Other mice or gerbils?

Gerbils! Cleaner, nicer, cuter (I think anyway), live longer, smell less...

Gerbils need to be in at least pairs, they are very social. Mice you can keep in singles- for males you should keep only one (or they will probably fight) and the females can pull each other's hair out (not anything to worry about medically, but you then have bald mice.) I've seen gerbils and mice kept together, too- I don't know if that is a good thing or not with the species differences. Mice are neat, too- but my heart is stolen by the gerbils...

Personally I prefer mice - cute and really intreresting to watch.

Mice are a social species and should never be housed alone!

Like with piggies males are more likely to fight so need more room and are best kept in twos or threes rather than bigger groups.
(The only thing is that the males need to already be used to living together - not put together later. Males that are used to being singly housed shouldn't be put with new males.)
Some mice will barber eachother - this is just a dominance thing (like rumblestrutting in pigs) and doesn't mean you have to separate.

Degus need at least as much room as chinchillas and for the most part do not wish to be pets. Often they aren't very human sociable. Strike Degus from your possibilities.

I have had both mice and gerbils. Both are wonderful creatures. Mice do tend to smell more though. Many people don't realize that mice are incontinent and leave a urine trail wherever they go (even on you). It's how they find their way around. If this disgusts you then mice aren't for you. However, I always found my mice as more affectionate. Gerbils are so bouncy and active that they never seemed to take too much notice of me or wanted to stay with me. Their minds were more on exploring and playing.

Both mice and gerbils desire large living areas with lots of room to climb and explore. Both are escape artists although gerbils are more likely to chew their way out so enclosures that rely on plastic , in accessible areas, to keep them in is not recommended.

Personally I would make up my mind by seeing what came available first in shelters, rescues and ads as needing to be rehomed. I truly enjoyed both species.

We had a degu, he was very sociable and loved kids playing with him and he also loved escaping his cage for a run around the lounge .