Rodent choice follow-up

We have been chatting and will post again soon, I promise! In the meantime, this small cool thing. In the comments of our Rodent Choice post, in support of my rodent choice of the noble rat, I linked to an article about hero rats that sniff out landmines and tuberculosis. It turns out you can donate to buy hero rats bananas and exercise wheels! Wow!

Rodent Choice

I like the second question (the "kid question") in today's Hey Cherie because it's unusual.

Hey Cherie,

If you had to choose between a gerbil, a hamster, a white mouse, a white rat or a guinea pig for a pet, which would you choose? I am in fifth grade and am allowed to get one of them, but I can't make up my mind. I want to choose by the weekend.

--Rodent Choice

I hope the LW means this weekend, but I suspect it's a weekend that passed long ago. This is clearly the kind of question where you just give an arbitrary answer, and Cherie says she will but then doesn't.

Hey Rodent!

Easy question gets an easy answer. I would choose the one that makes the least amount of noise running on his or her wheel at 2 in the morning. Go for the tame rodent and the well-oiled wheel.

As for me? I'll take guppies any day of the week.

Lulu: That's not an easy answer. We can do this, guys! GO! PICK A RODENT!

Ashley: I think guinea pig. They have cute noses.

Lulu: White rat. Rats are badass.

Darnell: White mouse. I don't have a reason, I have no idea what the difference between any of those are.

Okay, so I guess the random arbitrary response approach doesn't work when there are multiple respondents. So here's what you do, kiddo. You want to google "rodents as pets" or "what rodent makes the best pet." I just did and got this handy comparison. If you wanted to be orderly about it, you could make a chart comparing cuteness, difficulty to care for, how well they do alone (if your parents will really only allow one discrete animal), and how well they interact with humans (if you want to take it out of the cage and cuddle it rather than just watching it scurry around). My champion, white rats, seem to score high on all those measures except that they are social so you would probably need to be allowed to get two, like Pinky and the Brain. Hamsters seem to be the only ones that do well alone.

If I were you I'd clarify from the parents if it would be possible to get two animals of the same type in one cage. If they say no argue that in that case several animals including your FAVORITE, the noble WHITE RAT, are disqualified then because they need company, and it would be cruel to get just one. If they still say no get a hamster.

DONE. WITH RESEARCH.