This is Hank. My schools poorly thought out intelligence experiment. I take care of him and other animals under school funding (bad). I do my best with what I have, cardboard and wood to chew on, deep bedding, water, metal food bowl, and his food is whatever the instructor picks up which varies. Thats pretty much it for his cage(30 gal aquarium). I try to socialize him and get him out as often as possible. He bites most other people, will not let me pick him up unless its done in a very specific manner but he does seem to like me. He takes food from my hand and is comfortable climbing and checking in with me, and I think ive got two happy chirps from him (an honor). Im taking him home over the summer so then Ill have more control over what I can get him. Do yall have suggestion on cheap alternatives, better/fresher food, and bonding/playing techniques? Please be kind, Im a college student just trying to make their lives better.

Hello everyone, my gerbil has a scab on his nose and I can't go to the vet right now, but can I put some Vaseline or serum on him? I think he's cutting himself because he's always chewing on paper and cardboard. The picture is not very good, my phone camera is awful ahah but otherwise he is very healthy and love to play and run!

I’m getting straight to the point with the thread title — I’m a new gerbil owner and not really sure how to deal with the pee and poop. In the photo is my boys’ enclosure.

I had hamsters as a kid, and as I remember, it was easy with them, because they chose one corner of the cage as toilet. With gerbils, it seems different.

It seems that they pee and poo a lot in the sand bath (the metal bowl), which is great! It makes it easy for me to clean. I simply change the sand bath about once per day. They usually jump in and roll around in the fresh sand shortly afterwards. Chinchilla sand isn’t too expensive.

Also, the like to pee and poop a lot on the flat wooden shelves. I see it a lot — they sit still for a moment, and there’s a little puddle when they walk away. This is of course much harder to clean (the wood soaks up the pee), but on the other hand, I suppose I don’t really need to clean it that often.

Other than that, I have no idea if they ever pee or poop in the rest of their enclosure! They have a lot of burrows in the bedding, it would of course be very difficult to check in those.

Do you think the following method would be enough for cleaning:

• Keep cleaning out the sand bath daily or near daily.
• Do a big clean once every three months, changing 75% of the bedding and soaking the wooden shelves in water for a few hours before drying them out?

We got one male gray gerbil and one male white gerbils. Grey one is bigger and dominant, they sometimes wrestle where usually the grey one dominate the other one. They like grooming each other and squeak loudly when doing so.

Gray one is more easily stressed out by sudden movement and noise, he'll thump. He is more energetic and tends to run in the cage wheel, when picked by hand, he's not appreciating too much, he'll thump his head repeatedly and even teeth warned sometimes in fhe first months but has never bit. I usually let this one be, unless it's to give him some sport in a ball. He'a curious and will come see us when we are at the cage but he rapidly returns to his life.

White one is less energetic and more curious. He's very friendly and like coming watch at us and stare for a while. He's slow winking and loves being picked up to be handled. He was badly injured by my 9th year old son at the moment who decided to pick him up in the first month we had them. He decided to do so without asking and supervision. He his hyper sensitive and because of the claw he cannot support holding them so he end up folding them so I was telling him he could not pick them up again because he would kill them. So I come accross the cage and notice the white one doesn't seem well, can barely move and drag himself in the cage with front paws. The son replaced it in the cage I guess knowing he had messed up and hoped for the best not to be cought up. So eventually that white gerbil ended up not moving at all and depleted so I started hand feeding it and bringing water to him to the spot he was trying to recuperate. I could tell he was motivated to get better but he was on the verge of death and would have passed away without care. Eventually he made it up. One month later he was up and moving but since bjt he cannot stand straight, or walk straight he always has an inclined angle but he moves well enaugh and seems happy. When I pick him up he purrs and stays in my hand.

Had them in their young age from same litter, been 2 years I have them.

Hello! I was wondering if there was a limit to how much cardboard I can give my gerbil Ronald Weasley here (male,3 y.o. if that matters)? Because I give him lots daily so he can chew. Thanks! 😊

Minnie (right side with hay) and Daisy (left side dark brown)

Minnie passed away yesterday in her sleep 36 days from adoption. I just found her with her sister curled up in their den, eyes closed no indication of any blood or anything. It's just like she passed away in her sleep. No warning signs that anything was wrong.

Daisy seems really on edge after we removed her sisters body, she spent most of yesterday running around the habitat (40g tank) scrabbling at the side of the glass, etc. just really weird behavior that I haven't seen her do before.

This is my first time with gerbils and from my understanding I'll need to find another sister for her to bond with. Does anyone have any recommendations on what to do, and how to bond?

I also just wanted to say that it hurt alot more than I expected for only having spent a month with her. Minnie was really wild and I could stick my hand in the habitat and she would gladly hop in and go for a walk, she'd climb all up and down my arms and sit in the palm of my hands to eat. Even more so as my 4yr old son was really attached and was there when we found her 😭

Hi! New gerbil owner here.

