A few Q'sts !

[firefly]

Hi there!

I'm new here, I introduced myself on the 'New Members'-board.
I'm thinking of taking 2 gerbils, but first I have a few quests.
Hope you can help! :)

I'm thinking of taking 2 female gerbils, my mum won't let me get more I think ^^!
First I had a hamster, so I still have my hamstercage. I know it isn't the best, but I also have an old aquarium wich I can use as tank. I'll link them together; so they can play and dig in the tank as well. My hamstercage is 44x27 and the tank is 38x20 (little). But put them together and the gerbils have 1948 cm², so 974 cm² for each of them. Do you think that's big enough?
I don't think my mum will let me get another tank, because she paid my hamstercage which was 70 euro's, and with another tank I won't use my hamstecage anymore.

In my hamstercage I can put 7 cm bedding material, and I'm planning on using wood shavings. 7 cm is not much, but they can still dig a little. In the tank I can put 10-12 cm of bedding, so they can dig a lot in the tank. In the tank I'm planning on using a mixture of sand and hay, bit I'm a bit scared that their tunnels will collaps and that my gerbils are barried under it. Is that possible to happen? And what can I do against it?
Then, I don't know wich sand to use. On the Mongolian Gerbil Website I read sand for sandboxes is good for sand baths, but can I use that as bedding in my cage? I also have birthsand and chinchilla sand, and dark sand wich you use in the garden. I don't know what to use, because I think the first three options will cause collapsing tunnels and the last one don't seems very well for gerbils. I hope someone can help me out by telling what you use or something. Thanks already!

In the tank I will also put some wood from three's, but maybe they will fall on the gerbils so I'm planning on glue them on. On the Mongolian Gerbil Website they use siliconenkit for making a terrarium, but don't they try to eat it? I think if they do, it'll damige them. So can I use siliconenkit or something without being afraid I'll poison them? I hope you know the answer ;)

So; do you think all this is right for my gerbils and they'll be happy living with me? If you have tips or comments; please post them!

Big hug!

[doomgerbiluk]

It think that arrangement could work well.
I recommend two boys for beginners. Get them froma breeder and make sure they ahve been handled from birth to avoid any socialising problems.
Sand is a debatable subject. Up until recently its was considered fine to use playsand but a thread here was raised that showed that playsand may not be suitable. I would recommend therefore that you use woodshavings, carefresh, megasorb or a similar substrate and plain tissue for nesting material. (woodshavings in the UK should not have the same problems that US woodshavings have).
Remember in the wild gerbils build tunnels and are very good at them. In your tank they can only build large tunnels if the sand is slightly damp andpersonally I'm nto keen on keeping my animals environment damp. Woodshavings mixed with hay allow for pretty good tunnel building anyway.
Silicon can be chewed certainly. The trick is to make sure there are no bumps etc that they can get their teeth into. If you look at a standard fishtank you can see how neatly they are finished and how gerbils cannot get a purchase on the silicone while it is intact, try to acheive the same dfinish. Silicone is NOT poisonous, the only risk is the same as with any non-biodegradeable substance, a blockage of the gut. this is why plastic toys are not good for gerbisl (apart from the replacement expense as thye are rapidly destroyed).
I would make the hammie cage a paly and feed area and put lots of depth in the tank so it can be the main digging and sleeping area.
Regualr sandbatsh with chinchilla sand will keep your gerbils coats healthy.
If your interested in meeting other gerbil enthusiasts you might want to consider attending some shows (the next is August 7th at Southsea. Portsmouth).

[firefly]

Oh I would LOVE to come!
One little problem; I live in the Netherlands Portsmouth isn't very close 2 my hometown hehe
But thanks for asking

About taking boys instead of girls, what make you think boys are better for me? Based on what I read it doesn't really make sense, but it seems boys smell more and females fight more in a big group, but I only take 2 so I don't have that problem. But I'm interested to hear your opinion about that!

Where I live I don't think there is a gerbil-breeder, I've had hamsters before and I took them out of a petstore. We have tons of petstores here and I checked where they are treated best. I never had a problem with my hamsters, they were the sex the people say they were and I was planning on taking a hamster, and didn't know it was pregnant. The people of the petstore could have said nothing, but they warned me. Usually they don't do that, because I hear a lot of stories about people who buy a pet that turned out to be pregnant. So I have a good trust in that petstore, but I'll also check if there are any breeders around here. Thanks for tipping me!

I'm planning on visiting some petstores to see what kind of bedding they have here, cause I don't know we have carefresh or megasorb or something in Apeldoorn, but I'm sure I'll find something

Your comments were really usefull, so thanks a lot I have to learn a lot and your helping really good

Big hug!

[doomgerbiluk]

Gerbils produce very little smell and their is no difference between boys and girls in my experience.
Behaviour wise girls are more likely to fall out. It's as simple as that. Pairs of girls fall out quite often (we often get posts here and on other gerbil forums about it) Pairs of boys are far less likely too.

And oops about the gerbil show..got you mxed up with another new member
Though there are rodent shows in the netherlands that feature gerbils

[Ritzie/Admin]

The biggest show in the Netherlands was Knagersfestijn in Barneveld. But that was on 28 May, so you have to wait for that one until next year.
For shows in the Netherlands, you can visit these websites:
www.kleineknaagdierenclub.nl/agenda.htm
www.ter.nl/vhm_eventsnl/

You can use the set-up you mentioned! woodshavings as bedding are good! A mixture of sand and hay is great for them too. The hay will make the sand more solid! But if you still habe doubts, you can also add twigs and or rocks! Thos will support the sand too.

You can get sand at the for example the Gamma store! There you can for example buy a bag of 25kg of Speelzand. Other types of sand are also available there.

That sand will work too, but you can also give them bird sand or chinchilla sand in a seperate bowl! As a complete bedding I would not recommend it! A bit dusty! And they will not be able to make a burrow in it.

Keep in mind that your gerbils will most likley use the sand as a toilet! So you have to clean sand more often that would have to clean the woodshavings.

I would also recomment two males for beginners (although you are used to small rodents already, as you have had hamsters). Males are easier than females in my opinion, and easier to tame! But females are fine too!

[firefly]

No care so many members here; I would get confused too

And thanks about the boy/girl talk ; I will re-consider my plans on taking a female pair now

Kiss!

[doomgerbiluk]

Peter is right of course
Females can be wonderful.
I just prefer to recommend boys as I would like to hope that all new gerbil owners get a happy, trouble free start on the hobby.
the best advice I can give is browse back through this forum, check out the websites and also
www.gerbilshowsuk,org and www.gerbils.co.uk
for more advice and remember that gerbils have distinct characters so every gerbil is unique.

[firefly]

Thank you so much for helping Peter & Doomgerbiluk!

Thanks for the tip about the Gamma store, I'll go and look there! 25 kg must be enough
I'll use a mix of chinchilla sand and birthsand as sand-bath, my hamsters used to like it so I think my gerbils will also

So in the hamstercage I'll put woodshaves and a sandbath, and in the tank the playsand with twiges and hay.
Btw, in my hamstercage I used to have plastic floors, I had three floors in total, but I won't use plastic for the gerbils. Can I make these floors of hardboard? I'm sure they'll chew on it but that's okay; I can make new ones when they're all eaten.