See Suzie On The Gerbil Picture Of The Week Page

I did indeed find Internet access this morning! So we have a new Gerbil Picture Of The Week. This week's photo is of Suzie on her first night home.

If you have a favorite gerbil photo that you'd like to see on our Web site, please send it to us, and you might see your gerbil on the Gerbil Picture Of The Week page next week!

A Note About Tomorrow's Gerbil Picture Of The Week

Hi, everyone. Just wanted to let everyone know that there may be a delay in posting the new Gerbil Picture Of The Week. Usually, I post the new picture on Saturday morning. However, I'm not sure if and when I'll have Internet access this weekend. It might be tomorrow morning, or it might be a little bit later in the weekend.

I didn't want anyone to think that I'd forgotten if it's not up at the usual time tomorrow. ;)

By the way, we actually haven't received any gerbil photos from any of you this week, so if you have a gerbil photo that you'd like to see on this weekend's Gerbil Picture Of The Week, just email it to us, and we might post your gerbil's photo next!

New Gerbil Poll Posted

Last night, we posted the results of the latest Weekly Gerbil Poll. Stop by to see what most people's friends think of their gerbils! The answers might surprise you. Not nearly as many people were afraid of rodents as we expected. That's great news!

We also posted a new poll last night. This week, we'd like to know where your favorite place is to find gerbil toys. We'll post your answers next Thursday night, October 5th.

The Latest Photos of Herman & Buster

Last night, after Buster and Herman's tank cleaning, I got a few photos of the boys. The new photos start at the end of page 5 of their photo album and continue on to page 6.

Herman's still the little guy, but as you can see in the pictures, he's really grown!

A Few More Thoughts About Samantha

As promised, I took some photos of Samantha's burial spot at the pet cemetery this past weekend. It was a beautiful day when we went out there. Nice and warm and sunny. Compared to the cold, rainy weather we've been having, it was the perfect day to take some flowers out for Samantha.

The photo above is where Sam is buried. She was laid to rest right next to her former tankmate Suzie. Samantha's marker isn't finished yet, so for now, the flowers I placed in the ground are the only real marker of her burial spot.

Tonight, we moved Hope's tank downstairs right next to the couch, where Samantha's tank had been. It's nice to hear the sound of little paws digging in the bedding again. That corner of the room had been too silent for the past week and a half.

Next week, I plan to make a memorial donation to the local Humane Society. It's a great way, I think, to remember Samantha. She was a rescue gerbil, and I'm glad that her memorial donation will help other lost or abandoned animals find good homes.

Humane Society Of Central Oregon Needs Pet Supplies

The Humane Society Of Central Oregon is making a plea for pet supplies, including gerbil food and Carefresh bedding. Please see the linked article if you can provide these or other pet supplies. The article lists other pet needs, such as dog and cat food. The article also provides contact information so that you can make your donation to the Humane Society Of Central Oregon.

Animals Featured In Photography Exhibit At The George Eastman House

There is currently a photography exhibit about animals at the George Eastman House. This exhibit will run through January 7th, and according to this article about the exhibit, there's even a photo of a gerbil wearing a tiara.

Nellie & Herman Answer Kids' Gerbil Questions

Nellie and Herman have answered several more gerbil questions from kids. The latest questions were about whether gerbils can fly on planes, what to do if a gerbil's nose is red and teeth are too long, and what it means when a gerbil chatters his teeth.

Onion Looks At His Reflection

We have a new Gerbil Picture Of The Week. This week's photo is of Sam's gerbil Onion. As he was having a run during some out-of-the-tank playtime, he stopped to check out his reflection in the mirror!

If you'd like to see your gerbils on our Web site, just send your favorite gerbil photo, and you might see your gerbil photo on our site next week!

In Memory Of Samantha

You may have noticed that I've been a little bit quieter than usual this week. It's been a tough time, because we lost our beautiful Samantha on Sunday morning. Because of her advanced age, it shouldn't have been a shock, but it was a surprise, because she'd still been so active up until that morning. She had just turned 3 years, 9 months old last Thursday. (That is a very good age for a gerbil, so I know that I was lucky to have Samantha with me for as long as I did.)

