Gerbils: the pets! (Gerbils)

Member Name: stephbond89

Product:	Gerbils
Date:	29/01/09 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Don't need too much looking after!

Disadvantages: Make a mess and chew ALOT!

To be honest I have never really been interested in gerbils. Never really knew what they were to be honest, that was until i got married to an animal obsessed man!! :-p
We bought two gerbils last year, Gary and Jerry, a little white one and a grey one. They were already adults when we bought them so I'm afraid I can't comment on them as babies.

We first bought them a hamster cage which the pet shop actually recommended, it was a cage with tubes and was made completely of plasic with lots of corners etc, and within a week, they had chewed through most of it and we had to get them a new cage!!!!

They will literally chew through a piece of plastic within an hour, so you really have to get them an aquarium type tank rather than a cage, and a metal bowl for their food. They also love to dig, so you need to put alot of sawdust in their cage which needs to be deep enough for them to dig little tunnels.

A great cage which we have got the gerbils (though expensive) is the Gerbilarium, which is £50 from pets at home, its specifically made for Gerbils, and has a tank bottom with a specially adapted tunnel and them a cage top with climbing platforms. all made of metal. Although expensive it is a great cage, big enough for two gerbils, maybe 3 or 4 depending on their size.

Now one thing I will say is DO NOT PICK THEM UP BY THEIR TAIL, we were told again by the pet shop, that they could be picked up by the tail if they wouldn't come to you, but, when we got them home, one scarpered from my husbands hand and he grabbed its tail, but was left with a furry piece in his hand where the skin and the fur had come off the end of his tail!

He now has a half tail (nicknamed gary half tail!!!) it didn't hurt him and he wasn't damaged apart from having a half tail, its a natural instinct in the wild incase a bird of prey grabs them by the tail as with animals like Gecko's and Degu's. Spo if you're told its safe, don't listen!!!!!!!!

All in all, the gerbils are a great pet, they're quiet, they don't eat or drink that much at all, they don't smell and don't need cleaning out much at all.

The only thing is they do make a mess whilst digging, they throw their sawdust everywhere!!!!

But all in all, they're a great little pet, best kept in pairs, with a sibling who they were born with and who they've grown up with, never put a new one in the cage with the old ones!!! They'll tear it to shreds!!

Summary: All in all a great family pet!