The Gerbils Meet The Parents

It's miracle. All seven gerbils are fast asleep right now. It's rare for all of them to decide to nap at the same time. Usually, there's the sound of at least one gerbil chewing on toilet paper or running in a wheel.

My parents were in town today and met Buster and Herman for the first time. Mom even held both of the boys. Dad didn't see the need to let the gerbils crawl on him, however. ;-D

They were shocked by how big Buster is compared to the female gerbils I've had before, and they were also amazed by how little Herman is. Oh, if only they'd seen him two and a half weeks ago when we first adopted him. He was such a little guy then. It's amazing how fast they grow at this age. Herman's still little, but every day, he looks slightly less ridiculous sleeping next to Buster. Every day, Herman looks a little bit more like an adult gerbil.

Herman's in the middle of his first molt right now. You can see a subtle line in the middle of his back. On the lower side of the line, his fur has light, dusty ticking at the end, and on the upper side of this line, Herman still has his light baby fur with no ticking. It's really fun to watch him molt.

I'm going to have to clean Buster and Herman's tank sometime this week, and I'm not looking forward to it. The first tank cleaning after a successful split-cage introduction always makes me a little bit nervous. How will the gerbils react to suddenly having a clean tank without all their familiar smells? Will they still get along afterwards? To be honest, I've never had a pair of gerbils declan after their first tank cleaning, but I'm always just a little bit nervous anyway. If I remember, I'll post an update later this week and let you know how their first tank cleaning went!