Gerbils - cage spot cleaning

[BearBirdBaboon]

Hello! We welcomed two lovely gerbils home today! I was just wondering if it'll be obvious where they poo? Do they just poo on top of their bedding? In which case, isn't it all going to get mixed in with all of the bedding when they dig around? How do you then keep it clean on a daily basis if it gets mixed in? Thanks for your help!

It would help to know how their tank is set up?

They need a burrowing area of deep substrate (20cm+) to nest and feel secure. Then a separate area away from the deep substrate for their wheel, water, sand bath etc. This is the area you spot clean. Cardboard on any wood ledges keeps them clean, and can be replaced every few days.

Gerbils always need access to a sandbath to keep their coats clean, but they also use it as a "litter tray" generally. A Pyrex dish around 15cm x 10cm and a few inches deep works well. Clean out any crud daily with a sieve.

If they've got a correct sized tank, see my website "Which tank" section, then they only need cleaning out every 4-6 weeks. It stresses them out to have their environment disturbed too often. They're desert animals, and cleaner than most rodents.

I explain all of this in more detail in my website gerbilcare.co.uk/ under "Cleaning and tank setup".

@Annabelle69
Thank you for your advice. Our gerbils have decided on an area to do their business in now, which has made spot cleaning easy to manage! Gerbils are such wonderful little rodents and we love having them!

They like to wee and poo in either a sand bath or a raised flat surface.

If it does end up in the bedding it's not big problem because it will dry out and won't pose a health risk. Every few weeks or months (depending on the size of your tank) you can empty the tank, clean up all the poo that has dropped to the bottom of the tank, and put the cleaner bedding back in.