- Thanks to Hao

The old thread is here
Gerbils Hut V5, I wont bite you, I wont stink either!

General Information of Mongolian Gerbils:

The Mongolian Gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) is widely kept as pets. They come in a variety of colours, which makes them stand out from their close cousin, the common brown rat. Gerbils are very friendly, sociable, intelligent, entertaining, lively, and curious animals. They rarely bite and are almost odourless. Mongolian gerbils make excellent pets for they are diurnal, meaning they are active during the day, taking short naps and snoozes in between play.

One important fact to know,
You CANNOT pull their tails or it will come off. No, gerbils are not lizards, they come off coz their tails have very sensitive nerves and skin, pulling hard can detached the bone and tear the skin, resulting in the lost of a tail.

Origin


Gerbils in captivity make great beginner pets. They rarely bite at all, have little to no odour and are economical to keep in the long run. Once a while, gerbils can get curious so they do tend to nip and test their surroundings. Nipping is normally not painful, only bites are painful and sometimes bloody but there is no need to be scared of gerbils for they rarely bite.

Single or a Pair?
By nature, gerbils are social creatures, meaning the should never be kept as single animals. Gerbils that live alone have nothing to do, no aim in life and they will just go on eating and sleeping, becoming overweight and depressed, and will be destructive by chewing on everything they find, dig at the tank's corners the whole day without stop, show nervousness and other unhealthy activities. This is why WE RECOMMEND to get gerbils in pairs. Gerbils are colony animals. They need to feel safe and secure in a family. It is delightful to see gerbils in a pair or a small clan. They will groom each other, play wrestling, sleep together and eat together. When in a bigger group say more than 2 gerbils, they will set their own Hierarchy, having a dominant gerbil doing most of the activities first, then followed by the rest. The dominant gerbil will then put everyone in place and make sure that every gerbil knows his or her place in the clan.

Gerbil Behaviour:


How to keep gerbils?
There are many caresheets available on the Internet for research, so do read up as this is just a basic guide.

Gerbils do not do well in cages; therefore the best housing for gerbils is an aquarium or tank. The housing needs are quite different from hamsters and other rodent pets.

Important stuff to have before getting a gerbil:

1.5ft Aquarium with lid- you can get plastic or glass, plastic is easier to clean. The bigger, the better. (rm30 to rm40 for plastic) DO NOT CAGE THEM! Examples:



Hamster staple food- A good basic staple would be Habitrail Staple, but the best in the market that gives very good results would be Prestige and Harry Hamster. Only these 2 brands will give the best nutrition and variety to a gerbil's diet.

Treats- Wooden chews, peanuts, dog biscuits and dried stale bread are great treats.

Water bottle- They need a bottle but if you don't want them to tear the bottle up, searh the internet for tips on making a bottle guard or cage. Gerbils do not need much water if you feed them fruits and vege often but it is still very important to attach a bottle with fresh water for the gerbils.

Vege and fruits- Important to have in their diet. Give mustard greens(Sawi/Choy Sum), apple, carrots, pear, french beans, lettuce. PUMPKIN makes an excellent treat!!! It deworms the intestines as well.

Toys- Gerbils love wooden stuff to chew, cardboard box to chew and glass cups and small clay flower pots to play in. Do not buy plastic toys coz they will chew them and you will waste your money. Plastic can also be dangerous when eaten.

Hide Box- Gerbils like to sleep in hide boxes. You can DIY one from an old coconut shell, buy a wooden one or plainly make one out from wooden ice cream sticks and PVA glue. Clay or glass Aroma burners work very well but make sure you buy 1 that can fit a gerbil inside.

Wood Shavings and Wood Chips- No pine or cedar, please use aspen shavings or chipsi wood shavings. Pine and Cedar will cause breathing problems and watery eyes. Wood Chips are a good substitute if you can't find proper wood shavings.

