Easy – Toilet Rolls.
Loads of them.
The empty middle of a toilet roll – or kitchen towel – can keep your gerbil happy for hours – well – 5 minutes to be exact.
Gerbils are programmed to chew – and they love it.
Soft clean cardboard is the best for most gerbils – but you can use almost any cardboard you want to induce avid chewing and digging (as long as it isn’t inky, soggy, mouldy, heavily scented, covered in dirt or food or picked up of the street obviously).
Order a regular supply off your friends where possible, and never say no to any cardboard from anyone – even if it isn’t suitable.
Don’t get fussy or impose rules on your cardboard from friends – they will just stop collecting it for you and you need as much as you can get your hands on…
You can always recycle all the stuff that isn’t suitable yourself afterwards (but not infront of them of course). Things that are heavily scented; had salt or other chemicals in them; are too solid and could get a gerbil’s head stuck in them (like the kitchen foil rolls); those still covered in loose herbs or tea leaves etc; have dried on food on them (like raw egg in egg boxes); or are just otherwise unsuitable – you can throw away.
The rest is all yours.
Best DIY Toys for Gerbils:
Gerbils are so easily pleased – as you may have guessed from the toilet roll comments above – so most simple DIY gerbil toys will be great for them too.
It just depends how much effort you are wanting to put into making them.
Toilet Roll Enrichment – Some people fill toilet rolls with food or hay and suspend them from the toppers, other skewer twigs and veggies onto a piece of twine and do the same with it.
Mazes and Tunnels – Some people cut out holes from the toilet rolls and boxes they are given and make tunnel complexes out of them – or if you have more space you could make a cardboard maze or castle for their play time that you could use over and over again with some tweaks to repair destroyed battlements…
Popsicle Stick Magic – Others move on from the cardboard and use popsicle sticks – a nice safe wood. They create all sorts of bridges, houses, tunnels and castles out of them using non-toxic kids glue. Some of them are truly magnificent.
Safe Wood Twigs – Wood is also a useful ingredient for making gerbil toys – I say ingredient as it will all ultimately be eaten or reduced to tiny pieces. Using fruit wood, hazel or willow you can make all sorts of house, tunnels, hanging treats, balls and bridges using twine or thin chains if you have access to a small drill. Leave the leaves on if it is spring and they are all fresh – as your gerbils will love them.
Larger Branches – If you are good with tools, why not hollow out a branch yourself or turn it into a play cabin for your gerbils? The fresh bark will be incredibly tasty – and great for your gerbils teeth.
Slices of safe wood or kiln-dried pine – Why not create your own houses and ramps, tunnels and mazes that you have designed? It isn’t difficult to slot these bits of wood together like the ones you buy in the store – only you can make them to fit in the places you need then to fit – or just for fun of course…
Safe Kids Clay – There are also many clays you can use to model toys and tunnels out of that dry a treat and then can be buried or hung from your tank and play pen and used over and over again.
Things you shouldn’t use for gerbil toys:
As gerbils chew – there are plenty of things that really aren’t suitable long term to be given to your gerbils – even if they are suitable for other pets or look super cute.
Some of these may be suitable in a play pen while being watched by yourselves, but certain things left in the main tank can become dangerous for your gerbil when chewed and/or ingested.
Other things introduced ‘for fun’ can also end in disaster.
Your Curtains – these are always a favourite toy for gerbils if you put their cage in the wrong place. Many a gerbil owner has come home to their curtains totally shredded.
Other Small Pets – Gerbils are fussy enough with other gerbils – so please avoid letting other small pets play with your gerbils or add their scents to the gerbil tank or run. You really need to know your gerbils for this – with pairs or trios being more at risk from these meetings and it can unbalance the clan.
Other Large Pets – Many a pet is lost through allowing them the ‘meet’ a cat or dog. No matter how lovely your cats or dogs are – it only takes one second of you not being there to have a disaster occur. Many forums and groups ban pictures of these meetings as a result.