I like to write fun, happy news here, but I think it's important, too, to write about the heartbreaking things that happen when you have gerbils. It's a part of having pets. They provide you with so much joy, but they also leave a huge hole in your heart when they're gone. As you can see from the photo of me with Samantha, I really adored her.

The day before Samantha died, she was acting fine, but I thought I felt a mass in her side when I was doing weekly health checks. I was taking her in Monday night to see the vet and have it confirmed. At that point, she was still acting like nothing was wrong. When I went to bed Saturday night, Samantha was happily munching on a pumpkin seed.

Sunday morning, Samantha was breathing very fast and not getting around as well as she usually does. She just seemed a little bit weak. At first, I thought maybe she'd had a stroke, but the symptoms didn't seem to fit. Based on what I saw that morning, I think she died either from complications of the tumor I thought I felt the day before, or of heart failure. I tried to keep her comfortable, but as the morning went on, her condition deteriorated. I contacted the emergency vet, who said she could come into the office at 1:30.

Samantha didn't make it that long, though. As her health declined, I held her and tried to keep her warm and comfortable. She seemed to enjoy this and kept curling up against my chest to sleep. I was lying on the couch just before 11:00, with Samantha sleeping on my stomach, cradled against my arm, when she woke up and started gasping for air. Her death was pretty quick, and she didn't seem to suffer for more than a few seconds if at all. She kicked her legs a few times and then stopped breathing.

Samantha's burial was yesterday morning. She's buried next to her former tankmate, Suzie. It was a very rainy and windy day, but it was a beautiful burial nonetheless. She's been living alone for quite a while now, and it was nice to see her laid to rest with Suzie.

Because of the rain, I couldn't get any photos at the pet cemetery yesterday, but I'll try to get a few photos this weekend. I'm also planning to create a memorial page for Samantha. She was truly one of a kind, and it's very strange to not hear her running in her wheel or scraping at the corners of the tank anymore.

Something I'm considering adding to the Twin Squeaks site is a memorial page where site visitors can add memorials to their gerbils. If this is something you think you'd like, please add a comment to this post and let me know.

Rest In Peace, Samantha
12/14/02 - 9/17/06

Poll Results Are Posted!

You can now see the results of the latest Weekly Gerbil Poll. Find out how old most of Twin Squeaks' visitors were when they got their first gerbils.

You can also vote in the next poll, which is about what your friends think about your gerbils. We'll post the results of this new poll on Thursday night, September 28th.

Pet Blessing Ceremony On Mount Royal Today

There's an article in Canada's Gazette about priest Horace Baugh, who is now 90 years old and has been giving blessings to pets since 1951. It's a good read.

By the way, the article says he blessed "dogs, cats, gerbils, and white rats" during the first ceremony on October 4th, 1951, but gerbils were probably not present until one of the later ceremonies. This is because gerbils weren't kept as pets until later. I'm not sure when gerbils made their way to Canada, but they first came to the U.S. for laboratory research in 1954 and weren't kept as pets until several years later.

In the article, Baugh says that he has probably blessed approximately 60,000 pets in his lifetime. These include not only dogs and cats but also pets such as gerbils and lizards. He even blessed a pet skunk once.

If you live near Mount Royal, you can have your pet blessed today, too. Baugh's pet blessing ceremony will begin at 3:00 at Beaver Lake on Mount Royal.

New Gerbil Picture Of The Week

This week's Gerbil Picture Of The Week is one of the funniest gerbil photos we have. One night, Faith was really wound up and kept leaping through the air, jumping over her sister, who was busy chewing a cardboard tube. Stop by the Picture Of The Week page to see the incredible flying gerbil.

If you have a gerbil photo that you'd like to see on the Picture Of The Week page, please send it to us. It's OK if your gerbil is just smiling at the camera and not flying through the air. ;)

We always love seeing photos of other people's gerbils. And who knows? You might see your gerbil's photo on our site next weekend!

Poll Results Recovered & Posted Finally

We finally were able to recover the results of last week's Gerbil Poll. In case you missed the posts I've made over the past few days, there was either a server-side error or someone hacked our poll results last Thursday. The results were altered, and it happened again today. Luckily, we were able to retrieve the pre-error/hack results finally.

