gerbils vs. guinea pigs

[Marie000]

I am really bad at making decisions sometimes!

I want to get a small pet and I have narrowed it down to either gerbils or guinea pigs.

Here's what I figured so far:

gerbils - pros:
- take up much less space (guinea pig cages are HUGE)
- easier to take care of (food is easier, less cleaning to do)
- less smell

guinea pigs - pros:
- easier for lo (21 months old) to be a little involved (petting, feeding...)
- seems more fun
- less chance of escaping (that is an issue since I have a dog with a prey drive towards small rodents)
- easier to find in a rescue
- I get to build the cage myself (silly, I know, but I like that! gerbils, on the other hand, are better off in aquariums)

Either way, these will me my pets, but I would like for lo to share in the experience. She loves animals. I will be getting the pets from a rescue (preferably) or free-to-good-home ads. No pet store! I will be getting a same-sex pair of either animal.

I have had gerbils before, but not guinea pigs. One things that does worry me about guinea pigs is smell... how often do you need to clean the cage for it not to smell? (with bedding and/or fleece)

 

[Camlet]

I personally prefer guinea pigs they are just friendlier in my opinion but then I really am not a gerbil fan at all tbh! In my experience gerbils tend to bite more than guinea pigs & just aren't as friendly or as easy to handle as guinea pigs especially if you want your LO involved. I don't think guinea pigs smell to bad if they are cleaned out regularly enough, with mine I cleaned them out once a week & just spot cleaned their cage every day & they were fine in fact they smelled a lot better than my cats do! lol xx

 

[AP]

Gerbils can be so noisy, I had 3, i would never get them again! They bite and I don't think they are the most, well cuddly! LOL!

Guinea pigs are great - but they are nervous creatures too, especially so at first. Children often don't understand that so it can be a bit frightening for guinea pigs - that's something you need to work on with your child. Fleece cages are really popular now, and I hear easy to clean. We had a guinea pig last year and he was nervy. Alex ended up with an allergic reaction to him and we decided to give him up to my mum. My mums guinea pigs end up big softies and rather friendly and cuddly. When I was younger, we had a guinea pig and a budgie who got too old to fly, so gave up and ran about with the guinea pig it was surreal, but they cuddled up together a lot.

So you can see how fun it can be with a guinea!

 

[Marie000]

guinea pigs sound like fun

The gerbils I had as a child were actually super friendly. They would climb on me as soon as they saw me, ran inside my sleeves, etc. When one of them was recovering from an injury, he was tired during his time out of the cage and decided to lie down and sleep on my hand while I was writing. But I was a teenager by then and spent all my time in my room with them.
Other gerbils I had later were not as friendly, but I never had them for very long either.

So I think I am leaning towards guinea pigs again. I'll wait a little longer to make a firm decision, just to be sure of my decision.

 

[Bex84]

I would say guinea pig as your lo can be more involved. I was always put off gerbils as when I was at primary school they were class pet and they ate all the baby gerbils plus having a dog I would worry

 

[maisie78]

I adore guinea pigs and we have had quite a few over the years. They are do friendly but needs lots of gentle handling early on to help them get over their nerves. I personally would try to get females rather than males. We have had a few issued with males in the past once they hit puberty even when they grew up together. I think as long as you clean them once a week and give them a spot clean everyday they can actually smell quite nice (or am I just weird?). My favourite thing is their call though. We used to have them running free in our garden and they would come over to us squeaking away when we came out for a fuss. Love them and we will definitely get more in the future

 

[jd83]

Gerbils can be quite mean. We had them growing up, and they bit us a lot. I have some scars on my hands from being bitten so hard that I once had to shake the thing off to get it to let go, it was clamped so hard onto my finger. I think that was the last time we had them, too, after that experience.

Guinea pigs we never had growing up, but I do believe I've always heard they are much friendlier.