Timothy Hay- Gerbils love hay. They chew it, build nest with it and sleep in it.

Alfalfa Hay- High in protein and is still good for gerbils to nibble and chew and make their nest.

Sand Bath- When your gerbil's fur looks ruffled and dull, give them a sand bath. You can get this cleaning sand that is for hamsters, works well and will make a gerbil look all velvety and clean looking. Recommended brands are Sluis, Delikate Snowy bathing sand, Charlie Chinchilla bathing sand.

Bedding Hay/Straw- You can try Russel Hay or Sluis Comfort Hay. These hay are used to build nest... cheaper than Timothy and Alfalfa hay.... and smells nice too.

How about breeding?
Please see the link below... breeding is not easy as it will cost money and time and space. So think carefully before breeding. Also, it takes a lot of studying of the genetics to get the best colour quality from a pair. Some gerbils can only produce black and agouti pups.... so that is why the genetics have to be studied. Breeding needs a goal, to be a breeder one must never think of money but the goal of getting new colours or promoting the pet. If any information needed on breeding, PM Nezumitaro, jaswwp or me(crazymouse_yyh)

Important TIPS

Useful Websites:

http://www.sensi-media.com/gerbil/domestic.htm - thanks to Jaswwp

http://www.gerbils.co.uk/

http://www.abcgerbils.com/

http://www.agsgerbils.org/

http://www.petermaas.nl/gerbils/english.htm

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/e...bils/colors.htm

http://www.gerbilbreeding.com/gene.htm - thanks to Nezumitaro

http://home.wtal.de/ehr/gerbils/colors.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Park/6961/index.html

This post has been edited by crazymouse_yyh: Apr 8 2008, 01:21 PM

Reserved for update

Reserved for update

Ok, did I miss anyone out in the contribution? If you guys got information, just post, I will adjust it for the 1st page yah. Heheheh.... and you guys can adjust your post too, add updates or whatever.

today I went to Superpets to see their gerbils.... err... their display gerbils kinda bad setup.

You know what bedding their use? Aquarium gravel!!!! Yes, that's right, those aquarium gravel that is like 0.5cm size.... pity, so hard and cannot dig to burrow. 2 gerbils in the display tank, with some driftwood and rocks.... kinda sad. I wonder how to absorb the pee and poo.... summore the way they clean.... bleh... I walk into the petshop, can faint.... the air is like cat litter and pee smell....

Then at the back got also a tank with agouti gerbils.... and WW, Syrians and Robos.... the Syrains are not as nice as those at Pet Shack or from Foo.... kinda thin. Their Robos look scruffy.... the WW don't look too good either.... but the price for a gerbil there is RM48!!!!

Also, beware, that petshop sure will hunt to buy gerbils from breeders.... called me and ask if I can supply or not... Dream on lah, I won't supply to petshops. I see the condition... sigh.. i won't go there anymore.

Superpets is near pet shack, sunway mentari also.... well, I think the bad thing is the ventilation lah.... coz they seal up the whole shop for air cond, with all the cats.... and i mean MANY cats, the place smells like cat litter and pee. To the staff and owner, they are used to it so won't suspect got smell but to new comer.... can pengsan lah hahahah....

The tanks for the gerbils and hamsters are spacious.... but just the display set up makes me don't like them.

HAhaha... nice pictures of your gerbils.
I'm gonna get the adoption gerbils soon. Once with me, you can get them lah.

Ah? I ask Joan loh... that Friday I was at Pet Shack.... then I walk to superpets, wondering how nice they looked like coz I saw their website before and wanted to compare.... but sigh... sad sad place lah for the animals there. Sad for human also coz the smell and air... yucks hahahah.

What you can do is buy a bottle of mite spray for birds and use it on gerbils. That's the safest. You sure jumping? Fleas are brown and got long back legs and looks like a bean shape.... ticks are like tear drop shape and also brown coloured and much bigger to see.

