Wanted- Female gerbil in England.

[bigbadlion]

My initial feeling, like WillOWisp, is that at least the person advertising the white gerbil is trying to keep out people looking for free snakefood by asking for a reasonable amount of money.

I haven't got experience of introducing females, especially an older one, but others do, and will give you advice on this.

[sparky]

There were loads of gerbils in my area needing to be rehomed when I still had my 4 girls but now I have a spare tank I'm not finding any. We got Bart & Homer 5 weeks ago but we'd really like another pair to go in our other tank. I look at Preloved, and Gumtree every day and there are a few rescue centres in the area. We have 2 pets at homes that we visit every week but no gerbils to be had. No doubt there will be some needing new homes after christmas though.

I'm sure you'll find a friend for your gerbil soon

[flutter]

I've found a pet shop that sells them, but I don't think it's a good one there's a lot of complaints online about them. I plan to go in and judge for myself.

[will0wisp]

Sparky, do you live close enough to Aberystwyth to drive? There's a pair at the P@H that need a home named Oz and Jack. I visit them a few times a week and they are lovely little things (only just too old to be sold as babies now) but I have no room to take them in with my pups arriving in a week! The P@H at Aber is brilliant, a golden star amongst P@Hs and other pet shops that give them a bad name: the staff are lovely and caring and generally pretty knowledgeable. They take advice to heart too

[sparky]

Thanks for the suggestion will0wisp but that's too far for us to travel. It'd be a more than a 2 hour drive each way. It's a shame they're not closer as I'd happily take them in. We went up to Pontypool to get Bart & Homer which was about a 1.5 hour round trip, but I think that's going to be our limit for travelling time.

There was a pair of degus called Tom & Jerry that I used to visit at P@H each week. I really wanted to give them a home but it was too big an undertaking at the time as I was nursing poorly gerbils. I feel so bad for the little critters that spend so long in the adoption centres and wish I could give homes to more of them.

[flutter]

So I rang the pet shop yesterday they said they had girls in, went in today they said the had girls in, bought one, brought it home, adorable thing, I could handle it straight away so I flick it's tail up, and there they were, a massive pair of clangers........... I was fuming, it's a boy! This gerbil is adorable, I've fallen in love, but I can't keep him. I rang the shop straight away to explain, and they said I can take him back Saturday to exchange or refund. The problem is I've only had him 7 hours (been at home for about 2 hours of them as I went shopping after I got home) and I've become really attached, what am I going to be like by Saturday??? I'm honestly heartbroken.

[will0wisp]

(Sorry Sparky, I've only just saw that you replied on this thread, forgive my parroting myself )
Aw flutter, that's really rubbish luck He sounds so lovely that you can hold him already and you do seem very enamoured of the little lad! All I can suggest is to look around Preloved for gerbilariums. If you can't do a pickup or there are none nearby you can ask them to post it for you! I had my second gerbilarium posted all the way from Wiltshire and paid £8.30 postage - only £28.30 altogether. Then you can keep him and another lad in that. That's all I can suggest! I'm too much of a softheart to suggest taking him back.

[flutter]

I think my other half realised how heartbroken I was and has asked me if I want to keep him. I do want to keep him, I really do!

I just now need to find a gerbilarium yet again! So I'm back where I was when I first got Sasha trying to find a suitable home. I love what I have Sasha is in so I'm desperate to find another, that and if I get different cage I'll feel bad for one of them as one cage will always be better. This is what I have Sasha in www.animalsource.co.uk/savic-habitat-xl-gerbilarium-gerbil-cage-2953-p.asp
If anyone has better internet searching skills than me (as did someone else earlier in this thread when they found a girl on preloved that I missed) feel free to link me to a cheaper preowned one. I got Sasha's cage with accessories for £40 (it was preowned and I bartered the guy down).

The problem of them being alone is easily solved, after quarantine and observation they can have a while together to breed, and then I separate them, wait for babies and after weaning keep 1 or 2 of each sex to stay with mum and dad.

