Just got gerbils; any tips?

[Hulababy]

After much umming and ahhing, and persuading DH, we finally got two mae gerbils for DD today. They have their gerbilarium and some toys. And they are home and seem fine so far. We have two boys who DD has named Charlie and Sammy.

Have already read that we are okay to leave them overnight for a couple of lights at a time, whilst away at weekends.

So, anything I should know?

Handle them loads... feed them out of your hand. That way, when you put your hand into their tank, they coming running over and jump on.... lovely.

Gerbils are wonderful. We've had many pairs over the years, all with their own little individual personalities.

Woke this morning to see that they had buried everything, including their food bowl! Is this fine? Will they still find their food?

Have managed to handle both this morning. One seems friendly than the other at the moment.

Its funny, but when you have a pair, one always seems much more shy than the other.

Don't worry about them burying everything... Its what they do. They dig tunnels too and are very entertaining to watch.

They also love to chew, old loo rolls, cardboard boxes etc. Can give them bits of wood too but you need to make sure its not poisonous - we used to give ours apple tree twigs and branches. We used to also get large cardboard boxes and fill with tubes etc to give them a fun run around while watching them. Handle them lots too as it will keep them tame. I loved our gerbils and had great fun with them.

DD spent her pocket momey - and some money of mine! - today and bought them some toys. have this clip together plastic thing which she has made a tunnel and bridge from. And she had already put a toilet roll tube in this morning.

They have a wooden seesaw, not sure it that is okay for chewing though. Mught need to go and fing other wood???

So, it is fine that they keep covering their food bowl over then? How much should they be eating? The food bowl doesn't seem very empty.

They have also been given a very tiny amount of cheese as have bee told they need the odd bit of animal protien.

We had 2 girl gerbils, Frieda and Matilda. They had 26 babies. Luckily they weren't particularly fertile, for gerbils.

my tip is therefore check and recheck the sex at this stage before it's too late to swap one.

A sand box is great to and fun to watch .You will get one in pet shops and are sold for chincillas. mine had lots of things hanging for them to climb. I miss my gerbils.

They survived their first weekend alone. They did manage to nibble two extra "archways" into their plastic den thing though and nibble the whole of a plastic circle (from the click together bridge/tunnel thngy we bought for them) into pieces!!! But they had enough water and enough food - plenty left of both, so they were fine. Phew!

They are going through toilet roll inners like there is no tomorrow!

Shoeboxes as well for chewing, cat food boxes etc. They will chew any thing you buy for them so see if you can source it cheaply, bootsales etc

DD is getting a two for her birthday in 2 weeks, we cant wait!

Already saving the toilet roll tubes!

The best tubes we got were the inner tubes from role of fabric in Dunelm... very strong and lasted ages. Also, the cardboard tubes from the fax roles at work. And shredded paper from work for building nests.

Watch out for them burying their water bottle nozzle or the whole tank will get waterlogged.

Don't leave them near an open window on a cold December day

Twinklemegan - we have already had that!

I need to get a better supply of toilet roll and kitchen roll inners.