DD2 wants a small furry. I've talked her through the pros and cons of various types and convinced her that gerbils would be the most practical choice.
The issue is that when I was a child, gerbils were fairly popular and there were always a few at school or a friend's house who were breeding so you could get hold of them fairly easily, confident you knew where they came from and that they were healthy.
Not so much now. We have a couple of big chain pet shops near us, but the staff there are charmingly vague about where the stock comes from - which worries me, I imagine there are gerbil equivalents of puppy farms. I've googled for private breeders, and come up with little or nothing. There's a National Gerbil Society, but nothing on their website. I don't want to rehome for DD2's first small pet because they don't live that long and you can't be sure how old they are - would be pretty grim for her if they died in the first few months.
Where else can I look? If you have gerbils, where did they come from?