Waiting For The Great Pumpkin Seed

Happy Halloween!

Featured Shelter Gerbils: Gertie & Libby

UPDATE - Gertie and Libby have been adopted!

Today’s featured shelter gerbils are Gertie and Libby, an adorable pair of black gerbils who were found in a cardboard box in a parking lot.

They are at Lunas House, a shelter in Abingdon, Maryland. The girls have slightly different white markings, so you can tell them apart.

If you can help these abandoned gerbils find a home where they will be appreciated and loved, please visit Gertie and Libby’s Petfinder page.

Halloween Ghosts For Your Gerbils

If you’re looking for a fun Halloween treat for your gerbils, here’s an idea.

Make a Halloween ghost that holds gerbil treats!

Here are two ways that you can make a fun Halloween ghost treat for your gerbils:

First Method
1. Get a plain white, unused coffee filter.

2. Place a small pile of treats in the middle of the coffee filter.

3. Carefully twist the open end of the coffee filter like you would twist the end of a Tootsie Roll wrapper. This will trap the treats inside the bottom of the coffee filter.

4. After you’ve twisted the coffee filter closed tightly so that the treats don’t spill out, turn the filter upside down, and it should look like a tiny little ghost!

Second Method
1. Get two plain white paper towels.

2. Make sure that they are still connected to each other. (Don’t tear the two paper towels apart.)

3. Place a small amount of gerbil treats toward the end of the two paper towels.

4. Roll the paper towel around the treats. (Make sure you roll the paper towel the long way.)

5. Very carefully tie a loose knot around the part of the paper towel that holds the gerbil treats. (You will need to be very careful while you do this, or the paper towel will tear, and your gerbil treats will spill out.)

6. The part of the paper towel with the knot is the ghost's head.

7. The loose end of the paper towel is the bottom of the ghost.

8. If the bottom of the ghost is too long, you can tear a little bit of the bottom of the ghost off to make it shorter.

9. Your ghost is ready to give to your gerbils!

Below, you can see video clips that show how much fun gerbils have with their ghost treats. The first video is of a ghost made using Method 1. The second video is of a ghost made using Method 2.

Featured Shelter Gerbil: Locki

UPDATE: Locki has found a home!

Today’s featured shelter gerbil is Locki, a lovely one-year-old pied agouti female who is looking for a caring home.

Locki is currently waiting to meet you at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Virginia.

To learn more about adopting Locki, please visit her Petfinder page.

See Domino the Flying Gerbil!

Be sure to check out this week’s Gerbil Photo of the Week.

This week’s photo is of Angelie’s gerbils Domino and Sandy, but there’s a twist. Angelie caught Domino in mid-air, leaping over Sandy.

Great photo, Angelie! What an athletic gerbil you have!

If you have a picture of your gerbils that you’d like to share, you’ll find a link to send us your gerbil photo on the Gerbil Photo of the Week page. We get too many photos to include all on our site, but we share as many photos as we can.

Thanks again, for sending your great photo, Angelie! :)

The Pairs Chewing Competition At The Gerbil Show

In the Pet Class at the Midwest Gerbil Show last weekend, there were a couple of cardboard-chewing competitions, to see which gerbils could chew the most of a toilet paper tube in a set amount of time. Herman and Sebastian competed in the Pairs Chewing Competition. In this video clip, you can see Herman and Sebastian and all of the other pairs of gerbils competing.

Featured Shelter Gerbils: Sam & Harry

UPDATE: Sam and Harry have been adopted. Thank you!

Can you help Sam and Harry find a home?

These two cuties are our featured shelter gerbils today. Sam and Harry are at 3R Rescue (Raleigh Rodent Rescue) in North Carolina looking for a new home. Please visit Sam and Harry’s Petfinder page for more information about how you can adopt these boys.

Midwest Gerbil Show In The News

Katie McQueen, the coordinator of the 2008 Midwest Gerbil Show, just sent this link to TV coverage of the gerbil show!

Be sure to play the video. You’ll learn a lot about gerbils and see lots of adorable gerbils who were at the show. (Also, toward the end of the video clip, you’ll see Mike chewing a toilet paper tube and then Herman scampering around on my leg. :)

Introducing Hallie & Liza!

Meet the two newest gerbils at Twin Squeaks! These lovely girls are Hallie and Liza, who are Herman’s granddaughters.

Hallie and Liza were born at Garden of Eden Gerbils. We adopted them at the Midwest Gerbil Show last weekend.

Hallie is a nickname. Her full name is “Half-Truth,” because her mom’s name is Truth. Hallie and Liza will turn 10 weeks old this weekend. They’re both very tame and friendly. Both have very soft fur, and Hallie especially is very soft, just like several other members of her family!

So far, Hallie is the more adventurous of the two, while Liza is the wheel runner. Liza loves running in her exercise wheel. They each remind me of Herman in some ways, but they also each have their own unique personalities.

I’ve posted several photos of Hallie and Liza in new photo album. I look forward to getting to know them better and sharing more stories about them with you over the next several years! :)

2008 Midwest Gerbil Show Update

Well, we are back from the Midwest Gerbil Show in Oklahoma!