Human Decorations and Craft – Pretty things made for humans are often treated with all sorts of terrible things to make them stay looking pretty. These companies can coat your pretty little yellow Easter basket filled with crinkly paper and little eggs with whatever chemicals they want – as they know you aren’t going to put them in your mouth – however gerbils will do just that if they get the chance.
They might look pretty innocent – but then we humans can’t see them – so always assume the worst.
Display foods, plants or garden accoutrements – Again – these might look cute and natural – but they aren’t. They may well be coated with all sorts of nasties to make them last in bad weather out in your garden. People just don’t make these things safely – they make them to last.
Can they use egg cartons? If so what kind?
Hi – great question and yes is the answer.
Well personally I only use unbashed cardboard egg boxes that don’t have egg or poop residue on them – and any size box too. I don’t mind if it is 6 or 24 – infact the larger ones can be more fun! (just like empty tissue boxes).
I don’t offer them boxes that look dirty on the outside either or have been stored somewhere that I don’t like the look of (like out of peoples bins or stored outside the back of shops etc, just because of possible contamination from vermin and other foodstuffs.
Hope that answers your question?
RodentZone
Can I use modelling clay that’s non-toxic/suitable for kids? I want to make little hideaways and toys for them
Hello Leane – and what a great idea.
I would certainly used fired clay objects for toys for gerbils – as I currently do myself – but I wouldn’t suggest soft or unfired clay as they may well ingest it and or possibly even get it stuck in their mouths. To be honest I am not 100% sure if natural unfired clay would be safe at all – let alone manufactured modelling clay as some natural clays have fine fibres in them and manufactured clays could have other chemicals also – so I would suggest a ‘be safe’ no here.
However, of course, it is entirely up to you as to whether you go ahead and make some clay-based toys for your gerbils – especially if you intend to only use them when supervised at play time for example. If you do go ahead, it would be great to hear how your gerils reacted to them.
regards,
RodentZone.
Hi, I was curious if the color on some tissue boxes or other cardboard objects are safe for my little babies to chew on. I wouldn’t want to put them in any sort of danger!
Thanks!
Hello Maya, and welcome to the world of gerbiltopia (looking at the world to see what is best for gerbils).
Yes, is the short answer.
Colours on boxes on everyday ambient food items (stuff stored in kitchen cupboards in the house) shouldn’t have a negative impact on gerbils in a normal gerbil set up. There is however an element of caution for those boxes that are or can be frozen (as they have different chemicals in the cardboard to stop them going soggy in the ice). And ‘paper’ things that aren’t food or pet products – like craft goods, wild bird things, other decorative papers and newspapers as their inks are different and their contents may not be just ‘paper’. They can have all sorts of fixants and stuff in them to make them last longer in the display or protect them outside etc.
But back to your original question – if anything I would be more concerned about where that cardboard had been than its colouring.
Anything everyday kitchen cupboard should be fine – as long as it hasn’t been stored outside of your kitchen in a possibly bug-friendly (eggs can be microscopic and only hatch when they get warm or enter a host) or rodent-visited area (as they will have trodden on it and they tread in their own wee and on other dirty surfaces). Same goes for where you brought that product – say at a cluttered cheap shop or at the market – where has it been stored before you brought it?
Another reason why I said kitchen – is I don’t really recommend using products from the bathroom either as they usually get damp and most likely contain some chemical or minerals that even in low levels can be dangerous (like flouride which can poison us even if we ingest too much toothpaste!). And everything in my bathroom always gets a layer of damp dust on it? Something I do not want in my gerbils mouths.
Similarly, bedroom toiletries, garages and sheds all contain products and residues that I really wouldn’t want to have near my gerbils. And airbourne smells like oils and stuff can be absorbed by the cardboard while it is sitting in the same room – like when you say ‘this smells like lavender’. But if things you can smell go into the product – what about things that don’t smell – they must still go into the product?
I know we are more cautious than others here in our advice, but we feel happier that way. Obviously other people and other websites might say other things are fine and that they have used them for years – but that is up to you to follow where you feel comfortable for your own gerbils.
Great question though.
Thanks again,
RodentZone.