Forgive me for unsolicited advice, but have you considered a pet rat? Of all the rodents I’ve had they act the most dog-like. They love attention, and are good with supervised house romping. I had one that would escape her cage and crawl into bed with me. They are extremely smart and endearing, and very friendly. The other rodents I’ve had haven’t really cared to be social with me.
If you do decide to get a rat, get one bred to be a pet rather than one bred for snake food. It will have been handled and accustomed to people. It’s definitely possible to tame a snake food rat, my bed climbing rat was one, but pet ones are sweet from the get-go.
They point out that adopting from them saves lives because they don’t have enough room to save all the bunnies that are dumped at shelters. I definitely would encourage you to consider an animal from a rescue or shelter rather than a pet store. You’ll not only be helping the animal you adopt, but also helping the next animal that will get a chance to go to the rescue because of the space freed up from the one you adopted.
At our local shelter, I’ve seen all kinds of small furry animals up for adoption, including rats and hamsters (even though these animals only live a couple of years, I guess some people can’t handle even that much of a commitment!)
We’ve kept the class Guinea Pig for many weekends.
In the words of my daughter: he’s a pooping machine! All he does is eat and poop and poop some more!
Another vote for pet rats as the ultimate pet rodent, if you can get past your personal squick factor (seriously though? So cute!). A tame, well-socialized rat is as smart, curious, affectionate and trainable as a dog. They are small, tough for their size, flexible in their housing requirements, omnivorous, not nearly as bad with the general gnawing as most rodents, females can even be litter-trained, they don’t usually piss and shit all over you… and they can be trained to do most anything. I trained all mine to peacefully ride on my shoulder or in my sweatshirt pocket, they would sleep up there or groom my ears.
Only drawback is that they are lucky to make it to three years old, and they usually die dramatically. I fed mine a biologically appropriate diet, so didn’t have the problems with tumors (cancerous and non) many rat owners do; but my rats all had strokes, got dementia, or suddenly fell prey to a sudden severe attack of respiratory illness, none of which were fun either. And when you get really attached to a creature with so much personality, it sucks to have to lose them at 1.5 to 2.75 years old.
One thing to consider is that they are nocturnal and rodents, so expect to hear the <tik><tik><tik><tik><tik><tik><tik><tik><tik><tik><tik> of them chewing through most of the night.
Also, anything you put in that cage will be chewed on, so make sure that anything you put in there is safe for them.
It is incorrect that being allergic to cats automatically makes you allergic to guinea pigs. For example, Mrs. J. and I had a succession of guinea pigs which did not cause her allergy problems (though she is highly allergic to cats).
GPs are also not especially noisy, though some will shriek when they hear a sound associated with food. I had an illegal guinea pig in student housing once and had to be very careful about plastic wrap crinkling sounds when getting lettuce for him out of the fridge. Mrs. J. and a friend transported one of his descendants on a Greyhound bus (also in violation of Regulations), and had to do some strategic coughing when the beast began squeaking. Also, I had one that seemed to be fixated on his water bottle (which had a ball seal which made a clicking/clanking sound when slurped on) and the constant drinking sometimes drove me bats.
All in all, I think they make nice pets when you can devote attention to them and handle them frequently. They will purr when stroked, which is not common in the rodent world (I’ve heard chinchillas have next to no personality) and seem less easily spooked than rabbits. The handling thing can be tricky, as they have no compunction about peeing or pooping on you.
For optimal rodent happiness, get two (female) guinea pigs. Two males is a no-no as there will be fighting and stinky musk odors; a male and a female is undesirable unless you want to deal with offspring and mating squabbles (think a very horny Ralph Cramden and a less than enthusiastic Alice).
If you get pigs from a rescue, they’re neutered beforehand (at least the one I linked to does so). We’ve often had one boy and two girls.
Even lacking the equipment, those gentlemen do one mating behavior: a strut-rumble where he walks slowly around, waggling his behind, making a low rumbling sound, to show off to his ladies. It’s very funny when you know what it is!
We have two males and while there was fighting the first couple of days, once they established which one was the dominant pig, there’s been no more fighting ever since. No musk odors, either. They are quite placid and happy with each other in there. But yes, for Og’s sake, get a same-gender pair.
Guinea pigs are an outdoor pet, IMO- happiest in an outdoor hutch with access to grazing (we used a movable frame and wire run with a roof). They can and will eat.a phenomenonal volume of fresh greens and produce an accordingly large amount of wastes.
Unlike rabbits, GPs are naturally amiable and cuddly. Rabbits have to be tamed and that isn’t always successful -sometimes a rabbit will just be grumpy and aloof and stay that way.
