Safe Chewing Toys

[stephisme]

Hello,

I need some guidance on what materials are safe for toys and accessories. I have had gerbils for over 10 years and never had any problems. My last gerbil somehow broke her top teeth when she was about 2.5/3 years old. It was horrible and she had to go to the vet every 3 weeks to get the other tooth trimmed and eventually died.

I am so scared this will happen and I don't know what she broke them on.

I waited about a year to get new gerbils (I said I never would again). I get them a lot of cardboard and they have a glass home. Should I be getting them more to chew on? Am I able to provide wooden houses?

I am just terrified of them breaking their teeth!

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[wonderz]

Hi! Did you have any plastic or metal bars in the cage? That’s the only thing I can think of that would chip or break your gerbils teeth.

As for toys, I don’t spend much time buying them from pet stores because of how quickly they get destroyed (like willow balls). It can get expensive. You could make cardboard toys though. I use toilet paper tubes and fill them with hay and treats. There’s also a whole bunch a videos on YouTube. I also have a hay ball for enrichment as well as the zoo med coconut substrate for them to dig in.

Anyways, that’s all I can think of at the moment.

[Markpd]

Broken teeth in older gerbils does seem to happen from time to time, might not be the 'fault' of the toys.

A recent thread about gerbil teeth problems - gerbilforum.proboards.com/post/309424/thread
And one from a couple of years ago - gerbilforum.proboards.com/post/292785/thread