09/05/05

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This is a web page about Gerbils  for pets and how to care for them. This web page will make it easy for you to find out all you need to know about gerbils.

Table of Contents

1. Gerbils for pets
2. What Gerbils eat ?
3. Breeding
4. Care and Keeping
5. Diseases Gerbils can catch
6. Gerbil pictures                     

                                              Gerbils for pets          

Gerbils make excellent pets for many reasons. These are a few of them: Not many people are allergic to gerbils, Gerbils are desert animals and therefore don't eat, drink or need their cadge cleaned as much as other rodents, Gerbils are up and ready to play as soon as they are woken up, Gerbils are friendly, loyal, and easily tamed, gerbils are smarter than lots of other rodents, gerbils keep them selves well groomed.  There are many more reasons but we however just didn't have enough time to list them all.                               

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What Gerbils Eat

Gerbils eat a variety of vegetables, including lettuce, carrots, peas, corn, nuts, broccoli, asparagus, etc.  They also eat the seeds of many plants like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and other seeds that humans can eat.  Many Gerbils enjoy oatmeal for a snack. Gerbils can also eat dandelions, but we strongly don't recommend giving them dandelions because Gerbils can get sick from poisons that could be on the dandelions.  Don't be surprised if your Gerbil will not eat the vegetables listed above as most Gerbils won't.  Besides eating too many vegetables can make your Gerbil get sick also.  We find that most Gerbils will usually prefer dry food mix and oatmeal.  A name brand of Gerbil food that we recommend is Fiesta - Fiesta has a wide variety of  foods in it to keep your gerbil healthy.  

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Breeding

* A baby Gerbil is called a pup.

* In general a Female Gerbil has 2 to 12 pups per litter.

* When a Gerbil is about 1 month old it is ready to be taken away from its mother.

* Mating will begin again immediately after a litter of pups is born.

* Female gerbils can hold their pregnancies until they are ready to give birth.

* After a litter is born, the male gerbil will stay in a corner of the cage for about 3 days then he will come help with the pups.

 * In general a gerbil will give birth once a month

 * If you find yourself breeding Gerbils on accident, we recommend you wait until the current litter is taken away, then separate the male and the female. The female will have one more litter. When that litter is grown up, put a few with the male and leave the rest with the female Gerbil.

 * We do not recommend you spay or neuter your gerbil though it is possible, even if you really trust your vet- it is possible to traumatize your gerbils.

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Care and Keeping

* You should feed and water your Gerbils every day.

* Your Gerbils should always have a wooden toy that they can chew on.

* If you notice your gerbils' Toy is not being chewed on then it must not have an edge that they can chew on, time to get a new  toy.

* Clean your Gerbils cage once a week or every two weeks.

* Give your gerbils a porcelain, metal, Fiberglass, china ect. food bowl - as bowls that are plastic or such are chewed up real fast.

* Your gerbil should have a type of rodent water bottle that is bought from a pet store.

* Give your gerbil a type of  non-allergen bedding/ litter.

* A gerbils general life span is 3-4 years.

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                                        Diseases Gerbils can catch   

Gerbils could catch serious diseases such as rabies or plague... But  not if you care for them properly and they don't have contact with wild animals. To determine if your gerbil is sick with bacteria, look for: weight loss, appetite loss, diarrhea or laziness. If your gerbil has laziness and/or appetite loss this may signal that; your gerbil was up all night partying and is now tired; your gerbil is aging; or your gerbil has minor cold. But if there is diarrhea with that or there is diarrhea alone your gerbil could have salmonella or Tyzzer's disease. Those infections of the intestines are the two more serious infections your Gerbil may catch though there is no specific treatment for either. To prevent Salmonella and Tyzzer's disease keep your gerbils food dry and don't give your gerbils too many green vegetables. If your Gerbil ends up with one or more of the symptoms, stop giving your gerbil vegetables, buy it a new food mix as the old one might be stale, wet or moldy and if the symptoms don't clear up, take it to the vet.  Your gerbil could also get an infection called Red Nose. Red Nose is an infection of the nose that crops up the nose and there is no treatment for it because it goes away on its own. Each time your Gerbils snout is red and swollen don't just assume it's sick with Red Nose because Gerbils often stick their nose into things they shouldn't- like the cage bars and in doing that they often get a bloody nose. Just be extra careful if your Gerbil has a red nose because it could be sick and not feel good.

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Gerbil Pictures

Brownie, a moment of silence to remember her.	Brownie	Blackie, a moment of silence to remember her.	Blackie	Blackie
Blackie and Brownie.	Midnight	Midnight standing infront of her well hidden nest.	Midnight	Midnight haning from a rope that was dangling from the ceiling of her cage for her to play with.
Oreo			Oreo and a litter of newborn pups	Oreo and a litter of pups.
Flash (that's how hard it is to hold him)	Flash and his sibblings. (there was 8 of them)	Flash and his sibblings	Flash and his sibblings	Goldie
The Terrible Trio	Baby gerbils piled up ontop of each other for warmth	A poem by the leprachans Midnight and Blackie, At the end of the toy's bridge lies a pot of food

 

Click on a picture to enlarge it.