Gerbils at School

[cinnycinnamon]

Okay so like I have two female gerbils at the daycare where I work (see my newbie thread) They are 4 months old and they just had a litter of pups (one week apart from each other). I have it set up so that they have two tanks to roam back and forth to (one 20 gal. long and a 10 gallon). And on the 10 gallon is one of those lookout towers that you close by turning it. Well, apparently, one of the older children went into my classroom and opened the top to the lookout tower and failed to properly secure it back on cuz when I got to school this morning, both mother gerbils were missing. We found them-both under the stove in the kitchen. Except, one was stuck on a roach trap (full of sticky icky glue-y stuff. It was all over her paws and tummy. And her nose was red, almost like it was bleeding. I had to wash her to get that nasty stuff off of her. I didn't know what else to do. I just knew she couldn't nurse her pups with that poison on her. After her bath, I kept her wrapped up and it seemed like she was shivering and had the sniffles. I held her close to my neck to try and warm her up until finally another teacher suggested we put a heat lamp next to one of the tanks. She dried quickly and she seemed okay. So my question is this: how poisonious are those roach traps? I know about duct tape being toxic to gerbils and this trap was very gooey. I had to give her two baths to get that junk off of her! I'm not certain about it being poisonious, but you would think so, right?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanx in advance!

[darrenb]

Hi,

Sounds like she had a very bad night there ! sorry we dont have roach traps in the UK, well we might but noone i know uses them. I would guess the sticky stuff isnt going to be good for gerbils at all, but i dont know if it is actually toxic to them, is it toxic to humans ??

Perhaps you should think of more 'secure' housing without little look out towers stuck to it, or wheels on the outside etc, i know of people who have lost gerbils as the parts have fallen off. Are you using Rotastack if so the gerbils will chew their way out when bored.

I would try either aquariums as they are 100% gerbil proof and would last forever - if you have the space in school or one of these tanks:-



just take out all the plastic parts and give wooden toys and lots of loo rolls for entertainment. however the pups teeth wouldnt do too much damage to the plastic parts and they love the wheel provided.

if your handy with a mini drill you could easily fix a small padlock to the lid by drilling through the clear lid near the metal grill.

Darren

[j]

Old thread... just wondering how she's doing now?

I would think a roach trap would be toxic.. but then again they shouldn't be using anything toxic in a day care center.

It's probably not toxic if it's just one of those sticky pieces of paper..(I've heard of them for flies..not roaches..) since once a bug gets stuck to it, they can't move and will die anyways. So it doesn't need to be poisonous.
Either way, you probably got it all off of her with the bath.

Duct Tape isn't even toxic to gerbils... I've used that and other kinds of tape so many times in my tanks and they've chewed it off the sides and I've never had a problem with it. I also use it on the wheels so it's not so loud and they chew that off too after a few weeks. I'm not exactly recommending it since it could just be the brand I use.. but just saying that not everything sticky will kill them.

[cinnycinnamon]

Hi!

Okay so like I DID reply to this on the 4th. I dunno what happened to my post though so I will just go ahead and post it again.

Thank you, J. and Darren B for asking about my gerbils at school. As of Friday, she appeared to be fine. In fact, when I went to check on her, she came outta her hide-a-way house, stood up, looked at me a winked. I winked back her and she winked again at me. Maybe she was just saying thank you to me for saving her life? And since this last weekend was the 4th of July weekend, I went ahead and purchased a little radio for the gerbils to listen to just so they wouldn't have complete silence the entire three day weekend. I got razzed alot by the other teachers for soing this and they said that I went over the edge" by doing this. But you know what? I don't care what they think. I know that animals have feelings and thoughts. If I had more room here where I live, I would have brought them all home with me for the weekend. But since I don't, I was only able to do what I thought best for the time being. Does that make any sense? Over in the thread called, "Member Photos" are pics of my gerbil brood for anybody who cares to see.

Okay now, about that roach trap.....it was a little tray filled a stickey substance. Supposidly, it gives the roaches nerve damage. And after two baths, yes I did get all that crap off of her cuz I dind't want to put her back inside the tank with her babies covered in that stuff. And I've since taken away the lookout tower so that no more little or school age children can take the top off and not put it back on properly.

Here is a pic of the set up:



And her is a pic of one the mommies (I dunno which one it is cuz her and her sister look the same-but I've since named the one I rescued, Lucky Girl and she doesn't run from me so now I can tell which one is which)



Really? Duct tape? I always heard that duct tape was toxic to gerbils. What about fleas? Just wondering.........

Thanx again for asking about my Lucky Girl!

Cindy

[cinnycinnamon]

PS:

She was just fine today when I got to school along with her sister and all 12 babies. Even the runt is getting slightly bigger.

[Ritzie/Admin]

Good to hear that she is doing fine! I don't know either if it is toxic for gerbils, however is it attacks the nerve system of a roach, it cannot be good for them. I've never used tose traps myself, so I cannot tell for sure.

But as you tell that she is doing fine,I would not worrie anymore. I think she didn't eat it or someting.

The set up of the cages looks great!, but indeed it might be better to make it such that small children cannot open the cage themself.

[cinnycinnamon]

Yeah, she is doing fine. I'm so happy and at least now I'm able to tell the two mommy gerbils apart. Lucky Girl does not run from me. I still need to tame her sister and I think I will keep two of her babies. I hope the black one and the runt are both females.

Thanx Peter for the compilments about the set up! And yes, that's why I have it set up on a high roll cart. But I think it was a school age child who removed the lid ( 7 to 11 year old). My classroom is for 3 year olds.

Here is pic that I snapped yesterday of Lucky Girl, Mattie (her sister-she's the one in the tube) and one of the babies: