Which makes a better pet?
I’d like to hear about temperment, health, odor, entertainment value, compatibility with kids, and anything else you’d care to mention.
I’d vote Guinnea pig. They have actual personalities, they seem to like people, and, compared to a Gerbil, they’re fairly rugged.
Gerbils and hamsters are just glorified mice, IMO. They bite, don’t really like people, and spend all their time plotting escape.
Piggies take more space to raise, though.
Hands down, a guinea pig. Ideally a castrated male guinea pig.
Thirded.
I was always a hamster lover wait that didn’t come out quite right , as in I had hamsters growing up and didn’t know anyone who had guinea pigs.
We got a hamster for Dweezil about 6 years ago; the thing never got tamed, and as noted spent all her time plotting escape. One day, 6 months after we got her, she got out and we never found her (nor any little hamster corpses, or unexplained bad smells; the theory is the cleaning service got there that day, found this thing running loose, and shooed it out the door with a broom).
A year later, we got our first guinea pig. Not knowing much more than that they were larger than hamsters, we got a cage that claimed it was suitable for one guinea pig. Er, no. We realized within weeks that the pig was going to out grow it. Ultimately made her a 2ft by 4ft cage with an open top, and she thrived. She responded to our voices and the ever-magical sounds of the fridge opening and plastic bags rattling (i.e. “VEGGIES!!”) with wheeks of excitement. She purred when we petted her. She actually approached us for pettin’s.
She was joined, a few months later, with 2 others from a rescue group; both neutered, one boy and one girl. Neither of those loves people quite as much as the first one did (she went to piggie heaven a year ago) but they’re still pretty decent pets.
Gerbils are ratty looking things - I guess it’s the tail that does it for me.
Rat-lovers will doubtless pop in and recommend their species of pets, and that’s cool, but not for me.
Why specifically male (I know there are good reasons for castrating them)? Our male is the least-friendly of the 3 we’ve owned. Runs when I try to pet him, only recently (after 4+ years) purrs when petted, squeals like he’s being tortured if I insist on picking him up… The female puts up with being held, at least she doesn’t shriek (just quivers in terror), and she likes being petted. The other female actually liked people. Is our guy just unusually skittish? He has been neutered.
IME, on average, male guinea pigs and cats are more affectionate. Also, it is cheaper to castrate a male pig then to spay a female.
Don’t know about gerbils, but a guinea pigs cage doesn’t smell as bad as a rat or hamster cage. Of course it still needs to be cleaned regularly.
My sister had a guinea pig. They were buddies. It was seriously cute.
I’ve had (as a child) guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils and (as an adult) rats and mice.
The rats were by far the friendliest, followed by the guinea pigs. The mice were too stupid to do anything, and the hamsters and gerbils were actively nasty. Of course, YMMV.
What kind of poop do guinea pigs produce? I had a ferret and the poop is not the nice little pellets a rabbit produces. If I had a guinea pig and let it explore, would it be trouble to clean up after?
If I am allergic to cats, would I probably be allergic to guinea pigs?
What’s the typical lifespan of a guinea pig?
I only smell my gerbils when I’m within a foot of the cage. And then…well, it smells like a rodent cage. Not so bad when it’s been freshly cleaned.
They’re cute, but really they only need me for food and water. They’ll sit in your had and eat a cashew or piece of cheese, but once it’s done, they’ll just crawl away or even leap off into the floor. (No fun watching to make sure it hasn’t injured its fool self, either. Those things can jump–and they don’t have depth perception–so they just weave their little heads back and forth, squint, and go for it.) Gerbils don’t really give a shit about humans. They don’t really bite, though. I’ve been nipped a few times, but only when they were really excited, and I’ve had them for a couple years.
Depends how much interaction you want from your pets and what lifespan you’re looking for. Gerbils only live about 5 years. They work for us because I can toss in some cardboard for them to nibble on, check their food/water/sand, look at them to make sure they’re not injured, and go on about my business. They’re more a pet that you observe (like fish) than a pet you play with.
IIRC from twenty-five years ago and about my sister’s pets, guinea pigs poop pellets like rabbits. However, they don’t hesitate to pee wherever they feel like it (including on each other, if the pee-ee pisses off the pee-er, so to speak). Gerbils you can’t let wander around at all, as they will usually try to escape.
I never met a gerbil that didn’t bite to be let go if you picked it up. Piggies not so much, though they will bite if provoked.
Any critter kept in a terrarium will get stinky if you don’t muck it out often enough.
Piggies make really cool squealy-chirpy noises – described above as “wheeks” – and you may need to cover up their cage at night (like a parrot) to get them to shut up.
Piggies and gerbils both can be fertile at surprisingly young ages. We had a whole guinea-pig dynasty started by Mama Pig, who arrived from the pet store pregnant.
Mice who give birth and feel threatened for whatever reason may eat their young. Gerbils might too; I don’t know. I’ve not heard of that happening with guinea pigs.
Oh – about allergies: if you’re allergic to cats you may or may not be allergic to piggies or gerbils, but if you’re allergic to any rodent, you’re likely to have trouble with piggies and gerbils.
I once almost killed my best friend via guinea pig dander… She stayed over unexpectedly one night, and I grabbed her the nearest sleeping bag I could find – it had been draped over my sister’s guinea pig cage. Turns out my friend was horrifically allergic. We had to take her to the emergency room. She wasn’t allergic to cats or dogs.
Yep. Rats are excellent varmits to keep as pets. Only downside is their short - 2 years - life span. How long will a guinea pig live?
I don’t see why you’d have to neuter a male guinea pig, unless you wanted to have more than one animal (males do not get along, and males and females get along all too well). Unfixed males may be a bit feistier, but it’s not as if they charge around the room gnashing their teeth and spraying testosterone.
Guinea pigs in general are nice pets, except I can’t say much for their standards of continence when you are holding them on your lap.
“cheaper to castrate” - true dat. The rescue group we got our two from charges more for a female than for a male, as they have all animals neutered before rehoming them.
Guess we’re just “lucky” in our male’s lack of affection. 
. I was holding him, once, when something spooked him and he leapt out of my arms before I could catch him. Face-planted 4 feet down onto the hardwood floor, and ran squealing in terror and pain all around the house before I caught him (at least I knew he hadn’t broken his back in the fall!). His breathing was rattly and he was bleeding from the mouth, so I had to rush him to the exotics vet for emergency treatment. 180 bucks later and a lot of hand-feeding/medicating, and he was fine, but I did not enjoy telling the kids that I broke their guinea pig!
Some reasons for neutering (this is the group we got our two from).
And yeah, on the bladder limitations: they all have tiny bladders, about 20 minutes. I remember holding our first pig for a bit, then she got antsy and squirmy but I still didn’t pick up on the signal and put her back in the cage. Finally she very clearly got an “oh, the HELL with it!” look on her fact and all of a sudden my lap was much warmer :eek: 
When I was stuck in one room (my dorm) with the ferret, who is of course nocturnal, I didn’t take too well to his scrabbling at the cage door at night. I guess having a prospective piggie one or two rooms away would be good.
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As noted elsewhere, pellets a bit smaller than a kidney bean. They do pee indiscriminately, so don’t let them loose on carpet you care about.
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Quite possibly. I’m very allergic to cats
and if I spend a lot of time holding the piggies, I can get sniffly. Last year when our oldest was sick, I had to force-feed her several times a day and my skin got very itchy and my asthma (already flaring for other reasons) was probably aggravated. However, since they’re somewhat confined to where they go in the house (a cage in the family room with occasional floor time), it’s not a real issue for me. -
Four-to-8 years. Our oldest was about 4.5 when she died; our male is a bit over 5 years old, and our female is a bit under that.
Heh. They’re not nocturnal – they’re crepuscular actually – but once they learn that veggies come out of the fridge and/or in rustly plastic bags, they will LET YOU KNOW if they think they hear the sounds of veggies in the wild at any time of day or night!
IANAAllergist, but I have friends who are allergic to dogs, cats, rodents, etc. They had a pet skinny pig (hairless guinea pig). While they were able to tolerate the animal and they loved it, it was a sickly thing. I did several surgeries and hospitalized the animal on numerous occasions.