Too much cardboard?

[Dalis_mum]

It's well known that gerbils can shred cardboard quickly and appear to enjoy doing so... but can they do it too much?

Dotty seems to have settled well, builds excellent burrows blah blah blah...

She enjoys demolishing toilet tubes and cereal boxes, but I worry she is doing it too much. If I gave her free reign she would happily shred a dozen tubes and a couple of boxes a day, but should I restrict how much she chews? She doesn't appear to be injuring herself, I'm just concerned about her developing this as a stereotypic behaviour...

[Thin Lizzy]

Cardboard is safe and cheap. Dotty seems to enjoy it, so I wouldn't stop it.
Plus, she'll be able to use it for bedding . I'd rather she chewed the cardboard than the cage, with the cage she could injure herself but cardboard is harmless.

[racinghamster]

I agree, although maybe only allow her a box or a few tubes at certain times, rather than all the time? The only thing I noticed with one of my gerbils in the past was when I gave them a thick cardboard tube that my nephew gave me as he`s a carpet fitter, so he dropped off a long tube he had in his van and I used a hand saw to saw it into smaller pieces for the gerbil tanks. I found that Barney`s top teeth wore down a lot and blamed his constant gnawing on this quite hard cardboard tube. But then it wasn`t really any harder than those Chube tubes that are sold in pet shops with coloured paper covering them, so I didn`t see much of a difference.

It`s a tricky one, but keeping a single gerbil amused can be! x

[Dalis_mum]

I keep drip feeding the cardboard in... it just doesn't last very long. She has a couple of hard tubes I acquired from work. she doesn't chew those. just the toilet tubes and cereal box card.

she seems pretty happy. I scatter feed, destroy her tunnels regularly so she can redig and rotate toys and accessories. plus out of viv time every day.

Just wanted to check she wasn't chewing too much card.

[Dalis_mum]

And she hasn't shown any desire to escape. such a peaceful little girl to keep.

[racinghamster]

She sounds happy to me and very sweet. x