Washing Gerbils

[French Kitty]

I know sand is the best way for gerbils to clean themselves, but is a montly 2 minute rinse-off in th0e sink okay? Or does it cause them too much stress, or make their skin too dry, or make them hate me?

[RyanF]

Do not wash gerbils in water! They hate it and can die of the shock. They clean themselves by rolling in a bowl of sand or chinnchilla dust though.

[j]

It's pointless. Nothing gets clean in regular water anyway. It's stressfull and can kill them or make them go into shock or a seizure thing. They'll hate you. It'll dry out their skin way too much. If you use shampoo, it could poision them because you won't be able to rinse them well..and breathing in scented stuff can make them sick, mess up their respritory system.

If you want something you can give baths too.. Get a puppy.

[sweetie]

Hi French Kitty,

Water baths are not good for the gerbils. They are desert creatures and use sand like some bird species. They can get sick due to drafts or if you use shampoos. They will become extremely stressed also. Yes they will associate your scent as the cause to that stressor as well and will probably be very afraid of you. It will take a long time to re-establish trust with them.

Are you finding it difficult to locate sand? They have play sand at the stores (WalMart/ToysRUs). Are they not getting clean with the sand? I mix my sand with Chincilla dust. It gets them much cleaner. Be warned though Chincilla "Dust" is not good for pups that are younger than 12 weeks since it is so fine it will cause respiratory distress and infections. I leave the play sand in the tanks/cages daily and when I let them out to play, I put out the playsand/chinchilla dust mixture (usually every day or every other day.

In short, Sand is the most natural, least invasive and healthiest way to bathe the gerbils. It will also help to keep them from being afraid of you. There are other threads in which you can read other comments.

[French Kitty]

Oh, alright. I won't do it anymore then! ... I'v already done it once... Thanks guys..

[paws]

I've done it too... whoops!