You can see the results of the poll about where your gerbils like to run by visiting the Weekly Gerbil Poll page. You can also participate in the new poll and let us know how old you were (or will be) when you got your first gerbils. We're going to wait until next Thursday, September 21st, to post the poll results so that everyone has at least a full week to vote in the new poll.

Thanks again for your patience. I really appreciate those of you who gave us time to contact our Web hosting company and try to sort out what happened when our poll results were trashed last week. Thanks again!

New Photos Of Buster & Herman

We've posted some new photos of Buster and Herman in their photo album. You'll find the new photos on page 5.

If you compare these photos to earlier ones, you can really see that Herman's growing up! He's still much smaller than Buster, but he's not the tiny little pup that he was when we adopted him less than a month ago either.

Another thing that's fun to see in these newer photos is how Herman's first molt is going. Herman is a dark-eyed honey, and while they don't have as dramatic of a first molt as a nutmeg gerbil (nutmegs completely transform from a light golden color to a dark color like Buster's during their first molt), it's still a lot of fun to watch a dark-eyed honey molt. For instance, in the photo to the right, you can see that there's a molt line across Herman's forehead, just above his eyes. His fur is actually the same color, but he has dark ticking at the very tips of the fur where he's molted. He'll still look about the same after his molt as he did before, but there will be a very pretty dusty ticking to the ends of the golden-colored hairs when the molt is complete.

Buster continues to do very well in his new home. It's funny to watch the differences between the older Buster and his younger little tankmate Herman. For example, sometimes when I walk in the room, Herman will start dashing around the tank, frantically trying to figure out what I'm doing and why I'm there.

Buster, on the other hand, will usually look up groggily, stretch, yawn, and then contentedly curl back up in the nest. Don't get me wrong. It's not that Buster isn't a very active gerbil. It's just that he doesn't get all wound up about every little thing. It's as if age has taught him what's worth getting hyper about and what's not. Buster seems to watch Herman's hyper little antics with a sense of amusement.

As you can see from the photo to the right, Herman is always busy, busy, busy. Running in the wheel, eating (he's a growing gerbil!), and digging in the corners of the tank. Buster is also busy, but he takes life at a more leisurely pace.

What's great is that Buster definitely plays the role of adopted big brother very well. He's also very protective of Herman. If I try to get Herman out of the tank, Buster is right there, fussing over things and making sure that I'm not going to do any harm to Herman. It's very cute, really. :)

Finally, there are a couple of pieces of news about Buster and Herman. First, they survived their first tank cleaning since their introduction! I took the photo of Herman (to the left) right after their tank cleaning. I was nervous about how they would handle the first tank cleaning, hoping they wouldn't decide to bicker afterwards, but they really handled it very well. And they seem happy to have a clean tank and new chew blocks!

The other big news is that yesterday was Herman's two-month birthday! He got some new chew toys and some special treats to celebrate, but the celebration was pretty laid-back, really, because he was having such a good time playing with Buster that we hated to interrupt. :)

Gerbils Catch Spies!

This BBC article's been around for quite a few years now, but it's a real gem, so I wanted to share it with everyone. According to the BBC, British MI5 agents considered training gerbils to catch spies.

You can read more in the article, but the idea was that the gerbils could smell anxiety and sense spies who were nervous about getting caught. The gerbils never became government operatives, however, because they couldn't tell the difference between a spy scared of being caught and an average person who's scared of flying.

Survival School: Class Pets by Frank Asch

I just ran across a book about an escaped classroom gerbil today. It's called Class Pets: Survival School and was written by Frank Asch.

The Saginaw News has posted an article about Frank Asch and his tale of Dexter the gerbil.

Have any of you read this book? If so, what did you think? Post a comment to this post to let others know your thoughts!

Animal Poison Control Hotline

Here's an important number for all pet owners (not just gerbil owners) to have handy: (785) 532-5679.

That's the number of the Animal Poison Control Hotline, which is run by Kansas State's College of Veterinary Medicine. The service is free, and you don't even have to be from the Kansas area to call, although long-distance charges will apply. Kansas City infoZine ran an article about the Animal Poison Control Hotline and even specifically mentioned that the hotline has helped with gerbils before. The article also includes tips for keeping you pets safe.

