If you like a pet who is cute (check), easy to hold (check), unlikely to bite (check) and who is active during the day (check) then you can’t go wrong with a gerbil!
Unlike hamsters, gerbils love playing about throughout the whole day – and sometimes into the night. They are technically diurnal, but will sleep and play throughout the day and night whenever it suits them.
Gerbils love new things and something as simple as a toilet roll can bring them up to the surface for some investigating. Although gerbils love to have deep bedding as a rule, with a tank-topper and some toilet rolls to hand – you can see them whenever you want to.
Small enough to fit in your hand, but big enough for younger hands to cope with, they make a great pet for the family – and as they like living in pairs – they can entertain each other if you have other things to do through the week. Just throw in a few boxes, shredded paper, tubes or treats and they will entertain themselves.
Of course gerbils are good pets!
There are a few things that can put people off but these aren’t such a problem either way:
Tails – mums don’t often like tails – making them call gerbils ‘just like rats’. However, please remind them that gerbils are NOT rats and have lovely fluffy tails in a variety of colours. Gerbils also don’t smell in the same way a rats, and so should be compared more to cute squirrels or dormice really (supply images of such cuteness to back up your argument).
Tanks – gerbils do best in a glass tank – which is heavy, but has its benefits over the alternatives: Plastic tanks are lighter but can be noisy if your gerbils digs at the plastic sides (glass digging is silent); and barred cages are lighter and airier, but gerbils dig and chew and the mess they kick out of the sides will drive you to distraction! Believe me, it will…
Chewing – gerbils are very good at chewing through everything except glass and ceramic – so all your wooden toys and houses, tunnels along with your plastic tubes, wheels and water bottles will all be fair game for destruction – so don’t spend a fortune on lovely ornate items. Do, however, be aware that plastic tubes and ventilation holes will be fair game for removal by front teeth (sometimes the whole thing can disappear overnight) resulting in escaped gerbils and frantic owners!
Foot Thumping – gerbils communicate fear by thumping their feet – and once they have started (from something as innocent as you passing by on your way to make a drink or to switch on the light) – they can take ages to stop, and trying to distract them from this activity usually only results in more thumping! It is rather cute to be honest – but best leave them to it rather than try to stop them no matter how much it annoys you. Staying completely still or leaving the room is the only solution.
Smelly tank – not with gerbils – they really don’t smell. Unlike some other pets like rats, mice and hamsters, most people don’t notice the odour of gerbils – they are very scentless (if that’s a word). yes, you can smell their fresh bedding or the aroma of new hay – but not stinky gerbils. Healthy adult gerbils in a large bedding-filled tank just do not smell.
Plus, gerbils do cute things all the time. All the time. Add something new to a gerbil tank and they will come running to investigate. Whether it is a toilet roll, a sprig of millet, a piece of fruit of a mealworm – they will come out and have a look. They also sleep and eat in funny places – so keep your camera at the ready – or move the TV over and watch your gerbils instead!
