Rolo's new Detolf!

[Thea]

Finally - we're there! I've been wishing for a detolf ever since i first got gerbils five years ago, but have only just got onto it with the help of Markpd  
Here it is! I'll go through what's in there and post more pictures if needed.


photos.app.goo.gl/Nw2tongoHwAjPdj89

There's a digging area to the far left, around two foot long. In there there is a wooden tunnel with multiple holes as you can see, her coconut at the back so she doesn't feel like she's being watched, a cork tunnel buried underneath the bedding along with a couple of toilet rolls (the bedding is hemp, timothy hay, some of her old bedding and shredded toilet roll/natural tissue paper) and some carton which she uses as a hide that she's sleeping under right now. She has around 9 inches of bedding in there.

Then I have a temporary divider as I went to four pet shops and couldn't find any large bendy bridges (and I'm going to cover up the gaps with silicone sealant so it isn't dangerous) which is literally just some huge lollipop sticks stuck onto cardboard with homemade pet safe glue - flour mixed with water!

In the play area, she has around an inch of bedding. There's a long bendy bridge going from the play area to the digging area so she doesn't hurt herself. In there the has a multichamber hideout (which I've seen are recommended on here - she loves it!), a hanging wooden ladder toy, her water bottle, a small bendy bridge, more carton/egg boxes, and a huge cork log.

Finally her sand area - here she has her wheel on a homemade platform - she likes to sit under the platform as she rolls in the sand (she started doing this just when I finished typing this sentence!)- some rocks to help with the natural feel and obviously a whole lot of sand! there's around two inches of sand.

Because what it is resting on is longer than the detolf, I've put some books underneath it so it won't bow in.

The topper was only half on in that photo btw, the rest is all on now and much more securely too! 

Any advice or anything anyone wants to say?

[yeti218]

Looks great. Im sure rolo is thrilled!

[LilyandDaisy]

It looks really nice! The rocks in the sand area are a nice touch. Perhaps she might like one of those rock reptile caves too? It would add to the naturalistic look.

[PipSqueak]

I love your setup! I did find somewhere online that said when you get a detolf to have the ends of the cage hanging off of it's stand because it is slightly raised so the middle of the cage will not be on something to support it so the glass will bend and will eventually crack or shatter.
Lol now I realize you said you propped it up with books like Markpd said.

[Markpd]

Thea mentioned that she's supported it with books (maybe she did a sneaky edit? ).

Thea
Very nice, I especially like the sandy section , does she like diving in the sand too?

Btw, it looks like those 2 mains cables are powering her wheel!

Where did you get that hideout from?

Just a thought, feel free to ignore it , you could put the barrier the other side of the hideout, then mostly bury the hideout (aside from its roof) and she'd have even more digging room. (being greedy for her, lol). And if the bottle was then hanging over the middle of the roof, it shouldn't get buried, hopefully!

[Thea]

Thanks so much everyone

LilyandDaisy - Yes, I have seen those and they would look great! I'll try to find one for the next cleanout. I love things that are meant for reptiles that we can use for gerbils, they're some of the most natural things!

PipSqueak - Thank you, yes I did prop it up (as you realised )!

Markpd - I did do a sneaky edit - oops!

I don't know if she's diving yet, but since it's bigger than her normal ice cream tub sand bath, I've seen her rolling around in it and enjoying herself, Rolo only has sandbaths if she thinks I'm not watching her so it would be hard to capture - but I can try because it's very cute

haha, didn't notice that! It does! Got the perfect angle

I got the hideout off amazon (Normally for toys I actually go to a pet shop because I LOVE my local pet shop since they often make their own things etc. - but they didn't have one and I wanted to get stuff quickly so that i could do a full setup) and I believe it was the Trixie one, although I can't be 100% sure!

That's a cool idea too! I'm going to try to keep the same setup for at least a few days so she can get to know her surroundings and settle in, but I'm going to experiment a bit in a week or so and will try doing that

[Markpd]

Actually if Rolo is spinning the wheel fast enough she could feed power back into the grid!

I've been trying for months to capture my boys taking a sandbath, they're not shy about it, but it happens so quickly it's easy to miss! They usually do it within minutes of me putting fresh sand in, and I wait for them to do it, but I still miss it! Last time I missed Blake doing it by just a few seconds! Arrrgh, lol.

I look forwards to updates .

[Thea]

haha Rolo actually hasn't 'discovered' the wheel yet - I think I've said before that the place i got her from never used a wheel with her so at the start I didn't get one, and then when I did it didn't fit because of all the bedding in the 20 gallon! So it's cool that there's room now, hope she discovers it soon!

True actually, Rolo sometimes has a sandbath while I'm there but it so fast that I would never be able to get a video unless I am completely ready to! So annoying

I will update of course! She hasn't made any tunnels yet but she's pretty good at it when she decides to (and she loves undermining her toys) so I'll post pictures of her tunnels if she eventually does!

[Markpd]

Cool

Something I did with Avon which sped up him learning to use the wheel, he was initially just hopping on it, hop then stop, and just kept doing that on early sessions of his, so next time he got on and did that I turned the wheel gently for him each time he stopped, which meant he had to move, he very soon just kept a steady pace, I think I did that for a couple of revolutions and then he was doing it on his own .

[Thea]

Good idea! I'll try that if I catch her going on it. I haven't so far but I realised why last night - I put it on a (very short) platform, but that made the wheel touch the top of the glass shelf I've put over her sand area But I removed the platform last night so it'll be able to turn now. silly me, don't know how I didn't realised earlier!!

I normally put out the wheel when I let her free roam around my room, but because she's running anyway she's never that interested. But most days she steps onto it and steps off so if she does that I'll try turning it gently so she realises

[Markpd]

Doh!
I would imagine it wouldn't get buried being in the sectioned off area, hopefully she'll take to it soon .

[Thea]

I'm hoping so, and after nearly a day it hasn't got any bedding or sand in it so it should be ok!

[tanzanyte]

That's amazing! and a fete in itself to get it sorted in lockdown when we can't just pop to our normal shops to source things.
I hope the wheel works for Rolo and she enjoys it. It's never taken our babies long to get to grips with it, they usually hop into it with gusto and it moves and they catch on.

I'd definitely like to see pics of a sand diving gerbil if you manage to catch Rolo at it.

[Thea]

Thank you!
I hope she'll get onto it too! Yesterday it looked like she was stepping off of it when I walked into the room so she may be trying it out while I'm not there, which would be good. I just hope she does it in front of me soon if that's what she's doing!

I'll try to get pictures/videos if I can, but as soon as she sees me watching her if she's in the sandbath she normally scuttles off I haven't seen her diving in but it would be lovely to see her doing that!

[Markpd]

Lol, she's a shy girl then?