Gerbil Poll Note
You may have noticed that there isn't a new Gerbil Poll posted yet. For some reason, the poll responses reset themselves yesterday, and we lost the responses that were already in. I'm checking with my Web hosting service to see if there's a way to recover the poll results and hope to post the poll results later today.
Check back here on the Gerbil Blog, and I'll let you know when the Gerbil Poll problems are resolved!
Check back here on the Gerbil Blog, and I'll let you know when the Gerbil Poll problems are resolved!
posted by Twin Squeaks Gerbils | 8:14 AM
2 Comments:
Hi, I was wondering what got you started with raising gerbils? My daughter would like one, but she hasn't had a pet before.
When I got my first pair of gerbils, I lived in an apartment that wouldn't allow cats or dogs. I'd had goldfish, but they were hard to keep alive, even when I tested the water, did careful partial water changes, bought a good filter, etc. Goldfish can live for years (longer than a gerbil, in fact), but I just never had good luck keeping them alive.
When I lost my last goldfish, a friend who had gerbils suggested that I get a pair of gerbils instead of more goldfish. He pointed out that his own gerbils were very healthy, were fun to watch and interact with, and were relatively cheap to care for. I'd always liked his gerbils a lot. They were very curious, active, and charming. So I took his advice and decided to adopt a pair of gerbils.
How old is your daughter? I think gerbils can be a very good pet for children as long as they're old enough to handle them properly. (Very young children often squeeze the gerbils too tightly when they hold them.) But by the time kids reach school-age, they can usually handle gerbils pretty well if an adult shows them how.
Gerbils are social animals and do really well in pairs. They sleep together in a little pile and keep each other warm. They groom each other and play together. I've also found that most gerbils are tamer and calmer when they have a tankmate. Also, I think it's great for kids to see how a pair of gerbils take care of each other, play together, and cooperate to do things like shred toilet paper tubes or build a nest.
If you decide to get a pair of gerbils, make sure that they are both the same sex. You can't always trust a pet shop to get this right. It's how a lot of people end up with unwanted litters. If you get two gerbils, you might want to go through an American Gerbil Society breeder. You can find a list of these breeders on the American Gerbil Society's Breeder list.
If you do adopt from a pet shop, you might want to research how to tell the difference between males and females so that you can double-check the employee's work!
Here are a couple of sites that have guides to telling the difference between males and females:
Gerbil Breeding & Development's guide to Sexing Gerbils
NGS guide to Sexing Gerbils
You should be able to find a lot of information that you need about setting up your gerbil's or gerbils' home in the Gerbil Care Guide on our site. I'd suggest that you use a fish tank with a screen lid (available in the reptile section of the pet shop) and lid clamps, because this is a good, secure home for your gerbils. (They can't chew their way out like they can with a plastic habitat.)
If you ever have any other questions, please feel free to post another comment here on the blog or to email me. To email me directly, you can either use the Email link on my Blogger profile or the Email Us link on the left side of the Twin Squeaks Gerbils Web site.
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