Our gerbils did very well. Marco placed 2nd in the White Belly class behind Garden of Eden’s Morty, who won Best In Show. Toby placed 2nd in the Mottled Class. Sebastian placed 3rd in the Spot Class. His nephew Kyle got 2nd Place, and his sister Jaden got Best Of Opposite Sex in the class. Jaden went on to win Best Of Opposite Sex in the entire show.

Although we didn’t have as many gerbils of our own at this show as last year, we were excited to see how well Herman’s family members from other kennels did. Herman’s son won 1st Place and his grandson won 3rd Place in the Self/Non-Black Class. Four of Herman’s grandpups placed in the Pup Class. In all, Herman’s kids and grandkids took more than 25 percent of the ribbons at the show!

In addition, Herman’s son Keegan won People’s Choice, and Herman’s granddaughter Circle won the Showmanship Award. Finally, Herman’s daughter Jaden won her Championship, making Herman, Kaden, and Jaden the first mated pair and child to all three achieve an AGS Championship.

Although Herman is retired, it looks like his family members will continue to make appearances at gerbil shows. We hope we’ll have the opportunity to see them at
future shows and hope that they'’ll be able to bring others as much joy as Herman and Sebastian have brought us!

In addition to the main conformation portion of the show, there were many fun Pet Class events, such as the obstacle course, which you can see to the left.

Herman and Sebastian competed in the Pairs Chewing Competition and tied for 1st Place (with some of their relatives). Marco and Polo competed in the dust-bathing competition, and Marco won a Pet Class ribbon for style in that competition. :)

There was also an artistic competition in which gerbils chewed paper snowflakes, and there was a contest for the humans at the show to make the best tank backdrop.

I got a chance to catch up with many friends in the American Gerbil Society, and there were some funny moments, too.

To the right, you can see a photo of my friend Ruth with one of the electric bikes that she sells. We took turns riding the bike around the parking lot with a gerbil in the basket in the front of the bike. People must have thought we were crazy. :)

The most exciting news from the show is that we came home with two new pups named Hallie and Liza. These girls are Herman’s grandpups, and I’ll write much more about them in a separate blog post. :)

Featured Shelter Gerbil: Johnson

UPDATE: Great news! Johnson has been adopted! Thank you to all who helped this homeless gerbil find a new home!

This weekend’s featured shelter gerbil is Johnson, a handsome spotted black gerbil at the Wildlife Care Center/SPCA of Broward County in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Johnson was found, along with several other gerbils, abandoned in a cage in a parking lot. It’s a very sad story, and it would be wonderful to see Johnson find a good, loving home.

If you live in the Fort Lauderdale area and can help Johnson find a home, please visit his Petfinder page or call the Wildlife Care Center (954-524-4302, ext.15).

If you adopt Johnson, please email me and let me know. I’d love to hear that this sweet gerbil has found a home!

Sad News At Twin Squeaks

We’ve had a sad couple of months at Twin Squeaks, with two of our older gerbils passing over the Rainbow Bridge.

Our gerbil Maeby, who was nearing three years of age, had an abdominal tumor and passed away on August 23rd. The photo to the left is the last picture of me and Maeby together. It was taken just a couple of days before she passed away.

I consider it a real blessing that Maeby continued to be active and have a love of life up until the end. The last time I saw her alive was on Friday night, August 22nd, when I fed her and her tankmate Nellie. Maeby darted right over to the pile of food and eagerly grabbed a pumpkin seed. She was in the corner happily munching away on her snack when I went to bed that night.

Maeby passed away during the night. In the morning, I found Maeby and Nellie curled up together in the nest. Nellie was draped protectively over Maeby, who was in the same position she usually sleeps in. Nellie woke up and started grooming Maeby, as if she didn't know yet that Maeby had died. It was heartbreaking but also very sweet.

Maeby was buried at the pet cemetery, next to her sister Lindsay. Maeby and Lindsay originally came from a pet store, and Lindsay had a genetic defect that took her life when she was only three months old. As sad as I was to lose Maeby, it made me feel a little bit better to see Maeby and her sister Lindsay together again.

A month after Maeby’s death, we lost our beloved nutmeg gerbil Buster, whom we adopted from the Humane Society in 2006. Since he came from the shelter, I never knew his exact age but estimate that he was over three years old when he died. Buster had been showing gradual signs of aging since early in the year. His coat had been getting lighter and lighter, and he’d been gradually losing weight.

Still, he remained active and healthy until the last couple of days of his life. When he showed the first signs of lethargy and difficulty eating, I took him to the vet, where he had fluids injected to help with some dehydration. It helped briefly, but later in the night, he was in bad shape again. Buster made it through the night but died the next morning, within 20 minutes of when I woke up. It was as if he was waiting so that I could be there when he left. His tankmate Gobo was also with him when he passed away.

Gobo was fantastic and took such wonderful care of Buster at the end. It was very heartwarming to see, because Gobo was only a pup when I introduced him to Buster. And of course, Buster being the wonderful adoptive father that he was, took Gobo in right away and was very caring and protective of him. It was nice to see that at the end of Buster’s life, Gobo returned the favor and was every bit as caring as Buster had been with him.

The photo to the right was taken of Buster last winter. He was also laid to rest at the pet cemetery. The weather was beautiful that day, and I couldn’t have asked for a more lovely burial for such a wonderful gerbil. Buster was slow to trust people he didn't know, but he was always very loving and trusting with me. In fact, he was one of the calmest, sweetest gerbils I’ve had, and he will be missed.