Gerbils...

[Onion]

There is a high possibility I will be ending up with a friends gerbil due to her having landlord issues. Now I've seen said gerbil and it is in a horribly small cage, so I was thinking, if I do end up taking it in can they live in bin cages? I have a suitable sized one spare...

Just any advice on them would be great, just in case I have to take it :)

Thanks

[SnickersTheFirst]

I've seen people with them in bin cages but tbh I've always been wary as they chew any plastic and I've seen people lose gerbils this way. For this reason I've always stuck with tanks.

[Charley101]

Yes you can keep them in a bin cage but like snickers said, you have to be very careful they dont find a spot to chew as they wont stop! I guess it will be good as a temp cage but i think a glass tank will be a better permanent solution. I have my 4 girls in glass tanks and never had a escapee :)

Here's some general advice....

- Have a nice deep layer of substrate as they LOVE it dig! I wouldn't use anythign too dusty as obvs they will be 'in' it alot
- Mine have hay as they nibble on it and it helps hold up their tunnels
- Cardboard! Save every loo roll tube you have. Mine are addicted to chewing them lol
- Wooden toys for chewing/playing
- NO plastic. Very bad for them if they digest it
- Sand baths. They aren't compulsory but my girls love to have a roll around it in

As the gerbil is by itself it will most probs need more attention as they should ideally be kept in pairs as they are social. However, i've had a solitary gerbil before and he lived till just over 3 :)

[Mona's Humans]

I haven't kept gerbils in years, but i thought i'd add in my experiences....

I know i'll repeat people in some of it, so apologies there....

they are lovely animals, best kept in pairs or more, but if one's been living on his own, he may well be fine alone.

I echo what has been said, that plastic can be fine, but it will depend on the gerbil, mine had a tank, and a rotastack tube connecting some plastic smaller tanks, and were fine, but as BINS are thinner, i'm not sure i'd risk it.

They love sand!!! - we had one full section of just sand, and they really do love it! For everywhere else, start with a small layer (2 - 4 inches or so) of substrate mixed with hay, and give them ALL of the cardboard from your house, they'll soon shred it up and mix it with their substrate, and it holds tunnels really well... I'd say 80 - 100% of their living space should be below ground, as they are diggers, not runners. Obviously though they do need a stable space for food, but i found the hang on metal bird dishes, suspended off a metal ladder worked well for this.

They love tunnels, so toilet roll tubes, buried in the substrate will amuse them for hours!!

Wheels is a debated subject for Gerbils, as they are not natural runners, and wheels do have to be metal if left in the cage, however i didn't use one for mine, they did however have a wheel (plastic) for supervised play time, so they couldn't nibble it, though honestly, they hardly bothered with it.

They are amazingly fun to watch, and i hope that if you do get your new addition you'll send us all updates :D

[mangoandmimi]

They really are great :) Boppit came to us alone, so we left her alone (she's perfectly happy with her own space). She's just in a 75cmx30cm tank, although i have to admit id prefer to see her in a bigger tank. Just the bigger it is, the heavier it is.
I second the sand, but boppit would end up kicking it out of the tank :mad: so i just give it to her during her 'playtime'.
She doesnt have a wheel, it's not that i didnt try, its that it got buried constantly. I have enough trouble keeping her water bottle above ground!
All in all, i really do love them, they're great little animals :)

[Onion]

Thanks guys, I knew they were chewers but not to that extent! I'll have to wait and see, if worse comes to worse it can stay in a bin cage til I can get a tank :)

[racinghamster]

I would go with a 30" inch long glass tank (no glass shelves) or a Zoozone 1 for a single gerbil (or bigger if you have the space!) Both can be found second hand on ebay or free-ads. Amazon sell all-metal Oasis bottle holders for tanks that just fold over the end of the tank and hang down inside. These have a shield over the front which prevents chewers. :)

[Onion]

Well I've just had a phonecall from her and I will be picking him up tomorrow morning. He is a year old and has always been alone so I will keep him that way.

I'll be keeping an eye out for a tank or zz1, thanks racinghamster!

[Queen Of The High Teas]

If you keep the gerbil in a bin cage try and make sure that all the inside walls and floor are are flat as possible. Any raised bits could start off chewing if they can get their teeth in it. Mine are in a zz2 tank which is nice and smooth inside with nowhere they could get their teeth around, but I find if you give them enough cardboard (and I mean LOADS! empty you recycle box of card and just chuck it in!) they never think of chewing the cage anyway. My gerbs get all the card in the house provided it's not inky or sticky. So things like food packets, parcel boxes,pet food boxes and cartons, pringle/ toilet/ poster tubes, 'nik nak' boxes etc. I just keep it in a bag in the shed and chuck a few pieces in every day or so, and when I clean out I raid the recycle box once a week and fill the bottom of the cage in cardboard. They will demolish it FAST, they're superb recyclers - my 3 disposed of 2 really thick boxes big enough for a zoozone 1 cage in a week and a half!:shock:

[Onion]

I'm looking forward to it now, I was a little apprehensive before. The OH just kicked off about "another pet" though so going to have to calm him down and explain the situation.