I think it is the bedding. Sun it. That's the bedding mites, kinda common in wood shavings. It is quite harmless, it only eats up rotten food... lives in soil so if you put the bedding near an entrance that is near grass or outdoors or even flower pot with soil, then the mites may have traveled from there.

Just go petshop buy lah. None of us make coconut homes for our gerbils unless you got a tool that can drill a nice round hole.

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UPDATES

I got hold of the gerbils for adoption.

How many you ask?

Hahahah.... about 30.... crazy crazy....

Anyway, they are open for adoptions.... and sorry, no colour mixing. Why? Coz got 2 colonies.... so to avoid fighting, only adoption of colony mates. They are adults so harder to pair up unless you have the patience to do split tank introduction.

There are 9 lilacs! All adults, males and females.

The other Colony consist of Blacks, Agoutis, a few Nutmegs and a few DEH, now this colony got age difference, from 2 months old to a year plus.

Anyway, will update in the adoption thread.

Yah.... I think got more than 30... I never count, I know the lilacs got 9 and the other colony is alot.

Well, is better not to mix the colony.... but if you want, I see if can mix or not lah. You want males rite?

LOL.... I'm gonna disinfect them with detol bath later.... they have been living in very thick dirty bedding.... so better disinfect just to be safe. I will also deworm them if possible.

Dilute detol, then dip them in. Dry them with warm hair dryer loh hahaah.... I don't really bath gerbils but since the bedding was dirty, i scared got bacteria on them.... so better bath them before go to homes.

Deworm, I'm gonna ask a vet if can use puppy dewormer or not... if can't then will do what the vet do loh.

Ohhh... then in could be fleas.... they jump....

Anyway, yes. Do say you want a mite spray for birds.... if you find one for rabbits also can use. Birds may take a few sprays to actually kill the mites but it is safe if eaten coz birds would preen after each spray. Yups, no direct spraying on the face area.

Hmm... could be the scent of your soap or shampoo...

I wanna hug Taro.... hahaha....

Anyway, later I will be checking and sexing the gerbils.... goodness, so damn many gerbils.... food!!!!! Argh!!!!!30 gerbils will eat alot alot alot! Double my own feedings hahahah.... anyway, those that wanna adopt the gerbils, PM me.... got some condition to fill.

Hahah.. I'll stick with rice. Got plenty of brown rice.... Vegies...wow, my grocery bill go up liao hahah.

Masak one loh... they don't really like the uncooked ones... well, I tried before on my gerbils....

Your girls ah, split cage loh... They can't get along well, the 2 older ones kept wanna fight with the younger ones.

Wuwuwuwu.... just counted..... 31 gerbils!!!!

Anyway, got 2 DEH, I'm gonna keep 1 heheheh... so one is a baby, just about 4 weeks old. So zoejehuty, you need to wait another 2 weeks before can take lah.

I don't even know which is the mom LOL.... So I will adopt out all the males.
There is 2 nutmegs.... then the rest all agouti and blacks.

The agoutis are really good looking.... the blacks.... got this black girl kinda cute. When I pick her up, she will put her 2 paws in her mouth... I dunno why. I'll get a pic once I get my camera. Funny but cute. She is not deform or anything, just would put her 2 paws in her mouth.

Hahah... no spotted or pieds.... only got 1 DEH, 2 nutmegs and the rest Agoutis and Blacks available.... then also those 9 lilacs.

Hahaha... today just bought Rm5 worth of veggies for all the animals for adoption.... susah coz so many....

Heheh... give you a hint.... 1 tank got 9 gerbils.... and 1 tank got 22 gerbils....

Both tanks not 2ft tank loh.... 1 is 1.5ft y 1.5ft and another is 1ft by 1ft.... so.... LOL.... population boom. Anyway, I have shifted them into 2ft tanks.... now at least got some space for them to go around but still, I would like them to go to new homes ASAP so they can enjoy better lives.