Yeah. Everything I'm reading is seriously making me reconsider this whole thing
They sound just like what I'm looking for but then there's all the expenses, especially what sounds like inevitably going broke over some illness and to be completely honest I'm not comfortable with the thought of putting down at least a few hundred dollars on an animal that would likely be more than 2/3 through such a *short* lifespan when it got sick.
I've had just about every other rodent pet, syrian and dwarf hamsters, gerbils, fancy mice, a guinea pig...I want to find that one middle-ground rodent that will enjoy spending time and bond with me but won't completely make me stress or go broke, which I can't seem to find.
The mice didn't really care, but were fun. The guinea pig loved me but most are skittish. Gerbils, kind of nippy, but cheap and neat. Hamsters were luck of the draw, a lot of biting.