Conference moira::parenting_v3

    Just not guinea pigs!!!!  For my 10th birthday I got to bring home
    the elementary class guinea pigs and a single weekend with them
    cleared away any wishes at all for a guinea pig.  They were noisy,
    messy, and smelled!  They kicked all the cage liner all over my
    room, peed down the wall, and screeched through the night.  From
    then on I was happy to leave them in the science room at school
    where I could help take care of them, love them, but leave them
    at night.  What a learning experience....if only we could try on
    all pets, kids, etc. prior to committing to them!! ;-)
    
    Pam

    
    I've had 4 gerbils--in two sets of two.  Each set were males--even
    though I gave them female/male names (Hermia and Puck; Abelard and
    Heloise--I was into Shakespeare at a very young age!).
    
    Anyway, I have very fond memories of my gerbils and I loved them all
    dearly.  They were fun to watch (they will chew cardboard into little
    shreds--paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, etc.), they don't smell,
    and they are very clean and entertaining little creatures.
    
    Of course, my mother was not too thrilled with them, but that was more
    my fault.  I would insist on taking them out of their cage for their
    "excercise," and of course, at least once a week, one of them would
    "escape."  They can run pretty fast.  Usually, I had the door to my
    room closed, so after awhile, I could catch the errant gerbil.  Once
    however, my mother walked in as they were "excercising."  Hermia ran
    out of my room and we couldn't find him anywhere.  My mother was
    frantic.  She was certain he had gotten into the walls and would stay
    there forever, eating away at wires, insulation, plaster, etc.
    
    Hermia showed up 2 days later underneath the refrigerator.  My mother
    made a rule, "no more gerbil excercise."
    
    Hermia and Puck and Abelard and Heloise lived long, healthy lives.  I
    emptied and washed their cage about once a week.  They are very cute
    little creatures.  They are very gentle too.
    
    Bonnie
    
    

I have never had guinnea pigs, but I grew up having tons of hamsters and
gerbils.  .1 is right, though, theose guinnea pigs are NOISY (they have some
at my daugher's daycare)!

I prefer hamsters to gerbils - all of my hamsters seemed to be more calm than
the gerbils, more friendly, and more "loving" (let you hold, cuddle them, etc.).
They were also more interesting to watch.  I recommend getting the Habitrail
cages and hooking a few different "rooms" together.  Make sure you get an
exercise wheel, they love it.  Also, you can get an exercise ball that you can
put them in to roll around the room (drives dogs and cats nuts!), it's really
fun.

From experience:

- Make sure the cage is escape-proof.  Those darned things can get out of
ANYTHING.  Make sure you always close the doors and latch them completely.  I
had at least a million hamster/gerbil searches around the house, and often did
not find them before the dog did.

- My dogs would not try to kill them, but often played with them so rough that
they died.  Make sure you don't let them alone with the dogs, no matter how
much you trust your dogs.  Ditto for cats!  But the dogs can be excellent
helpers during a search for a lost hamster/gerbil.

- Once my hamster had been loose for weeks and presumed dead, but I hadn't told
my mom for fear of getting in trouble.  We had an awful smell in my brother's
room and nobody could find it, so Mom offered a quarter (big bucks back them)
to whoever found the smell.  My brother found it - my hamster had bitten into
the lamp cord (no wonder that lamp quit working!) and fried himself.  I still
vividly remember the looks of that hamster.

- My dad bought me a new hamster once, and it chewed out of the box on the way
home from the pet store.  Before he could get home, it chewed out of the bag
that the box was in.  So he stuck it in the glove box.  When he got home it
wasn't in the glove box anymore and we couldn't find it.  The next time we were
in the car going somewhere, this little "thing" (a small hamster foot) kept
slipping down over the speedometer numbers, then going back up.  We finally
figured out it was the hamster, cruising through the dash board.  We set up a
trap in the glove box and caught him!

Kristen

    I love these stories, this comes from someone who was raised with one
    then two then suddenly many, many hamsters.  They each had a
    personality, we experienced birth and most of the mothers allowed us to
    hold the young quite soon after birth, which I'm told is unusual.
    
    Since your basenote asks for help with "rodents" It sounds like you're
    not thrilled with the idea?  Have you considered rabbits?  Close but
    not quite as "rodent" looking.
    
    By the way, we got our initial two hamsters from a friend doing
    research at New England Deaconess Hospital, you might try calling your
    local research hospital, they frequently will give excess animals away.
    (No I'm not trying to start a discussion on animal research, this WAS
    over 20 years ago!)
    

Yes I forgot to add that if they have babies, DON'T TOUCH THEM UNTIL THEY HAVE
HAIR ON THEM.  On more than one occasion I touched a baby and then had to
watch the mother eat them ALL!  (.4 is an unusual circumstance, indeed!)  I
think it is the same with other animals, I know it was with our rabits too.

