Gerbils are simple pets to take care of all you need is a 10 gallon tank....bedding.....food....food bowl...water bottle...and a few toys! Gerbils are desert animals and therefore do not drink alot of water and there droppings are dry and that is an advantage because the cage will not stink like other rodents! NEVER use cedar or pine it can kill your gerbils the best kind of bedding to use is Aspen or Carefresh. Gerbils need to be fed once a day there cage should be cleaned once every two weeks or when needed.Gerbils love to chew....you can give them toilet paper rolls tissue paper or any kind of cardboard they also have special chew sticks that you can find at the pet store for gerbils.Gerbils can get very lonly and need a play mate but never put two females together they may get along as babies but as they get older it can cause problems,unless done by split cage(see more info below) Two males would be perfect make sure they are young when you purchuse them(you might have future domiant problems.Becareful if you buy a gerbil from a pet store sometimes they are not very healthy so look at the gerbil very well before buying...breeders would be the best to buy from so you know the history on the gerbil you get you can know about any health problems or any other information you might be intrested in...Gerbils are great pets..If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me..
To tell you the truth nether cedar nor pine is good for your gerbils! I will tell you why with my own experince! Pine & Cedar, Pine isn't the worst bedding in fact you can use it if you aren't breeding your gerbils! If you are breeding them then please don't use it...it will give 50% of all your pups respitarory infections...and most of them die :-( I used pine for quit a while and would lose at least one or two pups in most litters and I never knew why! The cause of this is the oils,perfumes,the smells its not normal for a gerbil they are to strong! Same goes for cedar except cedar is WORST!!! Do Not use cedar at all it is very very un safe for your gerbils!! The best kind of bedding to use for your gerbils is aspen,carefresh, or corncob...me I use aspen and carefresh but carefresh is quit expesive so I am going to stick with aspen! These beddings dont have the perfumes or oils,and smells that cedar or pine has!
This method is used to get older females ust to each other and each others scent, this way they will get alone, you might have future fighting problems, please see National Gerbil Society for more details about fighting gerbils, here are the steps of how to do the split cage method!
Step 1:Split cage in half with something that they can't chew through, maybe put a few wholes in it, where they can smell each other.
Step 2:Put one gerbil on each side, and everyday switch there sides, so they can get ust to living with each others smell!
Step 3:After doing this for about 2 weeks, take he divider out, and they should get along, if not, place the divider in for longer!.. Good Luck!
Breeding gerbils is very simple, there isn't much to it, the hardest part *I think* is finding suitable homes for the pups! I refuse to sell them pet stores for the following reasons: I won't be able to get updates, like I do from indivduals and pet stores can't always give gerbils the proper care they need. When breeding gerbils I like the male to be larger then the female, so I won't disagreeing in the pair.Give your gerbils about a week to two just to get to know each other, after that, they should start breeding. Gerbils have a litter about once a month, they can have any where from 1-12 pups, but you usally don't get that large of a little, the largest I have ever had is 10, all survived,but one. I have only got a large litter like that once since my six years of breeding,and a few litters of 8, normally I get around 4-6, once a month! Daddy will take care of the babies, so there is no need to take the male away from the family.
Did this not answer all of your questions?.. thats ok. Visit the Gerbil FAQ (NOTE:not created by me!)
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