# gerbil, hamster, and guinea pig owners



## Andyurgay (Jun 10, 2013)

So I work at PETsMART as a small animal care associate. I know my way around the fish and birds, obviously know about the rats but its the other small animals I want to know more about. I've tried to do my research and ask questions of my other coworkers but they seem to only know about as much as I do and I know I'm not as educated as I should be when it comes to homing these guys. I just found out tonight that gerbils have a scent gland on there bellies that sometimes looks orange and bald. Well we have taken at least threw gerbils into the vet for the bald/orange tummy thing and have "treated" it with miconozole. We only carry males so I assume this is normal? I feel bad that these guys are put under unneeded stress because my coworkers and even my manager didn't know it was normal. The vet we take them to is the Banfeild we have in store and they only treat dogs and cats, they wouldn't know any different about a small animal. They usually get antibiotics and miconozole for skin issues. I also just found out how much gerbils burrow. I've noticed our dig, dig, dig and thought they must just be bored so I make sure their wheel is working and pop a couple pieces of hay in there to entertain them (its all I can do) but maybe if my coworkers are more informed we can change it? Add more bedding or something? My store is great, we try to do our best within company limits to keep the animals happy and healthy and I'm sure adding a little more bedding would be approved.my main question is, how can I best set up new owners to provide the best for there new pet? I've owned rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, ECT when I was young but was taught wrong. I was told gerbils should be alone and can be in critter trail cages. We kept bunnies in small one level cages, hamsters in groups of males ECT. Not ideal but now we know better and I want to give good information. I've read books but dont trust them as many out are out dated and many google searches bring up different results.just some basics from owners would be great for now. I'll try looking into other forums later but since I won't be keeping any of these animals, I dont have the time or will power to do all the research myself. I just want to give new owners the resources and proper information and judge whether an enclosed is okay or not.so pretend I'm a new owner to one of these pets, what are my basics? Food, habitat, health concerns?


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## CleverRat (Mar 9, 2014)

I am a gerbil owner of two (I also own a hamster) so I know a lot on the subject of gerbil care. First off, a very important thing to know is gerbils NEED to be kept in pairs. A lot of people overlook this. Same sex pairs can be kept together quite easily and get along really well. You can also keep them in groups of more then two, but this can cause complications so I do not recommend groups of over four. 
When it comes to food you want something that has around 12% protein, although I have heard people say to give them 16%. The food I feed my gerbils is vitakraft gerbil and hamster formula and they seem to enjoy it. Also, keep in mind that a lot of times they will pick out the sunflower seeds, peanuts, corn and other goodies in the mix. Because of this I used to pick all of that stuff out and feed it as treats but that was way to time consuming and now I usually just pick them out as I feed it to them. Once they have eaten their main food I give them the sunflower seeds and other treats (because they can still be beneficial). Gerbils do not need nearly as much fresh food as rats do so I only give it occasionally as a treat. 
As for a habitat, I keep my gerbils in a ten gallon fish tank. In some cases this may be too small but the American gerbil society recommends 5 gallons per gerbil. They do perfectly well in this cage so I do not have any problems with it. You want to stay away from bin cages for gerbils because they chew on EVERYTHING including the bin cage. It is possible though to keep them in bin cages as long as it is fairly sturdy, if you drill holes in it the holes are well away from the gerbils, and you keep an eye on the cage frequently (if there is any sign of chewing find a new cage immediately.)
For substrate I use aspen bedding (they also love shredding up toilet paper for their nest.) You probably already know from rat care that pine and cedar bedding causes respiratory problems due to the oils so do not use softwood beddings. I clean the cage about once every two weeks although you might have to clean it more often depending on how many gerbils you have and how much they go to the bathroom. I give my gerbils about 1 1/2" of bedding to start and by the time I clean the cage the bedding has tripled because of all the cardboard they have shredded up. Gerbils love to dig and burrow so a lot of bedding is recommended. Also, like I mentioned before, gerbils love to chew so I would not put any plastic toys in the cage.
My gerbils have a wooden bend-a-bridge that they love and is perfectly safe for gerbils. Also, they will obviously need chew toys and mine love chewing on blocks of wood. I have some little wooden fruit I got from Petco that they like and also tons of little wooden abc blocks that are also from Petco. If you have the time you can go to the hardware store and get blocks of untreated wood that make really cheap gerbil chews. I got a 8 foot long stick of wood that my dad helped me cut into little blocks and the whole thing only cost 75 cents! Also, my gerbils favorite toys are cardboard tubes and cardboard boxes. They chew them up really fast but they make awesome toys that are also safe. Keep in mind though, that you don't want to give gerbils boxes from the freezer because they have a waxy surface that is unsafe. If you are giving gerbils Kleenex boxes or pasta boxes you want to rip off the little plastic pieces that are on them. 
For a wheel plastic ones are not the best choice because of the risk of gerbils chewing and ingesting the plastic. I use a wire mesh wheel and have had no problems with it although if they show any signs of it hurting their feet I will take it out. I used twist ties and tied the base of the wheel to the top of the cage so it is not as loud and it also just makes things much easier. I have recently learned that there is a website that sells solid metal wheels that are perfect for gerbils.


Lol sorry it is so long but it's hard to fit it all in a couple sentences. Hope this was helpful and that I didn't bore you to much : PM me if you have any more questions or let me know if you need info about hamster care. Here is a good gerbil site if you feel like researching: http://agsgerbils.org/Learn/Gerbil_Care_Handbook/index.php


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