So, I earned Bilbo in late september as a gift, he's no older than 1 year. I have no previous experience with rodents of any kind, so it is all new to me. I put him in a large fish tank I have, and though it is big for fish, I came to learn it is pretty small for a gerb (don't worry, I searched a lot about them and now he is in a fitting enclosure with an okay amount of enrichment).

So, while he was on his tank Bilbo was pretty curious about everything, he would always follow when I walked by and wasn't afraid when I put my hand next to him, he would even try to climb it! He accepted food from my hand and let me pet him - he don't like to be held tho, so I'm not doing it since then.

In early november I got him a 100cm x 50cm enclosure and he seemed super happy with it, he procced to explore every inch of his new home over and over again, and didn't bother with me and my dogs watching him, he even started to dig (I put a lot of foraging).

That's when the problem started. Since he began his digging he has been building a lot of tunnels and he don't really get out. He's either in his tunnels or in the hiding places I got for him like, all day, I think he just comes out at night when I'm sleeping. I don't see him eating, drinking, running in his wheel, digging or wandering around at all. Hell, it got to a point where I just know he is alive cause the foraging changes everyday from his nocturnal digging. In the rare ocasions when I do see him, he quickly goes back to hiding if I move, it doens't sounds like that curious gerbil at all!

I've read in some places it is normal in the first month, so I've not been forcing anything. I've tried to lure him out with treats but to no use. I plan to get a new gerbil this month cause they live happier in groups, but I don't want to repeat the same mistakes with this new one.

So, is it normal? Should I be doing something different? Why he changed so much once he was in his new home?

Thank you in advance for your replies!

So I currently have 3 gerbils, an adult and 2 pups living together. Unfortunately my adult lost one of his back foot claws which originally wasn’t a huge deal but he began picking at it and it is now bleeding a bit. I’ve put antibiotics on his foot and cleaned it off as well as fully cleaning their tank, the bleeding is done now unless he picks more. My question is should he be separated from his boys in a hospital tank or can he remain in the tank. My only fear is they are at an age where I feel after being separated it could lead to declanning problems and this doesn’t seem like an injury they would cause more harm to. He will be seeing a vet as soon as they open back up this week but just cleaning it until then and seeing how he does. He isn't chewing on his foot or anything extreme but I am monitoring for that just in case. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

I dont know what hes done today to make him this tired 🤣🌙

Ive had my gerbils for just under 2 years and started to wonder what colour they are!

Hi! My Liam and Noel go berserk at the bars whenever they smell cheese. My partner and I are both total cheesefreaks and our gerbils would sell theirselves to Satan for cheese. We let them have the occasional crumb but is this ok for gerbils?

Im still shaking, this happend like 20 min ago and i im just know coming to my senses. I dont even know how this happend. My gerbil Mafalda (2,5 y) has a eye infection the vet recommended eye drops but she gets stressed when i put them so she moves a lot and if she is able she will bite (she only does this when is time to put the drops) so the vet said i could wrap her aroud a towel and gentily just hold her trough the towel and adjust her how i want to put it, she will bite the towel while i do this i mean is just literally seconds and i have been doing this for a couple weeks and nothing happend, so like 20 mins ago i do the same process as i always do and she strated bitting the towel but as im done and unwrap her from the towel the towel is literally stuck on her upper teeth i start to try to gently take it off but it doesnt come off and start panicking every second because the teeth literally got suck of the towel and im pretty sure she can sense my stress and starts stressing too breathing really fast after like 2 mins of this i just go wake up my dad asking him for help my dad cut the towel so she just had this pice of cloth stuck on her mouth, then he tries to take off i try to open her mouth while he is pulling it down remind you she is breating really hard freaking out and making pain sounds at this point i cant deal i started hyperventilating and crying he goes to get a eyebrow pluker and calmly takes cloth little strains until the cloth separated itself from itself but it took so long like 15 min. Worst 15 min i had in a fucking while let me tell you i cant handle see her crying for help with this piece of cloth stuck in her teeth i genuinely tought she was going to die, like from stress no joking i leave the room and just start passing around the kitchen praying to God to help me while im crying and hyperventilating thinking im going to lose her and like 30 min ago she was ok she was chewing on cartboard and hanging aroud with her brother and the thought of losing that in a matter of seconds is so overwhelming then i come back my dad is still removing strain by strain and then all of the sudden the cloth got so undone it got lose and it came out. I feel so terrible the view of seeing your little best friend that im supposed to take care of suffering like that and the sounds she was making is heartbreaking i cant even describe i put her right back into her cage so she can calm down and she was ok. She was overwhelmed of course and was running around then she just started chewing on cartboard for like 20 secs and then went to the little house they have were her bother was sleeping and just stood next to him, she is ok i just checked on her and she in cuddling with her brother sleeping but damn i dont ever want to go trough this again im so shaken up

Sorry for my poor english im portuguese and i dont even know if i explain it well but i just needed to vent