Gerbil Shopping List

Looking for a quick, no fuss shopping list of the must haves and the good ideas for getting your first gerbils? Something you can have ready on your smart phone or printed out?

Look no farther!

The Must Haves: 

One ten gallon aquarium/terrarium

One screen lid that fits the tank mentioned above

Bedding– Preferably paper, I recommend Kaytee “Clean & Cozy” unscented bedding

Water Bottle –Glass, or equipped with a metal guard to prevent chewing

Food–Gerri Gerbil or Vitacraft’s “Mouse, Rat & Gerbil” food

Chews–Pet safe wood or lava block

Hide House–Wood/Plastic composite or ceramic will last the longest

“Gerbil Dust”–Sold as Chinchilla dust, to be given once a week in a glass bowl for bathing

Exercise Wheel–Metal mesh or “Silent Spinner” style wheels only

The Good Ideas

Play Pen–Make sure it is made for small rodents such as hamsters, or the bar spacing may be too large

Food Dish–Though not required, this does help maintain a cleaner habitat and allow you to know how much your gerbils are eating

Tank Topper (found primarily online)– a tank topper allows for more space for your new friends to roam!

Pet safe habitat cleaner– You can used Windex, but be sure it is completely wiped clean to avoid possible ingestion

Treats– Sold in the small pet isle, Yogurt drops and other treats can be great ways to bond with your new friends

Freebies 

Toilet Paper rolls, small cardboard boxes and bits of paper make great toys, so long as they are not wax coated

Shredded Documents make fun nesting and chewing items, but again, make sure they are not treated with any kind of coating

And that’s it! Not including tax, your typical cost effective gerbil setup is about $45-$60 bucks depending on what kinds/brands you choose. (Compared to a guinea pigs whopping $150-$250 price range, that is a cheap pet!)

Check out this post for a more detailed description of the items mentioned above, and the “why’s” behind them.

 

 

All Stocked Up!

My spoiled babies have no idea how very blessed they are to have me. Because when I get an email from Petmountain telling me there is a 50% site wide sale and I have a $5 coupon… I stock up on stuff.

Look at my pile of goodies!! Including two bags of a gerbil food I’ve been wanting to try for quite a while, as it’s the only food I’ve found that is made JUST for gerbils! Judging by the ingredients list and the smell and look of it, I think my gerbils will think they’ve found gerbil gold.

 

It’s got the same stuff as my current gerbil food, PLUS dried carrots, a few raisons, and pumpkin seeds! My gerbils already are better off on their Vitakraft food than on “Hamster/Gerbil” food, I think this will make them happy.

Also, blue Kaytee Bedding, which they’ve stopped selling in my pet store. I know they don’t care, but it makes their cages look more fun to me.

It’s been 20 days since my breeding pairs have been introduced. No sign of pregnancy yet, but I’m hoping it will come within this next month at least. They’re all old enough now, and they often are pretty flirty with one another.

And now I must begin to get ready for work! We have a whopping 15 gerbils at my store right now. That is A LOT. Several are very pretty, too. Looking forward to helping them find loving homes! 🙂

 

Guinea Pig and Rabbit Owners, take notice!

I have recently discovered a miracle in bedding!!

If you’ve ever owned a guinea pig or rabbit, you know that the ammonia smell they can produce is pretty pungent. I clean my piggies cage every four days to help prevent this, but even so, two days after I clean it, I can generally smell it. That is, when I was using Carefresh bedding or Kaytee bedding. However, my pet store recently ran out of my choice bedding, and I needed more! So I went out on a limb and tried a bag of this:

It is amazing! I was sick with flu-like symptoms last week and wasn’t able to clean the pigs cage on the fourth day as usual, and though it was definitely in need of being cleaned–lots of poo scattered around– even my mothers sensitive nose could not detect a hint of foul smell! I will still be cleaning every four days, but I am pleased to say that I will no longer have to put up with the strong ammonia smell! It’s a few dollars more, but it’s totally worth it. I still use a handful of Kaytee bedding on top, so I don’t have to use quite as much of this more expensive bedding per bedding change, but I will never go back to just Kaytee or Carefresh for the guineas. (My gerbils however, have no smell and thus will not be put on this bedding.)

 

Updates

All my gerbils are happy healthy, and currently showing no obvious signs of pregnancy. If either of my girls are expecting, it would be too early to tell at this point anyway.

My guinea pigs got free roam of the kitchen the other day while I cleaned their cage, and this is what they did.

 

Little guys were scared to death of such a big space. Squashed themselves into their tunnel and wouldn’t come out. It’s like a guinea burrito!

Today I visited the Repticon Exotic Animal show! I took a few photos, but didn’t feel motivated to take many. I was thrilled to see a guy selling degus, and he let me hold one. Oddly, it decided to bite me for seemingly no reason. Drew blood too, both myself and the man selling them were pretty surprised. It had been riding around on his shoulder. Cute little guy.

Here are the photos I took.

Crested geckos, which I once owned.

A sand boa morph.

Caimans.

A cute little monkey. I blurred the woman’s face, she gave me permission to take the photo, but not to post her face on the internet.