Cute video of our gerbils

[andie]

My 11yo daughter made a cute video introducing our gerbils. Here is the link to her video, or you can find it by searching "Gerbilverse" on YouTube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGJwPxTWhO0

Andrea

[Thea]

Aw, that's lovely Andrea I subscribed too. Will she be making more videos?

I know this is off topic and probably sounds annoying, but the wheel is a little small, I believe it's a 6 inch (from the looks of it) and it's important that gerbils have a minimum of an 8-9 inch wheel to prevent back issues which can be quite common, especially since they're adults.

Very well done to your daughter though! It's a very sweet video.

[andie]

Thea - Glad you liked it! Yes, my daughter plans to make more videos for The Gerbilverse. Thanks for letting us know about the wheel. The one we have is 6.5 inches. We will get a bigger one.

Andrea

[Thea]

That's great Andrea, look forward to seeing them That's no problem, and great that you'll get a bigger one.

[gerbilord]

Very lovely intro to the gerbils. :)
Well done to your daughter, looking forwards to seeing more!
I agree with Thea about the wheel size, it’s great that you’re getting a bigger one - if you can, get as big as possible - I have a 12 inch one and it’s brilliant - my two run on it together lol.

[Thea]

Yes 12 inch is a great size - although since I have a detolf the maximum size I can fit is 11. I currently have an 8-9 (i think it's 23 cm) as mine are babies, but I'll probably get a 10/11 inch when they're bigger

[Markpd]

Cute gerbils, and nice sound track

Agreed about the wheel (and you can see his back hitting the axle/bearing when running).
Btw, you mention Peaches 'his chubiness' lol, how much does he weigh? I think maybe he could do with a little less food?

[Thea]

I know this question wasn't for me Mark, but when I had my first boys I didn't know a whole lot about gerbils when I first got them, and one of my boys Mango was VERY chubby, and looking back I feel a little bad! I didn't scatter feed until right at the end, so he sat in the bowl a lot and just ate and ate... The thing is, I didn't want to reduce the amount of food as my other two were pretty skinny. I did give them more treats than I would now, though! What I'm saying is, I guess you can give multiple gerbils the same amount of food and some will gain weight but some won't, so it's sometimes hard to give them less food. But on that note, I do suggest scatter feeding Andrea.

[Markpd]

Yea that's a fair point, I'd imagine that scatter feeding would level things out? Did it? Or wasn't he around long enough to find out?

[Thea]

Yeah I think it did a bit, although I maybe only did it for a couple of months before he passed.

[yeti218]

I’m having one gerbil gain weight now. I scatter feed, and chicken puts all his efforts into finding and eating the food immediately. Shark will have a snack, then go run on the wheel, have a snack, dig a tunnel, meanwhile his brother is still foraging and eating. I don’t want to reduce the amount of food I give because chicken will still prioritize eating, and shark will get less. Tricky.

[Markpd]

Hmm, yea that's tricky. Could you hold back some of the feed and give it to just Shark later on?

[yeti218]

Yeah that’s what I’m trying. Sharks always the first in the playpen, so I feed him as much as he’ll eat in there before chicken joins, and after playtime I scatter the rest in the cage. Sharks been weighing in around 75 grams ever since I got him 6 months ago. Chicken started out around 80 grams, and now he’s up to 90! Which I believe is the top end of the healthy weight range for a male gerbil. So definitely trying to curb that weight gain.

[Thea]

90 grams is actually a pretty good weight for a male gerbil. I think I remember Mark saying his were both around 90, and even my girl Rolo was around 90 at one point and didn't look overweight at all. I think LilyandDaisy also said one of her girls is around 90 too.

[Markpd]

Yea my boys are just over 90g, I thought the healthy range was 80-120g??