Gerbils

Hamsters are cuter. Had gerbils once and hated them. Guinea pigs are good.

I had a gerbil growing up, it would bite and poo on anyone that tried to hold it. Needless to say, no one was sad when it finally kicked it. Had a guinea pig later, he was much better. Sweet, interactive, and friendly. He actually liked interaction with people.

Gerbils are really fast, so if they get out of the cage it is very hard to catch them and put the back. Definitely prefer hamsters over gerbils but ultimately Guinea pigs are far more fun. They live longer and and just easier to care for and handle in my opinion.They also need that ball thing to run around in but could also just be let free with supervision of course.

Gerbils and hamsters bite when frightened and aren't always easy to handle by little ones who may squeeze them too tightly. My grandmother loved her guinea pig and I loved my hamsters. Each of these pets need to be handled daily. The guinea pig probably less so than the hamster or pig.

I had guinea pigs and loved them. The first time I saw gerbils, one had just eaten the other. I guess you can tell I don't like gerbils.

Sorry, but I just had to tell you that this is a possibility...

:(

I'm not a fan of gerbils either. Guinea pigs are fun though! Ferrets are awesome pets, but they do have an odor if you don't keep their litter boxes clean enough. (Just throwing that one out there..)

We had gerbils as kids and enjoyed them. I also had them as an adult and enjoyed them.
I even managed to train them to ride in my shirt pocket.

Get two of the same sex. Two males will get along better than two females.

They are nocturnal, so be prepared to hear them moving about in the night.

The cage has to be cleaned regularly or it will smell.

They are rodents, so they need to chew to keep their front teeth filed down. Without sufficient chewing material, their front teeth will get too long and will interfere with their ability to eat.

They need to be handled a lot from the time they are babies to get used to being handled. Otherwise, they tend to be easily frightened by hands reaching into the cage, and are more likely to become fear-biters. Those little teeth HURT.

I like the Habitrail cages - lots of tunnels for them to explore and keep them from getting bored.

Being rodents, they have a fairly short life span - three years old is geriatric fro a gerbil.

I had several growing up and they do make good pets and can be very sweet. Cage cleaning, feeding, fresh water, things to chew on and lots of handling are important. Mine loved the balls that they could run around in and one was great and could avoid people walking and everything else. We used 10 gallon aquariums as cages- easy to clean. The plastic ones are fun, but can messy and sometimes chewed by the pet. rats are also great and a little bigger, very trainable for tricks. The downside is they don't live to long and you do have to be pretty careful with them because of size. It sounds like your girls would probably do fine with them. They can bite and sometimes hard! We nevered kept two together after our first two that lived together for several years before one died. When we tried to introduce the next one, one on each side of a divider they were fine, but opened up the divider and they went after each other. Long story short my Dad picked up mine that was older and we had had for several years and she took a good chunk out of his thumb. Never bite before or after that though. Just make sure you don't put a male and female together or they will be coming out your ears quickly!

Have fun!