Everyone has a sand tank now :)

[tirilliel]

I got allot of gerbils on my hands! Since my Burmese Female Sam has her last littler of four pups Iv had to keep three of them as I have not found homes for all but one male. Left over from the first litter I kept two female and two males pups.

So now I have a total of eight mature gerbils. Four females all in one bin and the other four males in another. Iv had one 10-gallon tank set up that I was periodically switching back and fourth to give each clan some time in the sand as they love it! But finally I set up two 10 gallon tanks for sand and have attached each bin to their own tank., I know have a corner in my apartment that looks like a gerbil maze.

It kind of looks as though its all one gerbil fun house but they are separated into their own same sexed area.

This first picture just shows you how I have it. The very top bin is for my Syrian hamster Gerald. The next bin from the top houses my four females, which have the top ten-gallon sand tank. And of course the bottom bin houses my four males and they have the bottom ten gallon sand tank. ( dont mind the mess in the photo, thats my art table. I keep this area very clean)


Here is just a close up of the sand tank.


Im so glad I just feel so great and such a proud gerbil owber, or pet owner for that matter when I provide the best environment for them! Now I don’t feel so bad owning eight grown gerbils haha.

[jess]

Awesome setup. But you're going to regret it in a couple of days.

It ends up reeking like a sewer. Very, very raunchy.

[tirilliel]

jess said:

Awesome setup. But you're going to regret it in a couple of days.

It ends up reeking like a sewer. Very, very raunchy.

I don’t think so, I’m not sure what your experiences have been but I see no reason why it should smell like this. Iv had one bin set up with a sand tank for months now and I haven’t had any problems what so ever. I think with good ventilation and cleaning out the cages and changing the sand every other week or so like I have been doing keeps everything clean and in good order.

Maybe you need to clean up after your gerbils better..

[ashgerbil]

You will probably find that your gerbils will use the sand tank as a toilet (i don't know why but gerbils just seem to enjoy using sand as the loo). Sand doesn't absorb liquid and odours as well as woodshavings so you will probably find that it will begin to smell a bit after a couple of days and you may need to clear out the sand tank more often than every other week (not all of the sand, just the places where the have gone to the loo)

[tirilliel]

ashgerbil said:

You will probably find that your gerbils will use the sand tank as a toilet (i don't know why but gerbils just seem to enjoy using sand as the loo). Sand doesn't absorb liquid and odours as well as woodshavings so you will probably find that it will begin to smell a bit after a couple of days and you may need to clear out the sand tank more often than every other week (not all of the sand, just the places where the have gone to the loo)

Again I will repeat myself. Iv had one bin set up with a sand tank for months now and I haven’t had any problems what so ever. And that is with four gerbils using it.

I think with good ventilation and cleaning out the cages and changing the sand every other week or so like I have been doing keeps everything clean and in good order. I dont have any trouble with the sand tanks smelling.