day, it will stay that way, and waking it up will risk having it bite you. They are less active though, and therefore dont’ need as large of a cage. Whatever you do, dont’ get talked into a Russian dwarf hamster. They’re even meaner than the regular goldens and teddy bear hamsters.
Mice have a more distince ammonia smell to their urine than rats or hamsters do. The other drawback is that they’re very tiny and delicate, so they’re not ideal if you want to handle your pet often. Also, most mice sold in petstores are intended as snakefood, so they’re generally not as used to being handled, and being small, are even more easily frightened into biting.
IMO, the best type of cage is an aquarium fitted with a screen top. If you cruise garage sales and classifieds, you should be able to pick up a 10-30 gallon tank pretty cheaply. A 10 gal (20" long) would be fine for a mouse or hamster. A 20 gallon would be the minimum for a rat. The benefit of a tank is that there will be less odor permeating your room, and the animal won’t be able to throw litter out of the sides of the cage.
Anyway, it depends on whether you want an animal that you can interect with, or just watch. If you just want an animal to watch, I’d go for a gerbil, since they’re more active and interesting. A rat will be much more handleable and personable. In college, I had a pair of neutered male rats that I would put out on the enclosed balcony. They’d spend their time crawling up the screen, then falling off. It was also possible to let them crawl around on my desk without fear of losing them.
HTH
Hmmmm… You have really given me alot to think about.
My pet store sells baby rats that look alot like gerbils and they are pretty cheap. Are they gerbils? Am i being Taken advantage of when the sign says baby rat?
If they have hair on their tails with a little tuft at the end, it’s a gerbil. If it has a bare tail, and a pointy nose, it’s a rat.
Thank You. I think I might go for the Rat.