I honestly do not get what people have against more than the "normal" amount of pets. If I can cope with them then why does it matter :)

[Mona's Humans]

I don't understand that mentality either, we have 6 pets and everyone thinks were nuts!!! Gerbils are wonderful to watch and play with, and I hope soon your OH falls in <3

[racinghamster]

A lone gerbil will entertain himself especially if he has a big enclosure and plenty to dig in and cardboard to chew! I`m envious because I love gerbils. A Zoozone 1 would be great but anything of similar size or even bigger will be better. Gerbils don`t need wheels or houses to sleep in. If he has a big pile of paper nesting material or plain white toilet tissue ripped up, he will stuff it all in his mouth and run to a corner and make a nest. I used to give my gerbils as shelf and they would nest under it where it was nice and cosy and dark. Oh and remember the sand bath! :mad: It doesn`t need to be in the cage permenantly just a few times a day for him to dig around in and have a roll. He might nibble the sand also but it`s perfectly safe so don`t worry. Chinchilla sand is best. :)

Let us know when you get him and what his character is like?

[Onion]

Well, he is here! At the moment he is in a smallish storage tub, a little bigger than the mini duna, but we are getting him a tank tomorrow. Its a step up from what he was in anyway >_>.

My OH didn't like his name (Jackson) so renamed him Dante and has taken it upon himself to be the main carer for him :o. I'm surprised because he didn't want me to take him, and now he says he owns him! Haha I'm glad though.

He is a real character, loves having his head stoked. When we do it he closes his eyes, its so cute! First thing he did was bury everything in the tub, and he makes me laugh all the time.

However, he is fat :/ I'm currently researching a better diet for him because he was fed on human foods and a little bit of p@h gerbil food. Needless to say, I went mad at my friend.

[Charley101]

Ahh he sounds like my Millie. She closes her eyes when i give her cuddles too :) I'm glad you're getting a tank, he will love it!

Regarding food, a good gerbil mix is essential. Make sure its not too full of sunflower seeds as they LOVE them but they are soooo fatty! I give my girls them as treat every so often. Also, hay would be appreciated i would have thought :D

Can't wait to see pics of Dante :D

[Onion]

http://i40.tinypic.com/sq5b92.jpg

Here he is. So fat ><

[Charley101]

Aww cutie :D He is the spitting image of Millie. He doesn't look too fat in the photo... All mine look squishy when they're hunched over too x

[Onion]

Oh thats good then. To be honest the only time I owned gerbils they were babies and I was the middle woman in the rehoming process so I thought he looked huge :o.

[Mona's Humans]

hehe Dante is gorgeous, and he doesn't look fat to me either. From what i recall (though you may wish to check this) they can eat burgess supahamster syrian kind - with the majority of sunflower seeds removed. I wouldn't recommend it as a main diet, but for now if you have some around, it may be a temp fix! I'm glad you got him, and had hoped ur OH would fall in love :p

[racinghamster]

I love black gerbils! Love his new name too. :) As for food, I can see a lot of those orange extruded biscuits (typical in most foods I know). Burgess do a Gerbil Granola which sounds good and Gerri Gerbil was always quite good, although the Granola sounds better. Gerbils love seeds and grains just as hamsters do, so adding things like millet spray, dry jumbo porridge oats, buckwheat, a few hemp seeds as treats and as mentioned, remove the peanuts and sunflower seeds and use these as treats. Some of my gerbils were podgy and some were slimmer. If Dante has been fed the wrong diet or too many human foods, this will have an effect on him so it`s now time to get his diet more natural.

If you have a space in a room that is totally safe with no gaps in the floor or furniture he can get under, you can let him out a few times a day to race around and sit on the floor with him. :) I used to do this with my boys and they loved it. Just don`t use one of those barred hamster play pens because I had a gerbil lose a tooth chewing the bars on one and he got a fright, jumped back and his tooth eventually fell out as a result and I was never away from the vet after that. So solid sided playpens are the best. Using the long sides from cardboard boxes is a great way to make a play pen or to block off parts of a room.

Male gerbils have a scent gland beneath their tummy, so always check this doesn`t have any small pimples or lumps near it as this will be a scent gland tumour. If you ever do discover one, it`s best removed early to prevent it spreading to internal organs. A gerbil will run this gland over toys and anything it can `scent`. We don`t smell it but gerbils can. Just thought I would mention it incase you didn`t know. The gland itself just looks like a line where the belly-button would be and is a yellow/flesh colour.

Enjoy him. :)

[NotsoLittleOlive]

I just thought I'd mention, in case you change your mind about a tank. I have a ZZ1 and a ZZ2. The 1 has much thinner, flimsier plastic that hams have been known to get through so I think I'd be worried about a gerbil in one too. There are places to start chewing too: the water bottle hole and the slots where the hay rack should clip in.