My New Kids....

[khelkhet]

We had fun narrating the trip home from the petstore, and my kids are now on their 10 gallon tank. Progress as of putting them into the tank was basically 'OHMIGOSHWHEREAREWEWHEREAREW--WOW, kitty litter! (Peepeepee scrape scrape scrape throw throw throw)...AAAHHHHHHHWHERE ARE WE! OOH, Food! crunchcrunchcrunch....AAAAH< where--Ooh, a water bottle. Gnaw gnaw lick lick. Hey, this isn't so bad. Check out this nifty toilet paper....

and so the three nameless newbies are finally home. When I got them I asked if I could have their nest, too, which was basically just toilet paper all neatly piled together A La Gerbil..They've already moved it into the milk carton I made for them to live in. They have also repeatedly rolled around in the kitty litter, which I think is the funniest thing i have seen, next to boinking a head into the plastic container I brought them home in, trying to dig deeper into the shavings.

Anyway, although it's nearly impossible to tell them apart at this point, here they are...

...Now to try to sleep during the 'frantically running around checking the joint out' stage. ;>

[RyanF]

CUTE!!!! ;D They look just like my black gerbil (Roady) when I got her. How are you going to tell them apart? lol

[queenofthenile]

I love black gerbils ;D! Is the cat litter you're using clay? If it is, you shouldn't be using it. Play sand or chinchilla sand are safe alternatives for the litter box. Gerbils are funny creatures and may eat anything they get their little paws on. Clay becomes kind of a sludge when wet and so if eaten may cause an intestinal blockage. Sand isn't nearly as dangerous. Please switch if your using clay litter. (Corn or wheat litters are fine)

[khelkhet]

re: how I'll tell them apart..no idea yet, heh. Though one of them has a notch in his ear.

as for litter, right now it's whatever litter it is you get with the little rodent litter box.

[queenofthenile]

Oh, okay, it sounded like you had cat litter in there and I just worried for a second. I'm glad that I was just confused .

[sweetie]

Boo Hoo I can't see the pictures? I bet they are cute though. It is hard to tell the black ones apart. I have to be careful and put the right one in the right tank hehehe!!

[khelkhet]

For some reason when I post pictures they only work for the first few seconds and after that they show up as blanks. So, I was working on a website yesterday, where I'm going to hopefully be archiving lots of pictures. It's on my personal computer, and windows' apache isn't the best of things to use, heh.

Their most recent form of amusment seems to be 'lick the glass walls of the tank to drive the cats insane'. It's kind of funny, the gerbils don't seem concerned in the least about the cats peeking in at them. But I will be looking for a better Gerbil House cause they have chewed the back wall out of their milk container. I should go to the dollar store and ask for a broken clay pot, lol

Here's the webpage...it's got a lot of broken links since I'm just starting, but the 'Gallery' page has a couple pictures with more on the way once I get time to post them. :>

khelkhet.dyndns.org/gerbils/

P.S. Coming soon: GerbilCam! Yep, got to get use out of my webcam -somehow-! (No, really, this obsession with Gerbils is fantastic! I needed a new hobby, muwahahaa!)

[queenofthenile]

khelket, you need to check you water bottle *immediately*. When gerbils lick the walls it means they are *very* thirsty. Perhaps they've kicked bedding up against the bottle and drained it, or aren't strong enough to use that rabbit bottle.

[khelkhet]

Well, they have a dish of water now, too, but so far they have been drinking out of the bottle as far as I know. they'll kick shavings and stuff into the dish, but it will have to do. The only time this one seemed to be licking the glass is when there was a cat on the other side of it.

[queenofthenile]

Okay, it sounded like all three were licking the tank . Just keep an eye on it. Dehydration can kill very quickly, so you don't want to take chances.