Pocket Pet Newbie

[mothman]

Hello from Canada.

As the thread title says, I'm a newbie to pocket pets of any kind! Never had them as a kid, never had them as an adult. Until now!! Dun dun duuuun.

My 6 year old daughter began asking for a hamster some time ago, and my wife and I finally decided to at least look into it.

I've done quite a lot of reading and checking info online, and in the end, we decided to go ahead with a pocket pet, not as my daughters pet per se (she's still too young for that responsibility), but as a family pet which she will assist in caring for.

Along the way, however, we decided to go for a pair of gerbils instead of a hamster, for a variety of reasons, the main one being that we think the gerbils will be more 'entertaining' during times when my kids are awake, as opposed to a hamster waking up as our kids are going to bed. lol

Anyway, since deciding to get the gerbils, over the last few weeks, I've been doing more detailed research into what we need, and have slowly been finding and piecing together the components.

I found a 20+ gallon aquarium at a thrift store (I say 20+ as I'm not sure exactly what tank size it is, but it's a bit bigger than a standard 20G) that cleaned up nicely, have been saving toilet paper rolls, various cardboard boxes, got a little hut, some bedding (decided to go mostly with aspen shavings, but got a bit of Carefresh and timothy hay to toss in as well), a bag of food, water bottle, wheel, etc etc. I'll be making a basic lid with hardware mesh, and am still on the lookout for a decent 2nd hand hamster/gerbil cage that I can get cheap and use the wired portion as a small tank topper.

Will likely start looking to get the actual furry critters over the next couple weeks.

Anyhoo... I know this is primarily a hamster forum, but I have enjoyed browsing the info here while researching hamsters, and I see there is an Other Pets section, so thought I should register and make use of the resource.

On that note, if anyone has any recommendations for a good, active, gerbil-centric forum, please let me know. I did find one that has a ton of great info and seems active, but it appears the admin is either inactive, or not accepting new members, as my registration has been stuck in "Pending approval" for about 2 weeks.

[starshme]

Hi Mothman, welcome to HC.

It sounds like you're well on your way to pocket pet ownership. My knowledge of gerbils is quite dated as I haven't kept them in decades but I think some other members have them. I have to warn you that if you become active on THIS forum, it won't be long before you're checking out the hamster section of any and all pet stores you visit. mwhahahahaha!

Yes... yes, I know we have gerbils - I'm just LOOKING. (famous last words)

[cypher]

Hi mothman & welcome to the forum
I know nothing about gerbils so can't help there but I have to agree with starshme, spend much time here & you'll just have to have a ham

[SinNyx]

Hello and welcome to the forum

I don't have much experience with gerbils but I do know there are people on this forum that do. I've only ever owned one gerbil, who was adopted, and she was amazing to watch but in no way could I ever handle her!

You'll definitely want a major supply of cardboard and a very deep substrate for them to dig in as well. Try to stay away from the plastic toys because they will try to eat them too

Not all hamsters only come out at night though, I've had some pretty active hamsters that are willing to be up in the day time with me and be handled ect, it all relies on their personality and if you are able to get them into a routine of being awake earlier, so don't completely rule out hamsters!

I will say, that my experience with my gerbil, was that she seemed lonely. As she was adopted as a lone gerbil I did not want to risk introducing her to another without an expert gerbil owner to guide me, but I would definitely recommend to get a pair as they are sociable and like to live in groups, unlike hamsters.

[mothman]

Thanks for the welcomes.

SinNyx, yes, we will be getting a pair of gerbils, and we've been saving up our toilet paper rolls, and I have a good supply of cardboard both from my work and from the big cardboard recycle bin in our apartment.

As for whether we'll be eagerly wanting a hammy at some point... well, one furry step at a time! lol

[DanniDorrito]

Hey moth, welcome to the forum!

I've owned two gerbils, my knowledge on them isn't much compared to hamsters I'm afraid. However, what I do know from my own experience of handling them I can tell you about that.

They are very social with other gerbils, and its recommended you get a pair from the same tank at the store. I had two little guys, they are extremely timid and a lot harder to tame in comparison to a hamster. I had a 20gal tank for them and they spent most the day digging, most of their toys would get buried within minutes. Put too much substrate in and they can get out (without a lid, had to mesh that up). They love veg and toilet roll tubes, so save them up! As soon as I put a tube into the tank, they demolish it. We keep a carrier bag of tubes and they will get through them rather quickly, we have started asking family members to save their rolls for us haha.

Going back to them being timid, I had one guy who wasn't too bad being handled. You could hold him but he'd rather be running around instead, the other was practically impossible, he didn't like being held at all. I've heard gerbils be called "goldfish rodents" because they're more for watching than touching.

As for hamsters they are nocturnal, yes, however their routines can be slowly adjusted to more suitable hours. I've been getting my Syrian up for playtimes around 8pm, and now he's up for the day from 5pm onwards, he gets up naturally on his own. He very much enjoys coming out for treats and time to explore things, so he gets up early for it and waits by the bars for me to pick him up lol.

Hope this helps!

[mothman]

Thanks Danni, I appreciate the info.