The care guides
Small pets we cover
We're building the warmest, most trustworthy small-pet care library there is — from the best first pets to the demanding exotics, each one fact-checked before we publish it.
26 of 26 fully sourced
We only flip a guide from “coming soon” to published once its numbers are checked against authorities — no guessing.
Rabbits 1
Rats & mice 4
Rat
The affectionate little genius that bonds like a dog — endlessly clever, deeply devoted, and gone far too soon.
Mouse
The tiny, budget-friendly enclosure-nerd’s pet — quick, curious, and best kept in the right same-sex group.
Spiny Mouse
A social desert mouse with famously fragile, self-regenerating skin — never lift it by the tail, keep it in a group, and expect prolific breeding.
African Pygmy Mouse
A thumbnail-sized mouse that stacks pebbles to drink the morning dew, and will vanish through the tiniest gap the moment you look away.
Hamsters & gerbils 8
Hamster
The classic first pet the pet shop gets most wrong — solitary, needs a far bigger cage than sold, and worth doing right.
Syrian Hamster
The biggest, most handleable pet hamster — a beginner favourite that must live completely alone.
Roborovski Hamster
The smallest, fastest hamster and the longest-lived — a fascinating watch-don’t-hold dwarf, not a cuddle pet.
Winter White Hamster
The dwarf that turns white in winter — charming, but diabetes-prone, so a strict no-sugar diet is non-negotiable.
Campbell’s Hamster
The Russian dwarf with the highest diabetes risk of the pet hamsters — a strict no-sugar diet and a little patience with nipping.
Chinese Hamster
The slim, long-tailed, mouse-like hamster — nervous but tameable, best kept alone, and illegal to keep in California.
Gerbil
The busy desert digger — bonded for life in clans, endlessly burrowing, and prone to the drama of “declanning”.
Fat-Tailed Gerbil
A calm, docile desert gerbil with a club-shaped, fat-storing tail — insect-loving, happy alone, and a gentle change from the social Mongolian gerbil.
Exotic small pets 10
Ferret
The hilarious, mischievous “noodle” — endlessly playful, escape-prone, and medically demanding.
Hedgehog
The prickly little loner — huffy at first, warmth-dependent, and quietly charming once it learns to trust you.
Sugar Glider
The nocturnal marsupial that bonds hard and lives in a colony — a demanding, long-term exotic with a diet you don’t improvise.
Prairie Dog
A social, burrowing ground-squirrel that greets with a “kiss” — a demanding, long-lived colony rodent needing a huge chew-proof home and a hay-first diet.
Chipmunk
A fast, day-active striped ground-squirrel that mostly dislikes handling — an aviary-scale, hands-off pet that is illegal to buy or sell in the EU/UK.
Short-Tailed Opossum
A small, solitary, nocturnal pouchless marsupial — a solo insect-eater that must live completely alone and needs a calcium-balanced diet.
African Pygmy Dormouse
A tiny, nocturnal, arboreal dormouse kept in social groups — a delicate, lightning-fast escape-artist that needs a tall, insect-forward setup.
Flying Squirrel
A tiny, nocturnal gliding rodent that bonds intensely — long-lived and social, but prone to diet-driven bone disease and illegal in many US states.
Skunk
A clever, cupboard-raiding house pet in a black-and-white coat, wonderful for the right prepared home and a heartbreak for the wrong one.
Richardson's Ground Squirrel
A pocket-sized prairie squirrel that greets spring, fattens all summer, then vanishes into a months-long sleep near freezing, exactly as it would in a wild burrow.