Is my tank too big?

[petstbbd]

I've got 2 male gerbils and had a glass tank made to fit a unit. I've read so many conflicting info, too big is not good/bigger is better.

I thought I was doing the right thing getting them a lovely big cage but now I'm not sure.

The tank measures

118cm long
48cm wide
60cm high

It's got 2 glass corner shelves and a mesh lid

Is this too big?

So many questions

Is it better to have lots of things in the tank or less?

Should I get a ceramic/glass dish for a toilet. What should be in the toilet?

I've got a large glass jar for sand

Is a bendy bridge ok as a hide out our should I buy a wooden house?

I've got 2 ceramic tunnels and a wooden tunnel, are these ok?

I use kaytee clean and cosy odor control, is this ok? I put in a few handfuls of Timothy hay

I put in lots of toilet tubes and I bought some biodegradable potting pots and paper bags they like to chew.

I scatter their food but I do have a ceramic dish I put the veg in occasionally.

I'm so confused what's the best thing for the boys.

All advice very welcome, thanks

[LilyandDaisy]

The size is fine. I've kept gerbil pairs in a tank that size successfully. Tank size doesn't really cause declanning but small tanks might sometimes delay a fight in a pair that were going to declan anyway, which might be where the idea of big tanks causing declanning arises.

It's good to have lots of things in the tank for them to do, but not so much that the tank is cluttered. Gerbils like to have clear paths around their enclosures so they don't like a lot of clutter.

A ceramic or glass dish works well for sand bath and toilet, but a large jar is fine too. It should be filled with sand. Either quartz reptile sand (but not calcium sand) or play sand or sepiolite chinchilla sand.

If gerbils have very deep bedding so they can make burrows, they don't really need houses. They can make their own burrow chambers to sleep in. However you can provide a house if you wish. I like to give my gerbils houses buried at the bottom of the tank, so they can burrow down to it. They also like some smaller hides at ground level, such as coconut hides.

Tunnels are fine. You can also get cork tunnels or grapevines to embed in the bedding to help with tunnel support.

Kaytee Clean & Cosy is fine. I would add more than a few handfuls of hay. I recommend layering it as you fill the tank - so add one thick layer of bedding, then a slightly thinner layer or hay, then more bedding, and so on.

You could post a photo of your tank if you'd like more detailed feedback

[petstbbd]

Thank you so much for the reply. I'm going to clean the tank on the weekend then I'll post a picture😁

[Markpd]

Did you get some photos?

PS, FWIW, I agree with lilyanddaisy about tank size.