About Sand

[sabarika]

I currently have a giant rat cage I keep my gerbils in (when I moved my mom put fish in my 20long, defeating the purpose of me taking it... nice. 9.9) from Martins Cages. A friend is giving me a tank (20gal she said?) in July and I wanted to make a more natural environment for my gerbs. So I opted for sand mixed with another type of bedding, unless I could find good info that said it was OK to use just sand as bedding.
Now, I know that if I purchase sand that is sold for playsets or sandboxes (eg: Walmart stuff) I have to disinfect/sanitize it first because there is a risk of mites and other insects/parasites being in it. I supposed I would just clean it in boiling water and slowly drain/dry it. Chinchilla dust is too fine to use for all over beddding, so what does everyone recommend as far as "natural" beddings go? I use Carefresh now and, of course, they kick it out of the cage faster than I put it in. But with the tank it won't happen.
So who has any experience/advice with using sand or another natural bedding?

[Ritzie/Admin]

I used sand for sandboxes where children play in! My gerbils loved it. The only disadvantage was that is started to smell fastes and took more work to clean! Just make sure they have enough nesting material (because sand it cold, especially in colder months).

[tirilliel]

I just purchased a large bag of childrens play sand from Home Depot. There was another "white" kind available but I went for the natural looking stuff. Id just stay away from anything that as been bleached or dyed but I think if its made for children then it must be pretty safe. Childrens plays sand was recommended to me by someone esle, I use it for my gerbils and I also offer sand dishes to my hamsters to roll in.

[meganb52]

children's play sand is usually sanitized or sterilized before it's packaged, so I don't think you'll need to clean it before using it, but check the packaging to see. It should say on teh package if it's been sanitized. I would just watch their eyes, nose and rear ends to make sure they don't get any impactions from the sand. I've heard it can be irritating to some gerbils, especially if they're excessive diggers (wow, that sounds like a moot comment--almost all gerbs are excessive diggers I guess!)

-Megan

[tirilliel]

My gerbils loved when I turned their ten gallon add on into a just sand tank. In fact they started to spend most there time in the cage and slept there even. So they really seemed to like it, its just more natural for them I guess. I took the sand out of the 10 gallon though and filled it with bedding (aspen) becasue my female is expecting again and I dont want her having them in the sand.

[Ritzie/Admin]

My gerbils loved it too! And I hadn't any problems with their noses or something else. Maybe because they were also kept on sand, where I purchased them, and the pups were born in tanks with sand.

Only when I got too many gerbils, I changed their bedding, because it took too much work to clean everytime.

Here in this thread you can see pictures of my tanks with sand:
gerbilforum.proboards21.com/index.cgi?board=housing&action=display&thread=1110637968.

[Ritzie/Admin]

OK, here are two photos:

[AndreaS15]

How hard it this to change, and how often do you need to change the sand?

I'm thinking it would be so heavy to try and dump a 20G aquarium filled with sand, and my garbage man would hate me (I have 3 tanks, that's alot of sand). But the whole "it will keep them cooler in the summer" really interests me. I usually palce slate Rocks in my tanks to help with the heat, and ice packs under one side. But doing that every monring to make sure they are cool enough is a bit of a task when your trying to also get ready for work (and get the dog ready to), i'm not much of a morning person LOL...

[Ritzie/Admin]

Depends on how many gerbils you have in the tank and how big it is! Small tanks need to be cleaned weekly, larger tanks can do longer without cleaning, unless you have more gerbils in it.

You can wash and clean the sand and dry it! So recycle it! After two or three times you can refresh the sand with new sand. But true it is too heavy to lift the tank (when you have a big tank with a thick layer). That is what I mean with a lot of work!

[dietpeppers]

I buy a large bag of play sand once every two months to use in my gerbils tanks. They absolutely love it. I don't pour it in the tanks anymore although they loved it. Instead, I put it in glass jars for them. Each tank utilizes these jars differently. Some will take turns bathing and then kick the sand out into their tanks while others will bathe and then use it for a potty (my preference). I clean their jars three times a week, for the ones who use it as a potty, that is.... and give them fresh sand. The ones who kick it out, I just give them fresh sand.

I also use the sand with my degus. I was using chinchilla dust for all my rodents, but then I thought I would try the play sand with the degus and they actually seem to like it better than the dust. So, that's what I do, I use the sand with all of them with no problems!

[doomgerbiluk]

you don't throw it way
you seive it, wash it and bake it then resuse it


and btw with new sand all you need do si bake it before use..hot oven, when the sands hot all the way through it wil be safe

[gerbil]

admin said:

OK, here are two photos:

AHHHH! Cuteness overload!!! ;D

[AndreaS15]

I don't think my roomates would apperciate me baking gerbil sand in the oven LOL... (my one roommate still says I have 'squirles')
When I move though i will have to keep that though of trying it out.

[annenrob]

I'm am totally fasinated about having a sand tank I always have at least 50 lbs of sand around my house since I have a Hermit Crab tank so I was just wondering at what depth should the sand be and should I mix some other type of bedding in with it or can I have just sand but add some nesting material such as shredded paper towels and stuff. Right now my gerbils are in a 55 gal tank with a sand section partitioned off by plexiglass and my baby gerbils have a blast jumping the partition and rolling and digging in the sand and the adults seem to love it just as much so if I could go to an all sand tank that would be awesome I'm just a scaredy cat this is the first time I've had gerbils and I don't want to mess up so I'd really appreciate any guidance ;D

[Ritzie/Admin]

What I did was placing rocks and thick branches in it (sort of creating an artificial hole) and that covered with sand. This way they can dig the "holes" without the fear that they might collapse. You can also mix it for example with hay or twigs.