Not chewing

[willowfae]

My one gerbil will chew the hell out of woven mats and the woven sleeping hut. The second gerbil will chew her giant woven carrot to pieces. My third gerbil will chew...absolutely nothing 😐
There are rolls of cardboard all over for them to chew while I wait for my order of purchased toys to arrive, but she ignores then. I don't even know if she'll chew any of the new toys either and I can't afford to buy things all the time. They chewed on their whimzees a good amount at first but have now seemed to abandon them. Any suggestions?

[tanzanyte]

Are her teeth ok? If it's hard to tell, given that they don't particularly like being in a position to get a good check, do you know if her weight has fluctuated? Is she able to eat her food and seeds ok?
Is there any wood for her to chew? It could be that she is particular about textures and prefers more solid things. My lot have gone off whimzees a bit too, although I have noticed certain coloured ones seem to go down quicker than others.
Have you tried a cork log? Maybe something softer would be more preferable? We also give ours clean but old socks and they will happily try and chew through that. Although I don't suppose it actually does much with regard to wearing their teeth down, but they really like it. We also give different cardboard boxes, such as smoothie boxes and also the thicker card tunnels. Our boys don't chew through toilet rolls like they once did. They love the woven mats you've already mentioned, and grass huts, but also like corrugated cardboard and pumice stone.
It's definitely hard to keep up with the costs when the woven mats take about an hour or two and are gone. They've made them a lot smaller recently so they're gone in less time.

[willowfae]

I haven't been able to look at their teeth as they refuse to be held. I have wood logs that they all refuse to chew. She is eating her food fine from what I can tell. I have a pumice stone in the order I'm waiting for. I may buy another whimzee to see if they go for it as I can't tell if there are new chew marks on the old pieces. I don't currently have any toilet rolls available so give them cereal and snack boxes.
I forgot to add earlier that she scratches at the glass of the tank and sand bowl like crazy so is probably bored. 🙁

[tanzanyte]

Are you able to weigh them? I think this will be your best base mark. It's the best indicator if they have issues as you can tell faster and get them to the vet if needed.
You may find she has found something else to chew.
Have you tried putting any of the wooden logs in their bedding? One of mine will chew right out in the open, but her sister mostly chews whilst in their substrate as I have wooden hides that they can chomp on.
Scratching at the glass is a difficult one. It's a learned behaviour from very young and they don't seem to grow out of it from others than have experimented. I have an additional play area and since it's now perspex Max will dig at the corner, despite lots of different enrichment options.
Could you get some of the larger boxes they have out for you to take from a supermarket? You can cut them up into longer strips and surround some of their cage walls. My boys love chewing at it and tearing the layers of paper off and will start at one end and stretch to reach up up when they've got to a certain height so it can keep them busy for a while.

[willowfae]

I can't easily weight them because they barely let me touch them let alone pick them up 🙁
I can certainly try strips of heavier cardboard, I also have a few spare bendy logs I can place in the corners.
After a while of waiting I finally got my package of gerbil goodies in the mail and have noticed her chewing on a few of them so far, so I guess things are alright now.

[tanzanyte]

That's great news with the chewing. Hopefully it's something that is likely to last a while rather than something that will be gone in less than a day.

With regards to weighing them, there is a touch free method. You can get poster tubes, or if you need something more flexible, the bendy plastic concertina tubes. Gerbils love exploring so their curiosity usually gets the better of them and they will use the tunnel. You can then divert the other end so that they come out into a box (make sure you weigh the box first so you know how much to deduct off the total). Once you've weighed them you can put the tube back in the box and let them go home.

[willowfae]

That is a good idea for weighing, I shall try it out soon 🙂

[willowfae]

So I got me new scale and finally weighed them.
Pansy is 68 grams
Clover is 65 grams
Poppy is 60 grams and the one I thought might not be chewing.