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anonyrat
2007-07-09 11:05 pm UTC (link)

My first pet was a guinea pig. It was cute, and it wasn't mean or anything, but it was really, really stupid and completely petrified of me no matter what I did. It was less of a pet than an animal that happened to live in a cage in my room. This has been the case with most of the guinea pigs I've known throughout my life, but the other day I saw a little boy at the pet store buying one and it seemed very friendly. It was even licking his hand like a little puppy dog. I guess they must have breed the fear out of them by now.

Mice are adorable. I kind of want a few, but I always got the impression that they were too small to really understand that you were another being as opposed to just mobile scenery.

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oar
2007-07-10 01:35 am UTC (link)

That is a problem with the mice, to a point. They really aren't all that smart, but they are hyper and curious, so as long as they get used to you you can still interact with them, even if they do see you as the Giant Moving Hand That Brings The Food.

Another problem (which may have been at the heart of your issue with the guinea pigs) is that animals in pet stores are usually mass-produced in breeder farms and rarely socialized with people. It took me a while to get my mice not to hide from me, since I doubt anyone had ever handled them before. If you raise a rodent from a baby I'm sure they can be the most sociable animals on the planet.

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