 

[Amber4]

Guinea pigs. Love them xx

 

[kitabird]

I've had several of each, and much prefer gerbils.
They're so friendly, and great fun for little ones to watch as they run, jump and climb so much. Guinea pigs don't really do anything besides sit and eat, and they're way, way smellier. They need cleaning out probably 3 times as often as gerbils. Gerbils are very quick though, so if you want your LO to be able to hold the pet, then a guinea pig might be better.
The only time I have ever been bitten by a gerbil was by a very old slightly senile one who mistook my finger for the treat I was holding. Don't think I've ever been bitten by a guinea pig either, mind.
They're both good options, but if we get a pet again, we'll definitely go for gerbils.

 

[Button#]

I've never been keen on Gerbils as I found them a bit bitey and quite fast.

Love guineas but haven't had them since I was a kid so don't know much about them.

Have you considered rats? They seem to combine some of your pros and make fantastic pets. They can be cuddly and playful, are as clever as dogs and you can have great fun designing their cage layouts (mine got quite elaborate!) to provide stimulation. You can also find them in rescues, all mine were from one.

 

[Marie000]

I've never been keen on Gerbils as I found them a bit bitey and quite fast.

Love guineas but haven't had them since I was a kid so don't know much about them.

Have you considered rats? They seem to combine some of your pros and make fantastic pets. They can be cuddly and playful, are as clever as dogs and you can have great fun designing their cage layouts (mine got quite elaborate!) to provide stimulation. You can also find them in rescues, all mine were from one.

yes, I have thought about rats. I have had many rats in the past (three pairs) and loved them.
My main hesitation with rats is that we are currently renting and might have to move within the next year. It's really hard to find apartments that allow pets (I have a big dog already) and rats scare landlords worst than dogs, it seems. Although someone once told me I just have to mention having "Norwegian long-tailed hamsters" and that might be better.

Just like gerbils, I also worry that they might be too squirmy for my daughter to interact with them and they might trigger my dog's prey drive. Of course I would keep any rodents out of my dog's reach, but it would make me a bit nervous.

But curse you for making me want rats again!!!

 

[Marie000]

I thought I had settled on guinea pigs, but thanks to Button#, I have spent a few hours today looking up rat cage designs and rats up for adoption nearby.

Now I don't know.
I hadn't thought about it in a long time, but I miss rats. Good thing my old pictures are lost in a backup somewhere or I would be looking at pictures of my old rats.

 

[Button#]

So sorry Marie! If I'd known you were an ex rat owner I wouldn't have said anything, it does get to be a bit of an addiction! I have pulled the hamster stunt but my landlord lived in Australia at the time! Can you ask to keep small caged rodents? They'll be asleep when anyone visits anyway.

I'm going to run away now!

 

[emyandpotato]

Have you considered rats? Best of both IMO.

 

[emyandpotato]

ETA: Sorry I should read the whole thing before replying! I've never had guinea pigs but I wouldn't get gerbils with a young child as I think they're more suited to older and more patient children.

 

[Marie000]

Now I am leaning towards rats.

I will mention it to OH and see how he reacts. Chances are, he'll just be happy not to have a guinea pig-sized cage around.

 

[Marie000]

So sorry Marie! If I'd known you were an ex rat owner I wouldn't have said anything, it does get to be a bit of an addiction! I have pulled the hamster stunt but my landlord lived in Australia at the time! Can you ask to keep small caged rodents? They'll be asleep when anyone visits anyway.

I'm going to run away now!

No hard feelings

I did have some old rat pictures lying around in my photobucket account. They were so cute!!

my favorite pictures of Toby (baby and adult)
https://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y277/mariepelletier/Pets/TOBY_BABY.jpg

https://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y277/mariepelletier/Pets/TOBY_FARM2.jpg

such a goofy boy.

 

[Button#]

So cute! The rat in my avatar was called Toby as well!

 

[Marie000]

So cute! The rat in my avatar was called Toby as well!

awww. He's really cute!

At first I wanted to name mine "Toe" because he had a stump for a foot (he was born that way) that looked like a toe. My bf at the time didn't like that so I called him Toby instead.
I later had a female rat that was blind. I guess I have a thing for special needs rats.

 

[GingerPanda]

I used to breed guinea pigs! I think I had like 20 at one point.

They're better for kids than gerbils IMO because they're bigger and easier to socialize. I would recommend getting two females about the same age, if you're getting a pair. Two boys are likely to not get along.