Originally Posted by
wallawala
We had a hamster for about 4 months. DD picked him out and the store tried to get us to switch to new baby one (they brought out a tupperware bin with lots) but nope she wanted the "floor model". I think he was old as died in his sleep 4 months later. He only bit me once, and learned to be handled after that. He was a great little dude, and put up with my DD and DS playing with him on their schedule not his. They are better solitary rodents.
He was replaced by 2 gerbils (better social animals, so get littermates and get 2). One lasted a year, the other 2.5 years. They were not as cuddly or patient as the hamster and we moved to reptiles after that...
Now we have leopard gecko. We bought him full grown, so established good eater. He is nocturnal but very chill. Needs a little more equipment than rodents (heated pad for one side of tank, humidity monitor, uses reptile carpet for bedding, calcium supplement), but easy to figure out with a few youtube videos. They have tiny teeth, so can't hurt you if it's a biter. The downside is these only eat live bugs, so need to have a constant supply of crickets, roaches, or worms. Roaches are expensive, but SO much easier than crickets- which I've decided are the nastiest, foul-smelling, quick dying, loud MF'ers ever. HATE crickets now. Leopard geckos don't eat veggies, so you can't cheat from the fridge if you run out of food. I've started ordering roaches off amazon as the only pet store that consistently carries them is the next city over with crap parking- so it's an hour and a half excursion. Not sure what we are going to do this winter as roaches won't survive the porch if UPS drops off when we are at work/school. Also, leopard geckos live generally 20-25 years so this is a LONG commitment!
We had everything growing up in my house.... guinea pigs, mice, gerbils, rabbits (my favorite, but need to be outside IMHO, and we live in MN now so that's a no go), tarantulas, many many lizards, and a 25 foot python-- not all at the same time of course, but my mom was a saint!