Gerbils and hamsters are relatively the same to care for. The big differences between the two are that gerbils are less prone to bite or be agitated as easily as hamsters are, but a downfall is that they are MUCH faster than hamsters! I prefer gerbils!

To answer question number 4, yes and no. As I said, they are less prone to bite, but they are a lot faster than hamsters so sometimes small children have a hard time keeping ahold of them.