First time gerbil owners

[Inaminuteplease]

Hi, we bought two male pet gerbils yesterday, my 10 year old has been begging me for them for ages.

I've bought a handbook and all the accessories, bedding etc recommended by pets at home but just wanted some top tips from any other gerbil owners on how to keep them happy and healthy!

First of all don't use the bedding P@H recommend - it's so dusty and crap, I have 2 girl gerbils & we use a mixture of fitch bedding plus fina card - both available online & a lot cheaper than the other stuff. Have you got a sand bath for them? The Trixie reptile sand off Amazon is the best stuff £6.99 for 5kg. What home have you got for them? My 2 have a Kerry terrarium from zooplus with the gerbilarium XL topper attached. Make sure they have loads to chew and a really deep substrate to dig into and tunnel into, cheap loo roll shredded is really good for their bedding. Mine like fresh blueberries, chicken (cooked) and broccoli plus sunflower seeds and millet sprays. I also save all the loo roll innards each week and they shred them too. If you are on facebook there is a gerbil group that is really helpful - Gerbil Care & Support - the members are great at helping out with things.

Finacard - www.finacard.co.uk
Fitch Bedding - fitchfirst.co.uk

@alwaysthepessimist thanks, will definitely join the Facebook group. I have the pets at home extra large gerbilarium for them, will definitely have a look at those websites for the bedding. Have ordered some sunflower seeds, I have blueberries in so will try them with that!

Make sure you introduce new foods gradually though as it can upset their tummies - good luck - we have had ours for about 18 months and they have lovely characters - to keep ours secure when we get them out we bought a chat valley pop up ball pool from Argos - works a treat and you can put some tubes and tunnels in there for them to play in - my 6yo dd actually gets in with them so they climb all over her- just allows safe interaction time. Pets do do a load of chewable toys that mine have LOVED - they are orange and green - bridges, steps, tunnels etc etc