I've been dithering too much, pls help me decide - hamster or guinea pig?

[Dancergirl]

We've never had pets before so are somewhat beginners lol! Me and the dds (10, 8 and 4) have been dithering for too long over what to get, they are keen on either a hamster or guinea pigs. I've done a bit of research so know a bit about both. Cons for hamster - they're nocturnal and only live a couple of years. And I think you can only get one because they fight - is that right?

After reading the other post about GPs, I am still confused about whether they can live outside all year...? We have plenty of space on the patio for a hutch but nowhere else for them to go. We don't have a garage and the garden shed is falling apart at the end of the garden so just not practical. So we can only get GPs if they can live outside all year. However we do have space in the house for a hamster cage. In a way I like the idea of having GPs outside but I'm wondering if I'll feel the same in the winter when we have to go out in all weathers to feed them and clean them out...?

What would you recommend? My dds are used to handling both and even the little one is quite gentle.

Rats are good but mice are too. Mice can even be kept on a high plinth with no cage as they will not jump, they know it's too high. Male mice smell, so go for a few females. I have had hamsters, russian dwarf hamsters, guinea pigs, rats and mice in my time...the rats and mice were the most fun and they never bit anyone, unlike hamsters..they can go straight through a nail if they feel like it

I had rats & gerbils as a kid, so when we got guinea pigs a few months ago I kept warning not to let them out in case they scarpered off.

To my surprise, they just sit happily wherever DD puts them & munch on a bit of grass. They make incredibly cute noises, and they have very distinct personalities.

I'm looking forward to bringing them in this winter!

Degus are tricky because you have to be VERY careful with their diet - no fruit or sweet treats or they can die. You also need to keep a group of them, take up quite alot of space and must be kept indoors. They aren't, imho, terribly good pets for children.

Kritiq.... I had noticed them in p@ h and wondered!

Degus are also obsessive chewers IME - anything that isn't metal = fair game for chewing up into pieces. They aren't keen on any kind of cuddling etc but they do love to run around.

One other thing about GPs - they wee LAKES. DD2 had some when she was younger, I used to get them out to sit on my knee sometimes with a towel on my lap for accidents - once the darn thing backed its arse over the precipice of my knees and peed on my feet...it was like the scene out of Austin Powers, it peed for aaaages.

Guinea pigs. In our experience, were much hardier, got fewer diseases, lived longer, and dont make your living room (or wherever you keep them) smelly. Guinea pigs are lovely friendly llittle creatures, make love cheeping noises - I just love 'em! Can be handled much easier than the smaller hamsters, and not so wriggly. Having said this, I still cried buckets when the time came to bury our hamsters (had three over the years.) And guinea pigs seem to have much more character and come in some lovely combinations of colour and fur length. Our guinea pigs always lived outside all year round, but when we had exceptionally cold spells, brought them into the garage/shed until the worst of it had passed, and they all survived. Enjoy your pets!

Guinea-pigs;
we had 12 at home, not all together though.
We had 2 litters (our first 2 sows were boar/sow petshop error) then mum GP got pg again straight away.(I didn't know they could do this)
At one time we had two mum/daughter groups (not kept together , each mum/daughter pair was together but seperate from other group.

The older mum used to sing like a little bird, really sweet.
We never had a biter.2 were a bit uncuddly, but friendly in their own way.
One of ours could run upstairs,and ride on my sisters shoulder.

They didn't escape and if they did explore, their bellies lured them back.They are greedy little blighters.

A couple of ours were litter trained and would use a newspapr lined tray.Others just pooh where they like!

The only time ours went to the vet: our original male (one we were told was a sow) was concussed running away-into a wall- from his pg mate.She bit him and he legged it.He had a form of eczema,the vet said stress related, and didn't reach his 2nd birthday.

When one of the 4 females was on her own and getting old, she didn't chew the cage bars so her teeth got a bit long and had to have the odd tooth trim .I could cut claws but didn't risk teeth.

Hamsters- I can't think of any positives.Not my type of rodent.

Mmmm I was very anti hamster having had an incredibly vicious one as a youngster.

However, I caved over a month ago and agreed to allow ds (5) to have one after we sadly had to have our 16 year old cat PTS. We went for a male syrian (after being advised they are less aggressive than females) and he is fantastic.

He comes out of his cage every night into a 'playground' we made for him out of one of those large plastic 'really useful' storage boxes. He is only held to be moved between cages at the moment but this is only because he is fairly quick and dashes about, he has never bitten anyone. We takes food from ds and is happy to be stroked. Ds loves watching him climbing and dangling off the bars.

I clean him out once a week and have abit of a tidy up of his cage every couple of days but he honestly isn't smelly. He does throw shavings all over mind! I did try the hamster potty litter but he just loves rolling around in it like some sort of dust bath, much to amusement of ds.

We have had guinea pigs, the cat(which abviously had years before ds arrived) and little 'ham n cheese' as pets since having ds and he says hamster is definately best. To be honest, dh and I enjoy him too.