I was wondering, is that unethical? I have mice and breeding mice just because you want more is considered bad as there are apparently many unwanted mice and they should only now be bred for health or to better the general pet mouse population. Anybody any thoughts?

Also is that cage I linked to above in this post big enough for 2 or 3 gerbils, I can't decide? It says it holds 4 gerbils on Pets at Home website but I don't believe them.

[will0wisp]

Hey flutter, there's exactly the one you want here:
www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/106773293/gerbilarium-cage-for-sale-30.html
But you'll probably need to ask to have it posted. I had my preowned one posted for about £10 so in the end you'll probably end up spending about as much as I did on the smaller version new! (I paid £40 for new smaller gerbilarium, £28.30 for preowned one of same size)
Otherwise you can save a search for gerbilariums, set to 'York, North Yorkshire', 'Within 50 miles'.

To be fair, it would probably best to purchase homeless gerbils rather than breed for quantity, but it's not really unethical as long as you did very thorough research. But honestly, I adopted two pairs and I love them very much - I would recommend it. It's down to you, as I'm sure whatever you do you'll do it responsibly as you clearly care about your pets

[Feeona]

Dec 14, 2012 12:59:41 GMT -8 flutter said:

The problem of them being alone is easily solved, after quarantine and observation they can have a while together to breed, and then I separate them, wait for babies and after weaning keep 1 or 2 of each sex to stay with mum and dad.
.

Breeding Mice and Gerbils are different things. Letting them mate then separating will stress the mother out, she may either not have her pups or when she does it might go wrong.

IF you want to breed, and really it's a big undertaking as the best method you'll need at least two litters is to have the male and female together wait for pups (they'll mate straight after birth) then when the second litter is about to come take out the boys and Dad and leave in at least one female to help mum raise the second litter.

Honestly I'd say you should only breed if you are interested in colours or temperament/health, of course the latter being the best course.

[flutter]

Well, I like the colours of the pair, so far health has been fine and they both have really good temperaments. I'm obviously not going to breed them right away, need more quarantine and monitoring first, I haven't even researched it, I'm just coming up with ideas to look into really. Health is always the priority with my pets anyway, which is why I wanted a girl in the 1st place, for the health of Sasha. I just didn't know views on the purpose of breeding gerbils. Mice people tend to go off on one about breeding and tend to tear you a new one for mentioning it lol!

Will0wisp- My problem is I have a female gerbil, she's not a pup so introduction to a similar sized girl would be challenging and girls are just none existent around here, so I thought of breeding, I'm having trouble purchasing homeless gerbils, I'm out of gerbils to buy, I've lost count of how long it took me to find this one, who turned out not to be what I asked for. I wouldn't purchase any of the remaining male gerbils anyway, 2 of them had poor temperaments or were lethargic, the other was HUGE. Gerbils aren't common around my end of Sheffield anyway, I had to travel quite far for this boy and not sure I'd do it again with how cold it is getting outside.

I think part of the problem is that I'm tired, ill and it's all messing up despite my best efforts. No-one round here really likes gerbils so I have no help but talking on here. I'm just running out of energy and ideas.

[flutter]

I found another cage for the boy, he's a keeper! Thanks for helping me, you've given me ideas to consider.

[will0wisp]

I'm glad you kept the boy, he sounds like a doll!

[Deleted]

i hate p@h they can never sex the gerbils, when we we're looking for a new friend for jd i phoned them and they said they had boys, we'd got there and picked out 2 that seemed the most interested in me and my OH then asked them to double check, again yes they are boys, wasnt till i looked closer myself (thankfully before bringing them home) i saw they were obviously girls i was so mad, and all they said is you should have phoned and asked pft

glad it has worked out for you

[will0wisp]

ziip, it depends on the store. The p&h here in Aber is pretty good at that sort of thing and they're very friendly and caring towards their animals. Many own gerbs or ratties or hamms themselves. It's sad not all stores reflect this standard UK-wide