So gerbils it is!!!!

[loflo]

After many long discussions about pets have finally decided on gerbils still want a dog tho Any tips for sharing?

Oh, we're thinking of adopting some next time they get them at the shelter. I had gerbils about 10 years ago, and fostered one about 7 years back as well.

They are happiest kept in a tank rather than in a cage or enclosure designed for hamsters. Some places fill them with sawdust, but when I fostered Gareth (permanently in the end!) I was advised to use a layer of peat, layer of straw, layer of peat and so on, cleaning it all out only about once ever 3 months. He loved tunnelling around and even "planted" some of his grain food and grew crops!

I don't think you get as much chance to handle them though in a tank, so they might not be so easy to tame, but are fine if you mainly just want to watch. I wore leather gloves to catch Gareth when I cleaned him out as he wasn't too thrilled about being handled (but had never really been handled at all.)

Hopefully someone with more specialist and recent knowledge will come along soon. Best of luck!

We have a gerbil, he is really cute, and funny, and greedy. He knows the word treat and gets really excited he is very spoiled. Ours is very tame but if being handled they are quite quick and will try to escape, he has on occasions. He loves cardboard toilet roll tubes, but I don't give him the ones with glue on, and plenty of things to chew. Like KRITIQ said, they are better in a gerbilarium, or a homemade glass/plastic tank, they will chew the plastic on a hamster cage. Very easy to look after, I clean ours out about every 10 days, they are very clean too, ours uses his wheel as his toilet, so we remove it every so often to clean.

In my opinion, they are just about the cutest small animal, I am dreading when ours dies, he is now 2 and a half.

if you get 2 get a guarantee of the sex - or many little gerbils will ensue....

Handle them straight away and at least everyday. Start off with the tank filled with a small layer of soil/straw for a week or so until they get used to you, then slowly build up the layers. Rub your hands in the soil when you handle them as it gets rid of perfume smells etc and wait for them to come to you, it takes patience but builds trust and they'll end up voluntarily jumping onto you. You should end up with happy burrowing gerbils who love to be handled.

We found two gerbils on the side of the road (as you do), in a proper gerbilarium. They?ve been with us a year now and they?re fascinating. They love to chew so we provide plenty of cardboard boxes and tubes. They don?t need cleaning out often ? usually ours are cleaned out because they?ve got so much chewed up cardboard they?ve got no room to move!

One of ours is very friendly, when we slide the lid back he jumps out to say hello or get a treat. I have great plans to teach him Gerbil Agility having spent many hours researching the sport on You Tube :) Enjoy them!

Don't get one of each. We ended up with 35 and were supplying the local pet shop at one point!

They are lovely though. Really interesting to watch, ours used to live in a large tank and it was fascinating to watch them in their little tunnels. we used to give them earwigs to eat as a treat!