Another Quick Poll Update

Just wanted to let everyone know that our Web host is looking into the problem with the Gerbil Poll, and as soon as we figure out what happened, I'll let everyone know. I'm sorry that we haven't been able to post the results of last week's poll yet. We'll have a new poll question, though, as soon as the poll feature on our site is working properly again!

See Lily & Mona

This week's Gerbil Picture Of The Week is of Elizabeth's gerbils Lily & Mona. Aren't they adorable??

If you'd like for us to put one of your gerbil photos on our Gerbil Picture Of The Week page, please email us with a copy of your gerbil photo, and you might see your gerbil on our site next week!

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!

Flavored Pet Medications

I ran across this press release about flavored pet medications this morning and wondered if anyone else has tried giving their gerbils flavored medications? If so, how did your gerbils like it?

Back in February, Lindsay started on Baytril, which gerbils usually hate taking because it tastes so bitter. My vet suggested giving Lindsay the Baytril with a little bit of sugar-free organic apple juice. Lindsay loved taking the Baytril this way. She eagerly licked at the needleless syringe every time I offered it to her.

As you may already know, Lindsay's illness progressed, and later she was on the much stronger antibiotic chloramphenicol. The pharmacy mixed this up with an apple flavor so that Lindsay would like it... But she never could stand taking the chloramphenicol, even with the apple flavor, so giving her her meds several times a day was not pleasant. This article suggests that gerbils prefer the bubblegum and grape flavors, so I wish I'd tried those instead of the apple!

I mentioned that Lindsay loved taking her Baytril with apple juice, but Pippi's too smart for that trick. When she was taking Baytril, she knew it was medicine, and she didn't like it one bit. Not even with the apple juice. Of course, I still made her take her medicine. She just didn't like it very much. ;)

I think it's still pretty rare to add flavoring to gerbil medications, but if any of you have experiences (positive or negative) with giving your gerbils or other rodents flavored pet medications or medications mixed with fruit juice, please add a comment to this post so that we can all hear about it!

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!

Nellie Writes About Whether To Breed Gerbils

N.W.Z. wrote to Nellie and wanted to know if it was a good idea to breed his gerbils. Nellie wrote about some of the things you must consider before you start breeding gerbils.

Nellie Writes A Letter To T.

Nellie has answered a letter from T. He wanted to know more about how long it takes to tame gerbils.

Nellie and Herman still have a couple more letters to answer. They got a lot of mail recently, but they're working hard to answer all of their mail from kids.

Current Gerbil Activities

Here's what the Twin Squeaks gerbils are up to this afternoon.

• Pippi - Curled up in a ball, sleeping.


• Samantha - Sitting under the water bottle with a piece of food, eating lunch.


• Hope - Crawling through and chewing on her metal spiral-shaped toy. She does this a lot. ;)


• Maeby - Rearranging the bedding in the corner of the tank.


• Nellie - Eating lunch.


• Buster & Herman - Just sitting together, keeping each other company. It looks like they might be getting ready for a nap.

Nellie & Herman Answer Some Kids' Letters

Nellie & Herman have been busy this week, writing answers to kids' gerbil questions. They still have a few more letters they're working on, but in the meantime, they've posted answers to kids' questions about whether two gerbils can make friends with two new gerbils, if it's OK to feed a gerbil vegetables instead of seeds for one day, and if it's OK to use vegetable oil to silence a squeaky wheel.

You can find the answers to these and other great gerbil questions from kids on the Ask Nellie & Herman page. If you missed it this past week, there's also a very special letter there from Pippi the Gerbil.

Ellen's Gerbil Inky Is Hard At Work

Come see the new Gerbil Picture Of The Week. This week's special gerbil is Ellen's gerbil Inky, a black gerbil who is hard at work chewing a cardboard tube! Just look at the expression of determination on Inky's face! :)

If you'd like to make one of your gerbils an online star, just email it to us, and you might see your gerbil on the Picture Of The Week page next time!

September Tip: Speak Your Gerbils' Language

Have you ever wondered what your gerbil is thinking? In the September Tip Of The Month, you'll learn how to tell from your gerbil's body language what he or she is trying to say.

New Gerbil Poll Question

We've posted a new Weekly Gerbil Poll question. This week, we want to know where your gerbils like to run. You can also see the results of last week's question, which was, When do your gerbils thump their feet?