It's also fun to watch them stuff their pouches, then empty them later on!
I think they do this more when there are multiple animals in the cage, and they
want to make sure they get the most food!

Let us know what you decide...

Kristen

We've got two gerbils.  They were both originally from litters that was born 
to the "class gerbils" in my daughters class.  The kids were taking turns 
caring for them on weekends and vacations.  Lara insisted on having them over 
Christmas vacation, and lo and behold, when we went to pick them up, we had 
not two gerbils, but seven.  So we felt kind of like godparents, and adopted 
"Bubble".  We adopted a second one from the litter later; it had a "birth 
defect" -- and eye that never opened, and "Peanut" was having difficulty 
finding a home.

One thing to be careful of is that some of them do bite.  Bubble does not bite 
any more, and we handle her a lot.  Peanut still bites -- not maliciously, he 
just seems to think that's what you do with everything.  They have very sharp 
teeth; Peanut almost bit through one of my fingernails.  So were working with 
Peanyt when we can.  Hopefully he will get used to us and we will be able to 
handle him.

One purpose they serve for us is as recycling machines.  They've reduced 
dramatically the the amount of trash that we throw out.  We give them all our 
cardboard boxes and they reduce them to decomposable shreds in no time.  We 
then just dump the shreds out when we clean the cages.

Clay

    A caution:  if you have allergies, try to borrow one to "test
    drive" before you commit to buying one.  
    
    Usually the only things that trigger my allergies are artificial
    scenting agents, goldenrod and oak pollens, and roses, but when my
    10th-grade advanced biology class started an experiment in
    overcrowding using gerbils, I discovered one more thing that's
    worse than several of the others put together.  Talk about
    sneezing and runny eyes . . . 
    
    --bonnie

    I worked in a pet store and sometimes we got hamsters in that were
    not yet hand tamed, they would scream and go to the bathroom when
    you picked them up.  I think that gerbils are more naturally
    inquisitive, but both gerbils and hamsters can be hand-tamed by
    holding them on your lap and stroking them, letting them walk from
    hand to hand, etc..  A good way to play with gerbils and hamsters,
    if you have a staircase with a landing, is to sit on the landing
    and let them run around.  Then they don't escape.  I think that
    gerbils run faster than hamsters and so might get away easier.
    I had a hamster named "Pig" in college and coming home from school
    for Thanksgiving vacation I brought him in a cardboard box.  When
    I got off the train, the box was empty, no Pig!  Well luckily he
    had chewed his way out of the box and crawled into my suitcase 
    (the zipper wasn't fully closed) and was hiding out in my clothes.
    I trained pig to come when I whistled using food rewards.  Hamsters
    usually pick a corner of the cage to urinate in, and you can try
    and reinforce that corner to make cleaning easier, but they pretty
    much kick up all the bedding anyway.
    	Linda
    	(who shamelessly used tears at the advanced age of 11 to get
    	 a pet mouse).

    Try asking in the Small_Animals conference?   They might have good
    advice for you.
    I had twin sister gerbils when I was young, and they lived for 8 years!
    Probably a record for these type of animals (much to my mother's
    dismay).  I had fun with them, carried them around in my pocket, but
    they can JUMP! They are a member of the kangaroo family, so be prepared
    to do a LOT of gymnastics to catch them if they escape.  I had a wheel
    in their aquarium that they refused to run in, they preferred to swing
    it out and slam it against the side of the aquarium.  I took it out one
    night, since I was tired ot yelling at them to stop all the noise. 
    Later that afternoon my brother and I were watching TV, and he asked
    what the noise was upstairs.  I said "Those stupid gerbils slamming
    that wheel again".  Then it occured to me that the wheel was OUT of the
    cage.  Sure enough, they had managed to escape, and were playing with
    the wheel on the top of my desk!  Too silly to run away, they just
    wanted to play with their wheel!
    

    The Small animals conference is on ioalot::small_animals. Press
    the 7 key on your keypad to add it to your notebook.
    
    One small nit in re .9 gerbils are *not* members of the kangaroo
    family (i.e. marsupials) they are placental mammals. They are
    call 'kangaroo rats' because of their hind leg construction and
    jumping ability, not because of any biological relationship. :-)
    
    May I also suggest white rats? They are about the smartest of the
    rodents, can be easily tamed and enjoy riding about on your shoulder.
    These animals have been lab bred for so many generations that they
    are naturally tame and enjoy being around people. 
    
    We have had gerbils, rabbits, hamsters and rats for pets and I'd
    pick rats again over the other three.
    
    Bonnie

    Should you elect to get a kitten, cat, puppy [of any shape, size or
    origin], hamster, etc., won't you please check out your Animal Rescue
    Leagues or shelters?  There are literally thousands of homeless little
    animals waiting for someone to take them home and give them some love. 
    The Worcester Animal Rescue League recently had gerbils up for
    adoption [besides their "normal fare."].
    
