OT: gerbils

jacksonpt

jacksonpt

New member
Yep, I'm at that stage with my kids where I'm considering gerbils. They want hamsters (I'm not sure they know the difference, frankly), but hamsters are noctournal, gerbils are... um... daytournal. So that's why I'm thinking about gerbils.

I've got 2 kids, so we'd get 2 gerbils. Who knows anything about them? I guess I have 3 primary questions...
1) are they necessarily smelly/noisy?
2) are they difficult to keep contained in a standard store-bought cage?
3) do they require semi-constant care, or are they ok being left alone for a week when vacation time comes?
 
When I was like 5 my brother went off to the first gulf war and bought me 2 female gerbils before he left as pets. Then they had babies... and more babies. We figure at one point we had over 200 gerbils in this little mini gerbil city we built them. They multiply really fast. Ended up finding a petstore to take most of them. I don't remember the cage being very smelly even with that many but I was like 5 so take that into consideration. We kept a heavy object like a brick or big book on the lid to the cage as they were escape artists. As long as they have water and food they'll be fine for an extended period but go with a glass water bottle not plastic as they'll chew a hole in anything plastic. We had a metal exercise wheel that squeeked so we look cotten fibers and wrapped them into the joint of the wheel and it stopped the noise.
 
I inherited two gerbils from a friend when I was younger, both females and they fought so they had separate tanks. Not sure if my care was humane but they lived a long time. I gave them food/water as needed and sparingly cleaned the bedding, it stayed pretty good, they kinda pick an area to soil and an area to keep clean for their den(which they would make out of paper towel I would throw in there.

We had many Guinea pigs too when I was young and it was the same care, expect we put kitty litter under the bedding to soak up the excrement. Kept it cleaner and not so much smell.
 
Vegetable oil in the pivot points also quiets squeaking metal exercise wheels and I think its animal safe. Used to do that on tank I had with mice in it. Darn I had a lot of little critter when I was younger.
 
Not necessarily smelly/noisy. As mentioned, the exercise wheel squeaking is really the only noise, and lubricant takes care of that. If you're getting two, make SURE they're same sex. Mine werent... And yeah they do multiply like bunnies. Also agree with the keeping wegiths over the lids, cause they are definitely escape artists.
 
I had a Roborovski hamsters and i loved the little sucker. They are pricey(about 20 bucks) live for about 3 years and are very active at night. They are a small desert hamster but they do fine with household temps. I had mine on approved bedding or whatever it was called because pine bedding has dust that can kill anything you put on it. they stay very small and are very cute. you can fill the water and food dish and leave them for a week. loved to be held and played with. I use to put mine in a ball and he'd follow me around the house :)

http://roborovskihamsters.webs.com/
 
Ok...so last yr, (the boys were 6 and daughter was 2.5), we wanted to get gerbils/hamsters, whatever for them. We go to the shop and the salesperson said that we'd be better off w/ rats! So after the wife and I rolled our eyes at ea. other, the salesperson grabbed a rat and let all of us hold it...it never nipped, it purred a bit and was pretty cute, less that nasty bare tail lol.

Moral of the story is that these critters are quite interesting and super friendly. The worker said that hamsters/gerbils bite much more often. We ended up with 2 females that both use their "litter box" and the kids love 'em!

FYI, I don't think any critter would be thrilled about being left for a week...after a cpl days they'd need water and food for sure.
 
If youre talking gerbils vs hamsters, definately go gerbils! Much cleaner and diurnal (not nocturnal lol). They're a lot more active though, and from what I can remeber about the ones my friend had they are a bit of a challenge to hld at firs until you get used to them/they get used to you (because they're so active/squirmy). My friend also had rats and the're great pets as well.
 
Not smelly, don't run in a squeeky wheel, don't chew through their water dish, have fluffy tails, may sniff one another's butt every now and then, but over all a good choice.

OliverBandit.jpg
 
jacksonpt said:
Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by magdelan
Not smelly, don't run in a squeeky wheel, don't chew through their water dish, have fluffy tails, may sniff one another's butt every now and then, but over all a good choice.

OliverBandit.jpg

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Those would be chew/play toys for my Jack Russells.
Click to expand...

Ehhh, IIRC those two mini siberian tigers combined outweighed my mutt at 45#'s, so the jack might have a tough time with that tag team....

I had rabbitts and the two "females" had a batch of babies a couple months into having them, so make sure whoever at the pet store you get them from knows what they're doing. The rabbits entailed a bigger cage, but were less "critter" like and would roam around the house, were trainable in go in one area to do their business, and didn't remind me of something I might set out a glue or snap trap out to catch if I seen it in the house any other time.
 
I work at the Pet Depot in Auburn. If there aren't any gerbils at the one down in vestal let me know and I can send the two babies we have there. It wouldn't be until next wednesday.

Gerbils do best in glass tanks because they chew everything a lot more than hamsters. My recommendation is a 10 or 20 gallon aquarium with a screen top. Get either a chew block or a wooden house for them so they can keep their teeth worn down. Use ceramic dishes and keep them both in the same corner. Gerbils are notorious for burying their water dish but will do it less if the food bowl is next to it. I know in Auburn we sell wheels called Silent Spinners. They use ball bearings in plastic housing instead of traditional metal rods in metal holes. They run quite and last longer. Only downfall is they're plastic and thus chewable.

I have been bitten more by hamsters than any other animal combined. If you have any other gerbil questions feel free to ask me here or PM me. Or any other small animal questions in general.
 
I'd go with hamsters. Gerbils can't do this:



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:bum:
 
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