selling gerbils

[moghedien]

Okay. I put an add in the paper for my new litter of gerbils that's ready to be sold, and I've had several calls, but so far no callbacks and no gerbils actually sold.

What are other people's experiences with people buying gerbils? Are there any rules, like stuff not to say/stuff TO say to encourage people to buy?

(assuming the peope are people you'd feel right selling them to, of course).

[callimico]

I've made pamphlets w/pics of cute gerbil pups, why gerbils are great pets (drink less, clean cages less, not nocturnal, friendly, etc) state what colors I have avail, how they were raised, and I put in a small bit at the bottom show lineage. And tell them that if they ever have any questions about the care/history/lineage of the gerbils they can ask, tell them I'll drive to deliver, and drop the pamphlets off at petstores that don't have gerbils (eager to have pamphlets b/c if ppl see them their they buy the supplies their), and at elementry schools (big hit w/kids).

Word of mouth, friends little siblings, and their friends, get in touch w/old teachers see if they'd like a pair. ANd I've placed ads at about 6 pet sites on the internet (not gerbil) and gotten some responeses.

I'm making a small website w/pics and info and links to a lot of care sites so I konw my pups will be well cared for. ANd I give everyone who adopts a gerbil from me a care pamphlet (small one I printed off ags site- slightly modified) and small packet of treats (sunflower, peanuts, pumpkin seeds) and a list of foods they can and can't give the gerbs, cheap toy/tank ideas. It's hard to find homes, but placing ad's all over the net brings responses- only prob is most of them are not really able to get to you

also mention pups at gerbil sites like ags and petshub. i need more idea's to, I haven't gotten as many reservations as I'd like to feel secure all the upcoming pups will find homes. good luck ;D- btw what color pups did you end up having? any topaz?

[Ritzie/Admin]

I've used the internet (own website, add-sites), placing adds in newspapers, at (pet)shops, and just asking people (mostly friends and family members). And when people know, they usually spread the word!

[doomgerbiluk]

Furry Forum Global (see eziboard link below) and the NGS website (www.gerbils.co.uk) both have small ad sections for sale of excess stock.
If you use Furry Forums you are requested to contribute to the forum chat.
Hope this helps

[sweetie]

I was thinking of putting flyers in vets offices. There you have people who love animals already!

[moghedien]

Thanks for all the replies! ;D

Callimico, I do have one topaz gerbil, a male, he's about 3 months old now from an older litter.

The current litter are agouti, black, lilac, sapphire, spotted black, then my two favorites, dutch pied argente and agouti. I'm sure I could sell them if I could get people to LOOK at them! *sigh*

[callimico]

type gerbil classifields into the yahoo search engine and post an add at all the different sites where posting is free- it's what I did. But a couple of the sites give nothing but spam replies, some of them are really ridiculus.

Post if you find homes for your gerbils, and how they found you- all the responses I've gotten- none of the people actually live in my city or near it

What kind of markings are dutch pied? Like a collar? I'd like to learn all the terms, besides blaze, stripe and those.

Does degree of markings goes from spotting(Classic head spot, snip on nose, faint collar or none?).
to patched(head spot, maybe blaze or partial blaze, collar but no marks on rump)
to pied (with just a few marks on backside),
to mottled (more marks on back side?),
to extreme mottle (almost white from marks on backside?)?

I've seen some spotted gerbils that only have a faint whisp of white on their forehead, and occasionaly they have a few spotted pups- is their a term for extremely small spots?

Good luck w/finding homes!!

[moghedien]

Well I don't know any official terms for the various degrees of spotting, but what I mean by dutch pied are the traditional effects of spotting (white belly, feet, tip of tail) along with a full collar and blaze.

As for the rest, I don't know! It does seem like there ought to be some delineation between the really small spots and gerbils with incomplete collar markings and such.

[doomgerbiluk]

well you have lightly spotted, heavily spotted, pied, blaze and collar and mottled
but (apart from mottled which has a provisional uk standard) it would be impossible to produce standards for each of these and individuals have different names they use anyway
in addition there are problems such as 'tuxedo' gerbils. In the US this description is commonly used to describe black or other self gerbils with white bibs and paws, yet these are produced by modifying genes which breeders need to reduce to produce good black gerbils. There is a risk that by 'naming' such 'defects' (and they are only defects in the sense they are not up to the stadards) you lose the original standards.
It would be a shame if we never saw a fully black gerbil again because of the cuteness of tuxedos. the same applies to mismarked collars and light mottling.
In terms of selling, try pied, heavily spotted, lightly spotted, clean collar and blaze etc.
I am very nervous of using a general classified site to sell livestock.
Good luck

[callimico]

Mogheiden, thanks for explaining, I like "dutch Pied" it sounds like a more interesting color then plain pied gerbil, or collared gerbil.

Thanks Doom,
I was really confused because there were so many different descriptions for the same markings on breeders websites. I'll use those terms to describe my pups, and drop patched and extreme mottle. (I think what I call extreme mottle is only mottled in UK standards, and what I considered mottle is heavily pied by UK standards?). The mottled gerbils I'm breeding now are from AGS show lines, and have very clean, thick collars, but one has a broken blaze- is this a lower standard, or is just a mishaped collar considered that?

I use "Solid Black" to describe my gerbils with no bibs or white paws, and "tuxedo black" to advertise the gerbils with bibs and white paws- do you think I sould call the black ones Bibless black, and the others just black? (my nutmeg gives about 1/4 bibless, 1/4 small bib w/white paws, 1/2 big bib with white paws). I'm breeding a pup with a large bib, hoping her pups will have a greater degree of spotting (paired with a pied honey cream). But that means her solid, unmarked pups will have bibs- degrading the standard further, do you think it would have been better to pair up a bibless pup instead?

I hadn't noticed before how many solid gerbils have bibs- I hadn't seen a bibless gerbil until my nutmeg had her first litter, I wonder if their are there are many American breeders, breeding for bibless solids.

Suprisingly a lot of the site's I've found to advertise on are very good (ie: Bravenet- I think I saw one of your ad's on that one?, petwebsite, gerbilclassifields, yahoogerbilgroups, etc). But a few of them are just bad- and I'm not sure the people who respond to those will take good care of the gerbils. Your probably right, I'll drop the few that make me nervous, (like US classifields, Rodent classifields), and stick to reputable sites like NGS and AGS, and the few gerbil-oriented classifelds out there.

Thanks for your help!! ;D

[sherica]

Hey Calimico, we hopefully are going to have our small & furry meeting on Saturday the 29th, weather permitting, in Springfield, MA. I know Sweetfancymice is coming and Rainbow Gerbils is also coming. I have to get busy and do some more advertising on Petshub, but we should have a pretty good turn-out this time. You are more than welcomed to come along and bring any animals that need re-homing!

Oh, BTW, this is Sbonnier from Petshub. I lost my password here and had to resign and since Sheree was already taken, I had to use my nickname! ;D