I too do not recommend a hamster, I had several when I was young and they DO bite, hard! I handled mine daily and they rarely bit me, but they would bite everyone else.

Gerbils are good, but quick. Not necessarily the best pet to have if you want to sit on the couch and watch TV with it.

Guinea pigs are good. The require cleaning more often than a hamster or a gerbil. We always cleaned the guinea pigs daily whereas the hamsters and gerbils were cleaned weekly.

I don't recommend a turtle or tortoise at all. Both are a lot of work, they need a lot of special things. Some are a life long commitment too.

Birds are great pets, but much more fragile than a rodent. It's not difficult to find hand tame baby cockatiels. Parakeets are less often hand tame when you get them, but can easily become hand tame with a little work. Lovebird can be more moody and aren't as easy to hand tame.

I've never had a leopard gecko, but they're nice little lizards.

Iguanas are popular lizards because they are initially very cheap to buy, usually only about $12 for a baby iguana. However they need a lot of things, expensive things. We've easily spent thousands of dollars on our iguana. They get very big rather quickly too. Mine is currently 41/2 feet long and still growing.

I would say the most rewarding would be probably be a rat. They are relatively easy to care for and are a lot of fun!!

Mice are great too. I prefer mice over hamsters or gerbils, but I prefer rats over mice.

By the way, my first pet that was 'all mine' was a pair of parakeets.