Gerbils - best place to buy them?

[Fubsychicksnbunnies]

I would like to get a couple of gerbils. The ones at the local garden centre look quite large, so not sure how old they would be - obviously I want to get them young enough to get used to being handled.

Any ideas?

Maybe ask the garden centre who bred them and go direct? A petshop might be better - our local petshops have DOBs of all animals stocked there, so you know exactly how old your new pet is.

A notice in the paper is maybe worth a go? Or ringing a vet and asking if they know of anyone/putting a notice on their board - that will probably take the longest though

Do you have children who have friends at school who might have bred some, thats how we got most of our rodents when we were children. i would get them as young as you can so they can be handled alot. pet shops are probably better than garden centres, sometimes animal sancturies will have them too, it might be worth a call if there are any near you. Good luck.

This is good advice, thanks. Dont think theres anyone at school with gerbils, but Ill ask around. There is a pet shop that has ads in the window though, so Ill ask there.

I am so glad to read you plan to get a couple. It makes me really when people only get one as they're so sociable. Do make sure the place you get them from can tell male from female though! Two females much better than two males, and very preferable to one of each.

When I was a senior school, my Mum said I could bring home a (same sex) pair from the science lab. They had three boys left, and I thought it was a shame to lerave one behind, so took them all.

Of course some tiime after I noticed that the smallest one was being sat on by the bigger two

Mum wouldnt believe me until the day she got up and found 3 purple babies! They were lovely when they grew fur, and so friendly as they were used to us handling them from an early age.

The sad part was that their mother became very bad tempered, and we could never really handle her after that, while the two males were very good natured.

Yes we had two 'boys' who had babies together! We did keep three boys together though and they got on really well, they needed alot of space - we had them in an old aquarium with plenty of sawdust to dig in and lots of stick and logs to climb on (They ate their wheel!)If you can get apple sticks its great for them to chew. And they came out to play alot too. We did have a pair of girls aswell, they were lovely and smelt a bit less than the boys, but either sex were great fun.