Enrichment, does anyone have any recommendations for enrichment beyond just toilet paper rolls?? And if so where do u buy them/how do h make them if their DIY??

Cage toppers, is wire the only option? What are some good brands/where to buy, and what should I look out for / avoid??

Sand baths, What brand of sand do you guys recommend and how do I prevent it from spilling into the rest of the cage?? Same with food bowls my baby’s always kick the bedding into their bowls of food. Is there anyway to prevent that?

I reached the 2 month mark since I got them and in my instruction book it says I should clean 1/3 of their enclosure every 1-2 months. It doesn't look dirty and it doesn't smell at all. The thing is, Im scared to clean bc I know it's a lot of stress for them and I dont want to ruin my progress with taming. Any ideas on how to avoid this?

I'm FINALLY able to upgrade Licorice & S'mores living space, and I've been eyeing this enclosure for a while. I'm not dead set on this one specifically, but I do like the storage space for their extra supplies underneath. I know it says hamsters in the main listing, but does state that it works for gerbils, too.

I was just looking for opinions.

Hi everyone -

I’m curious for those of you who have had the loving privilege of watching your gerbils live a long life, can you tell me, did you notice signs of old age, slowing down and decline like you would with a cat or dog?

I wonder because with gerbils, it, of course, can be harder to tell due to their varied life span and inability to tell you in ways that may be easier to recognize with a cat or dog. Sometimes this is also a privilege, because you can begin to mourn, seek measures and make them comfortable. I sadly know this is not always or often the case with these little guys.

So my question is, when you lost your older ones, did you know the end was getting closer, or was it a more sudden onset illness like you so often see?

Thanks for your stories 🤍

Cleaned my gerbils enclosure, they seem happy 🤗 I use chipsi bedding with hay and usually have some carefresh or kaytee softer bedding to add too but just waiting on it being delivered. I fee like tank is too bare?? Any suggestions for more enrichment? They did have a wheel but just buried it, never ran or went on it and started chewing it a lot lately so i took it out as thought not good for them to chew on😖 and frequently give them more cardboard, egg boxes etc !

Now I am using some stuff that I had in my apartment, and some playpen and accesories for hamster, Because the cage that I had it was for hamster. So, I used a plastic bottle as bowl of sand, so they have Space to play and explore, and I used the tunel of the cage and the love to go to some recint to other. And the plastic box has paper and hay. Also some snacks. I just let them be some minutos or hours until they stop and get tired. Any advice. I have on in one small cage, and other in a bigger cage and I switch them

Can a Gerbil live in this? The bottom part is very deep for bedding too. I'm open to any tips! Thanks!

I just got my gerbils last week and they’re still really jumpy. I was hand taming them with gloves today and one of them went for a treat on my hand and stayed there for a bit. I (stupidly) thought it would be a good idea to lift my hand up with them still on so they’d get used to me handling them.

Unfortunately he jumped out from my hand and in the process he landed in his water dish and he got some water on him, and then ran into his burrows. I panicked and (stupidly) thought that I needed to get him into his sand bath asap. In the process I destroyed their burrowing area trying to find him so I could take him into his sand bath. I finally found him but he was so jumpy that I ultimately couldn’t place him into his sand bath.

I decided to leave them alone after that but now they’re so panicked and are pacing around their enclosure and are panic digging.

I’m so upset and I’m on the verge of a mental breakdown because I feel like a terrible gerbil parent for scaring them like that, and now I’m worried that all the trust I tried building with them is gone and that they’re gonna associate my scent with fear.

hello,

i would like to preface this by saying mentally, i am not in a well state. i was inpatient about two weeks ago following a really bad crisis that ended a 3-year long relationship and left me incredibly depressed. my baby passing today was kind of the tip of the iceberg and i think i can officially say im very depressed right now.

about a year ago, my friend asked me if i could take in her sisters two gerbils. her sister got them (16 at the time) and just straight up abused/neglected them. she would pick them up until they bit her and taunt them, and would forget to feed/water them. i obliged, got them a 50-gallon and stocked it with bedding and toys.

they were very happy (albeit, incredibly vicious) little guys. i am not being dramatic when i say vicious. both of them would climb into my gloves when i was cleaning their cage to maul me, or go for my wrists. i noticed in the past couple of days that Pestilence, one of the brothers, was nowhere to be spotted. i dug through the cage and lo and behold, he had passed. without sharing too many details, his brother took the liberty of eating him, so cleaning out the entire cage to disinfect it and discard of his body was pretty tough on me.

now, i'm at a crossroads. it's my understanding that it's cruel to keep a gerbil alone, so of course i will not be doing that. i have two options;

I. getting another gerbil and bonding them
II. rehoming

i would absolutely pick getting another gerbil in a heartbeat, but i'm hesitant on how hard bonding them may be. i am certainly able to feed/water him, clean his cage daily, but im worried bonding may be too hard of a process for me to commit to.

i love my boy and i want what's best for him. i'm worried that rehoming him to an existing clan may not be possible, because no one wants a nippy, "mean" gerbil.

i feel like im just rambling so any tips, opinions or ideas are welcome.

(pic attached is temporary; i wanted to take all the bedding out to disinfect. im going to grab some more tomorrow when the pet store is open)

Swapped my split tank again today but marmite - the black gerbil is crazy, he keeps climbing ontop of the wheel and standing ontop of it, climbing up the split and climbing at the shelf sides of the back of the enclosure.
Now he has even began trying to eat the metal mesh 😭

I recently got a new pet gerbil as a rescue and I’ve found it’s best to get it a partner but I need to make sure they are same sex so I don’t end up with babies

Hi,

This cage looks pretty nice and OK size for 2x gerbils or 1x hamster (I haven't gotten any).

However the ventilation throws me off a little bit. It doesn't seem to be a lot just a few small holes. Would this be something to worry about?

FYI I have not yet bought this cage.

Our little buddy was preening and my wife had a great idea to film in slow mo. He moves so fast it still doesn’t feel like slow mo. 4 Months into his heart meds, and Scrubshump is still going strong.

Hey everyone! My poor sweet bean Merlin (around 2.6 years old) unfortunately had a pretty bad fall while I was handling her the other day and after fighting for a few days with different services I managed to get her x-rayed. I definitely suspected she had a broken leg because of her behaviour (dragging, gnawing the leg, etc) and having witnessed the leg while trying to save her from the fall.

It's a lot worse than I thought, sadly. She's managed to break her pelvis and her hip, and it's quite severe. Doing this has managed to actually dislocate the hip in the process, and so the vet can't manipulate it back in because of the break. On to her mental state:

She's obviously in a lot of pain and not her usual sprightly self. She's struggling to groom herself, too, so I have had to clean her up. She's only eating (enthusiastically!) if I'm manually handing her the food, and I'm going to test out if she'll accept water later. She's spending a lot of time sleeping naturally and I have her on plenty of painkillers.

I have to make the decision about what's best for her, and honestly I don't know, so I would love to hear some accounts from other people who have had similar situations and honest opinions.

I'm leaning towards euthanising her, truthfully, because it feels like the kindest option, but that's simply because of the lack of grooming and struggling to eat - her weight has already gone down. Other than that, which is what gives me pause, is she is still as bright eyed as ever.

I guess what I need to hear is if I'm making the right decisions, or if I need to give her a bit more time with the painkillers and see if she makes a bit more of an improvement - but even that feels quite cruel. :/ I'm not sure how long such a severe break takes to heal, or anything, and I don't want to prolong any more unnecessarily. I have a follow up appointment at the vets tomorrow and there I'll probably make the decision. I just want it to be the right one.

Including sweet bean tax for you all!

TL;DR: Baby suffered a much more severe break than expected. Is eating but only when I manually hand her the food and is spending most of her time sleeping. I'd like to hear similar accounts/reassurance etc

my gerbils love pumpkin seeds and whenever i have a pumpkin i just throw away the seeds cus i’m a bit cautious since idk how to prepare them.. how do i do it and should i ?

Where I can buy little things to put inside the terrarium, like hiding places, the wheel, platform and things like that, I live in Portugal and have tried everywhere, there is never anything.!!!

One of my favorite pictures of them 💖

I have two gerbils they genuinely chew throughout everything within a few days
I bought a hide out wood house it’s gone.

I’m not sure what to do, especially with water dishes because their bowls are constantly being buried in bedding to the point where they don’t have bedding at the moment and I don’t get paid for another two weeks.

I let my gerbils run in my sleeves for the first time. I thought it was funny and I saw a video of someone letting their gerbils do the same. Both of them seemed to really enjoy it, also climbing on my back and kinda running through my whole hoodie. But after both of them were back in the cage, safe and sound, and I removed my arm, one of my gerbils started to dig where it ha been, really frantically. I think she's looking for the hoodie. Is this normal? Did I break my gerbil? Did I f*ck up really badly and you guys are gonna rip me a new one?