Housing Your Gerbil

Before you bring home your gerbil, you should have there home waiting.

I recommend glass aquarium with a mesh lid. A Lid is must! Don't under-estimate you gerbils jumping ability! There nickname is the desert kangaroo. Mine has jumped out of its 40 gallon tank.

I know there other options out there like wire cages and habitrail homes. I wouldn't even mess with buying these. Wire cages can easily annoy your gerbil and can cause harm. Gerbils will rub there noses on the bars which makes them sore. They also kick the bedding out threw the bars which makes a big mess! The habitrail are made out of plastic and are often very expensive. Gerbils can chew through those with in a day or so. Which makes for an expensive cage to go to waste.

I use Aspen bedding which is alittle more expensive but worth the cost. Never Use Pine or cedar, it causes respitory diseases in adults and pups. If you need convincing please click on the banner at the bottom of this page.

Gerbil's need toys to play with and keep them amused. They love to crawl on and jump through things. Some things I would recommend are : a wooden house, toilet paper tubes, a small cardboard box ( I usually cut different holes in the box so they can crawl through them) and wheels.

Wheels seem to be controversial with many gerbil owners. They say they get caught in the metal wheels, and there paws go though the bars resulting in a hurt paw. I find if you put the wheel hanging from the top of the cage and wrap paper around the wheel it seems to fix the problems, plus it results in saving a broken paw.