    Good luck.
    
    Rgds,
    marcia

    I agree with Marcia but be aware that many shelters won't adopt
    a puppy or kitten under 6 mos. old to a family with a child younger
    than 6 years. They feel there is too much risk of the the child
    or animal getting hurt.  Asked beforehand so your kids don't become
    instantly attached to a puppy or kitten and then find out they can't
    have it.
    	Linda

    on the note of an excellent pet, Hampsters make great ones.
    --Just don't breed them.  Ours had 12 in one litter.  we still have
    8 left--FREE to anyone who would give one a good home.
    ed -Hudson,NH   603-886-1741

I'm with you Bonnie (.10)!  By far the nicest, most trouble-free pet my
daughter has had was a white rat.  Bred as lab animals, two baby females
were obtained by my daughter's teacher for scientific observations about
nutrition and growth.  The kids named them Kate and Allie, and really
enjoyed playing with them and caring for them.  At the end of the school 
year, my daughter got to adopt Allie.

I was amazed at how very tame and friendly Allie was.  She never darted
around, the way a wild rodent would.  I'll admit that the pink eyes and
hairless tail might take some getting used to, but I think their endearing
personalities would override most people's squeamishness.  Allie was very
calm, friendly, and affectionate.  She loved to be held, to sit on our
shoulders or ride in a pocket.  She never made a sound and didn't smell.
However, she chewed anything in reach, and was pretty inventive about
climbing out of her cage if my daughter hadn't put the cover on properly!
We *all* shed a lot of tears when Allie died, and have missed her greatly.

Sarah

    I have to agree with the rat people.  I worked in a pet store for 10
    yrs and I've had all the different rodents at one time or another. (mom
    didn't have to worry because the owner let me keep them at work!).
    My rat, Sting, was my favorite one.  He was black with dark eyes.
    He had a rowdy personality.  I would keep him up at the counter.  As
    customers approached, I would usually open up a bag and put the items
    in as I rang them up-Sting would see the open bag and run into it!!He
    loved bags..got a real scream out of the customers HA HA!!!  He also
    loved potatoe chips and mountain dew.  I didn't feed him those things
    but we inevitably had muchies on the counter and he helped himself.
    
    My mouse was also very cute, however my rat was much more intelligent.
    
    The trick with any "rodent' type animal is to handle them often!!
    If you let too much time inbetween they "forget" and you have to start
    over.   If your child is very small, I would recommend the pig or
    rabbit.  Yes, they are a bit messier than hamsters...... however they
    are bigger and a small child can learn how to handle them better than a
    small hamster or gerbil.  If you want something they can watch more
    than hold, than the hamster or gerbil.  
    
    However......there's nothing like a dog.....!!!
    
    Renee

    as an aside of .15 I just had to relate our experience at the Mall.
    
    Since AJ and dad had been together most of Saturday, since I had
    someplace to go for a majority of the day, I decided to give AJ a
    treat, give dad a break, and attempt to burn off the last of his energy
    by walking the length of the Auburn Mall Saturday night.  The object of
    the game was to "treat" him to a frozen yogurt for being good for dad
    all day too.
    
    So what am I getting at?  Half way down the Mall is a pet store, some
    chain type store, and of course he wanted to go see "the puppies",
    which he did, but his attention was diverted by a wooden pen, roughly
    3.5 X 3.5 X 1foot filled with an assortment of bunnies; lots of kinds,
    gerbils, and guinea pigs.  They were all together, sleeping together,
    washing each other and generally it looked like a good time.  All the
    "little people" seemed to be having fun since I tend to think the
    object of the display was not only to sell these critters, but to allow
    you to pet them.  I was amazed at how tame these little guys were, and
    how much handling they put up with.
    
    Now I was a "city kid" until ten years ago, so I had no idea the
    different  species could be kept together.  It was sort of funny, one
    of the smaller gerbils kept crawing *under* the bunnies, two or three
    of them in a heap, and going to sleep!  Of course I was concerned and
    thought it was being smothered, but every time I'd try to "unbury" the
    critter, he'd determinly dig himself back in again. I think I had as
    much fun as AJ in the pet store!!  Maybe it's time to go looking for a
    "petting zoo"?
    
    Lyn

    Lyn,
    
    Green Hill Park used to have a petting zoo.  If you're going up Belmont
    Street from Shrewsbury, you come to Belmont Home - what used to be
    Quinsigamond's campus.  You turn up there; it would be a right hand
    turn.  There is also a reserve armory up there.  Anyway, that road
    leads right into the Green Hill Park area where they used to have the
    petting zoo.  I don't know if it's still there, with all the budget
    cuts that have been going on.
    
    Hmm, sometimes the Auburn Mall has a petting zoo, too.  If you listen
    to that Worcester FM station - 104.5 [too much talk for me], they
    advertise when the petting zoo is coming to the mall.  
    
    Rgds,
    marcia