But for a fully-indoor pet, i’d recommend neither rabbits or guinea pigs. Smaller rodents such as gerbils, rats or degus may be a better choice (and degus possibly the best of those)
I’ll dispute that. My wife and I have three chinchillas, and they have a lot of personality. Each one of our three, and the others we’ve had previously, had a distinct and unique personality from the others. What they did all have in common was being aloof and suspicious. They don’t like to be petted, held or cuddled, and aren’t fond of having humans around at all.
Very much like a human with dementia: increasingly confused, incontinent, and unable to feed themselves reliably. So I had to seperate them from the others, clean them up often (as they would pee and poop all over themselves/their sleeping area), and hand-feed at least 3 times per day in the later stages.
The House Rabbit Society is my preferred source for info on living with rabbits.
I wish to strongly echo the advice given upthread about rabbits chewing through cords. I’ve had one sever a TV power cord in passing, while hopping away from my pursuing hands, without breaking stride – it is as if they are on a holy crusade to destroy all consumer electronics, or they are addicted to voltage, or something. You can rabbit-safe a room, but odds are you will have forgotten something expensive and/or dangerous. I haven’t had any die from electrical shock, thank El-ahrairah.
Chinchillas are far more sensitive to warm temperatures than rabbits – they will flat-out die in hot weather. We bought our chin his own personal room air conditioner because the condo unit had reliability issues. There is also a marble slab they can rest on which cools them somewhat; it is irresistibly named a “chin-chiller.”
I’m a zoo educator, and have worked with all of these critters in a ahem professional capacity. Of the furry friends mentioned already, I’d go with rabbits. Two, if possible, and if space is at a premium, get dwarfs(vegetables for scale). Rabbits have a lot of personality, but don’t assert it in the same way as a dog or cat would. You have to learn to hear them. This is right on the money.
Google around for a local rabbit rescue, or visit a shelter. The posters above are right: some rabbits are cuddle bugs, and some aren’t, and there’s not much you can do to change that. A good rescue will help to pair you up with a rabbit or two that will suit your needs.
As to allergies, there’s no way to predict what you could be allergic to, as each species produces different allergens. A skin prick test at an allergist will narrow down the field. Personally, I’m allergic to rodents, including rats, mice, guinea pigs, porcupines, rock and Patagonian cavies and capybaras. Rabbits? No problem. (They’re not rodents, they’re lagomorphs.)
I am also somewhat allergic to guinea pigs. BUT - this has almost never been a problem.
The pigs live in the family room, in the corner opposite the couch. So unless I’m handling them, I have almost no direct exposure. Their dander doesn’t get all over the place like a cat’s does, because they don’t get all over the place like the cat does.
The one time where it really bothered me: one of the piggies was sick (in fact she died a couple of days later). I was trying to force-feed her a nutrient mash, and therefore was handling her a lot. She didn’t much like this, and so would scramble up my front and hide under my chin, poor thing.
My neck and upper chest were itchy - not awfully so, but definitely a localized reaction, and my asthma - which was flaring anyway - wasn’t helped by it either.
But all in all, the allergy has been almost a complete non-issue.
Still: I would recommend you try to spend a little time handling pigs (visit a shelter or visit a friend who has them) to see if you have any significant issues. Possibly mine are better because I’m on antihistamines anyway.
I was going to write a detailed response to your post, but I think it’s easier to say that almost none of what you said rings true to me.
If I’d read your post outside of the context of this thread, with the first line deleted, I’d never have determined you were talking about guinea pigs.
It’s an accurate description of the two, non-consecutive guinea pigs I’ve had personal contact with. I suppose there could be others who weren’t as bad. Somewhere. Maybe. Back east.
That was the cut down version. The unedited version of the post was almost twice as long.
I’d follow this up with my usual joke about hating them because they burned down my village as a child, but honestly, I can’t imagine guinea pigs moving enough to set fire to anything. I can’t imagine them doing anything but chewing on things, smelling up the joint, and pooping. Which is a pretty much all my sister’s former guinea pig, Pumpkin, ever did.
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I had no idea that was a sought after combination of traits for a companion. My dating prospects are suddenly looking much better.
Guinea pigs? Be prepared for the sound of “Voot-voot-voot, voot-voot-voot” whenever they are distressed or hungry. Damn they get annoying with their calls. So much so that even the 7 year old version of me understood my parent’s annoyance and wanted to get rid of it shortly after acquiring one.
You have to be dedicated or barring getting rid of it, eat it. There are Latin American cultures that are built around eating these fluffy cuties.
After having grown up with just about any and every pet possible, including snakes, mice, hamsters, goldfish, birds, dogs, cats, ants, and skunks (!), I am SO glad I don’t have any of those anymore.
