hamser or gerbil?

Question
We have 7 goldfish, 4 cats - declawed when I got em, and we want to buy a hamster or gerbil. The kids are 8 and 9. Mom will do the cage cleaning. Which animal or two do you recommend and which kind of cage? I need alot of help as I'm clueless. The rodent will be in a safe zone - no cat room!!!

Answer
Hello Jennifer,
Oh I love helping people with this. I just to have so much fun at work helping people find the right pet and cage and stuff.
Okay, lets start off with hamsters. They are two different types one is the Syrian Hamster which are the large hamster that get a little over 6 inches and you can only have one per cage. They are cannibals. The Siberian hamsters come in many colors and some are specific colors like black bear hamster. The ones with fancy names I like to call them Fancy hamsters because they are generally much nicer than the regular hamsters. The regular hamsters come in long-haired and short haired. The downside for the Syrian hamsters is they can easily get wettail which is a bacterial infection and normally they get it while at the store or when you first take them home because they get stressed out. Generally if you give them some Acidophilus+ that will help with the digestive system until he gets used to his new surroundings.

Then there's the dwarf hamster which is my favorite because they are calmer than the Syrian hamster and they get 3-4 inches. Dwarf hamsters come in a few types. Winter White, Russian Campbell, Chinese and Roboroski. You will commonly find the Winter White, Russian Campbell and Chines in a lot of pet stores. They are sweet natured and you can have more than one as long as you buy them at the same time, but sometimes they may fight.

Gerbils are very sweet and can also be kept in pairs and generally do fine with another friend in the cage. They are known to be less likely to fight. Gerbils also produce less of an odor as well. The main thing to remember is that gerbils can lose their tails if you grab them. The skin will sloth off and the tail will have to be amputated.

As for cage size if you get a large hamster then you should get a wire cage and avoid the plastic cages with tubes since they can get stuck in them because they will outgrow it. PetSmart has wire cage kits that come with almost everything you need to have a happy hamster.
As far as dwarf and gerbils cages generally a nice size cage that's at least a foot long is good. Your kids would probably want a cool cage with tubing. SuperPet Crittertrails are good but sometimes they can easily break since they are plastic but I just fix it with super glue. My winter white albino dwarf hamster is in a super critter trail 3 and is loving his luxury condo. Dwarf hamsters and gerbils also like to take dust baths. I bought a little super bet critter bowl and some dust bath and he loves it, but I bought that later on though. The main things you need are a nice sized cage, a wheel, water bottle, food dish(which most if not all critter cages have), some hamster or gerbil food as well as chew treats, a little hut or house to fit inside the cage for extra privacy and bedding. I like the vitakraft chew treats since my hamster loves them. Gerbils love to chew on wood like cherry tree wood. Also some great bedding are carefresh which I use and soft-sorbent bedding. I also buy Oasis vitamin drops sold at PetSmart for added nutrition since they have a tenancy to pick through food.
I really like dwarf hamsters because they are small and cute. All of the animals can bite so if your kids can deal with a nip here and there then that's great.

I hope this all helps, if you have anymore questions feel free to ask.