L e a p

[WinterWhiteout]

Welp, last night I was holding my gerbil Whiteout for a bit. Once he started getting restless I decided to take him back to the tank. He was eager to get back in and kept moving to the edge of my hands. Then he did something that I did not expect. He l e a p e d. He barely made it to the edge of the table I store my tank on and scrambled for a hold, dangling halfway off. There was 3 feet of space between the edge of the table and the hardwood floor. Faster than I thought my hands could move, I grabbed Whiteout just as he fell. We were both a little shaky afterwards. Fortunately, he made it back into the tank and has no injuries.

[Markpd]

Yea my Blake has done that a few times, suddenly lept without warning! One time he was near the cage, he would have made it but he slipped on my sleeve.
Fortunately I have carpet, so he just landed with a bit of a plonk! And a second or so after started walking off, at which point I got over my shock at him leaping and went to pick him up.
The 2nd time was more concerning as he was nowhere near his cage and he just lept into the blue! He was fine again and scampered off, fortunately I was able to pick him up soon enough. But since then I'm quite uneasy about moving him by hand any distance....

[teambenji543]

Haha I’m glad that you and your gerbil was fine. One time when I was taking the tank topper off of the tank, I looked away for a little bit to put the tank lid on the floor. In that short second by gerbil, Toasty, jumped out! Luckily I had carpet under the cage and our tank isn’t very tall, but toasty jumped out and scrambled under the bed! It took a few gerbil treats and coaxing but I finally got her to come out from under the bed and into the tank. Ever since then, whenever I take off the tank lid, I keep one eye on the rim of the tank.

[Markpd]

It's funny, but with my boys I quite often leave 1 side lid off so they (in turns) can go to the sandpen and a temporary play pen (via tubes), I'll be in and out the kitchen sorting their food, water and sandbaths, and they've never yet tried to jump out of tank. (Perhaps they're daren't because it's a long way up from the tank to the floor?!). Except one occasion when I fell asleep at the computer (same room as them), after snoozing for a little while I was suddenly woken by the sound of a relatively loud 'plonk!', recognising that sound I quickly went over to the tank to find Blake on the floor happily sniffing around!  Fortunately, I again was able to capture him pretty quickly.
I'm more careful now, if I feel tired I put them back in their cage and put the lid on!