Any experience with gerbils?

[skipperdoo]

Someone needs to find a home for a gerbil and I'm not familiar with them since they are "illegal" in California. (Ferrets are also illegal but there are lots of them in the state.) I did some research but am not sure I want to take him in. Any suggestions base on personal experience would be appreciated. Thanks. (He's supposed to be friendly.)

[Cutecavy]

Gerbils, to me, are like half rat half hamster They are like hamsters and rats to take care of. Our scholl owns 4 and I remember 2 years ago i brought one home. Im not that fond of them, but they are funny little creatures Is there anything in perticular you need to know? I think you should take him in ;D

[Merry]

I had two females for awhile: Lily and Grasshopper (Hoppy). A tragic accident claimed Lily several months after I got her, but I had Hoppy for a couple years before she passed away of old age.

They generally have very good personalities and in my experience tend to be less 'bitey' than hamsters. They are very, very active and love to burrow and gnaw so having a deep-based cage which is safe from little teeth is a must, or you'll have shavings all over your floor and possibly an escaped gerbil. I actually kept mine in aquarium-type cages but I had very little experience with rodents at that time and it may be that these didn't have adequate ventilation.

Mine loved to chew up toilet paper tubes, so I gave them those a lot, and you can also give them straw, toilet paper, and other soft, non-toxic items to shred and make nests with. They don't usually eat these items like guinea pigs do. They also enjoy running in wheels and exercise balls, but you have to make sure that these have solid bases as their tails can catch on them and break off - this happened to a gerbil at a library I used to go to. (They were there for public viewing... I know it sounds weird but they were actually in a nice, large cage and looked very well cared for. I talked to their caretaker and she sounded like she really cared about them and switched the wheel to prevent it from happening again.)

Let me know if you need to know anything specific, and I'll help if I can... I'd go for it if I were you, though. They're wonderful little critters and are really very easy to care for compared to the joy and entertainment you'll get from watching their cute antics.

[skipperdoo]

Hmmmm .. I (now) remember a little critter named Hoppy: www.guineapigfun.com/writingmerry.html

It's a male and albino and was saved (whatever that means) from someone and now this person needs to place it and can't. The constant chewing and digging sort of freaked me out a bit when I read about it. (I've had cage biters here and it would get on my nerves after my hearing the noise non-stop.) He is in a 10-gallon aquarium and that seems to be the setup of choice at the various websites that I looked at. One interesting thing is that they can thump their feet like rabbits do (when they get scared). It seems that none of the tons of stuff that I have for hamsters is appropriate for a gerbil due to their chewing. I went to the pet store tonight and got some stuff ... what did you feed the gerbils? I said that I needed to check him out ... he said that all he does is chew and dig. However, I need to make sure that he's friendly and healthy like he says he is. Stay tuned ... and thanks for the info.

[Clover]

Aww Hoppy was a beautiful little gerbil Merry.

As well as great advice from Merry, I did a quick search Kathy and found these links, I hope they help to home.wtal.de/ehr/gerbils/links.htm

We had gerbils in our classroom as a child, they were lovely little animals. Even though it was many years ago they were kept in an aquarium-type cage.

Let us know what you decide Kathy

[Izzy]

We used to have gerbils - the thing that springs to mind is that they love digging. Ours lived in an aquarium and we filled about half of it with bedding and they dug little tunnels in it. I think sand boxes are also good for gerbils. I can't remember what we fed them, I think there it was a gerbil or rodent mix from the pet shop (but you won't have feeds made specifically for gerbils if they're illegal, will you) and I seem to remember feeding them boiled eggs and things now and then.

[Bellatrix]

I looked after some for a few weeks and my cousin has some. The chewing and digging drove me nuts, because they were in a cage with bars the woodshavings went everywhere, and the noise of them chewing on it drove me insane, so my advice is don't don't use a wire cage lol

[skipperdoo]

bellatrix said:

The chewing and digging drove me nuts, because they were in a cage with bars the woodshavings went everywhere, and the noise of them chewing on it drove me insane, so my advice is don't don't use a wire cage lol

He would be in an aquarium but I know one of the pigs used to chew on the wire grids and it was like someone standing next to me with a jack hammer. Not that it was that loud, it was just CONSTANT and I couldn't think straight ... or sideways or at all.

Do they jump .. like out of the aquarium? They do have gerbil food here as they do ferret food (ferrets are also illegal but there are a lot of them around). The food is basically the same as the hamster stuff.

[Izzy]

You'd have to put a mesh top on the aquarium I think.

[skipperdoo]

Thanks ... it's got one.

[Merry]

Here their food is usually packaged as hamster/gerbil food, so I'm guessing their nutritional needs are pretty similar. Hoppy loved the mixes - especially the sunflower seeds in them lol - but for picky eaters they do make pelleted diets for gerbils.

Yes they do thump their feet like little rabbits, now that you mention it... Hoppy used to do it when I startled her. They are also great jumpers - Hoppy escaped into a basement once out of a box I had her in for cage-cleaning that was at least two feet high, so you definitely want something on top of the cage.

I hope you get him! He sounds a lot like Lily, Hoppy's sister who was also an albino. She was a little sweety too.

[skipperdoo]

I haven't heard back from the guy so maybe he decided to keep the gerbil afterall. Thanks for everyone's input.

[kitty]

Gee, why are gerbils illegal in CA?! I had some once but didn't like them- the mother was cruel to her babies. She'd put them on the wheel and spin them around when they were still all hairless and wormy-looking. And she ATE some of them! Ick!

[skipperdoo]

They are afraid that they will escape and eat all of the crops in California.