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Post by thepocketpets on Jul 12, 2005 21:15:16 GMT -8
OK this little brat is starting to chew into my alotted "gerbil" budget ha ha. I have been buying him toys and toys and toys! He has two wheels, ladders, deep bedding (I use carefresh) and now I have started giving him bird toys, and he has a little log house. He ignores them all and instead runs up and down his cage... to me it looks as if he is bored out of his mind!
He is in a 30 gallon deep tank. Should I try a wire cage, or a tank topper? How do you guys keep your duprasi content to live in a cage?
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Jul 18, 2005 7:32:13 GMT -8
Yes, I have! But mine live with at least with two duprasi in a tank! They "argue" alot with each other! Keeps them busy too (not fighting)! I've given them a lot of climbing items, like think branched, and a think layer of bedding! In my experience they like to climb and dig! And to run, mine do use their wheels very frequently! A wired cage can be given, but I personally do not like them. They can start to chew on the bars and kick a lot of the bedding out of the cage (I have personal experience with this). But that running is also something what my duprasi do! By creating obstruction, like climbing items and artificial burrows, etc, can help! What also helps is to give them not food in a bowl, but you can hide it in their cage! My gerbils like that, they are always quite busy with searching for food in their artificial burrow, bedding, etc. In the wild they are also very busy with finding food!
Did they use it in the beginning? If so, you could try to switch toys, after a few days you give them something else, not all in once! Might work.
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Post by thepocketpets on Jul 30, 2005 10:00:58 GMT -8
Thanks for all the ideas!  Hopefully soon he will have some cagemates (crosses fingers) so I just have to keep him happy until then. I'll definately try the climbing toys, I can't believe I didn't think of that I tried a cage topper, but he really didn't seem to use it at all. Right now I have him with about 6 inches of bedding (some sides are higher, he moves it around a lot), and it's the carefresh which I like since he can make a tunnel system of sorts in it... |
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Jul 31, 2005 5:25:08 GMT -8
So he is not just running, he also digs!  ;D By the way, I've tried also a wired cage, but did not like them. They did not chew on the bars, but I'm sure some will. They kicked all the bedding out, etc. I've never tried a tank topper. Oh and they love their wheel! Only when you keep more than one, than often they want to use it all on the same time!  |
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Jul 31, 2005 5:35:30 GMT -8
Here you can see how one of the tanks of my fat-tailed or duprasi gerbils looks like. It is an old photo with Mongolian gerbils in it, but now the duprasi are living in it. It looks something like this. And you could include a wheel in it as extra.  |
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Hopefully soon he will have some cagemates (crosses fingers) so I just have to keep him happy until then. I'll definately try the climbing toys, I can't believe I didn't think of that 
;D