How 2 potty train a Gerbil

[mafff]

Good Morning Gerbil Town!!!

I just wanna know how you can see if your gerbils pie in a corner or just anywhere they like it.

are there tricks to make them pie in a corner so i only have 2 clean that space.

Tips R Welcome ofcourse.

Grz Arne Aka Mafff

[Ritzie/Admin]

Very hard to do, but.... do they have a sand bowl for taking sand baths?

My Mongolian gerbils and some of my fat-taield gerbils use their sand bath as a toilet! Very easy, because you can use the bedding much longer! Only I have to replace the sand quite often!

[mafff]

I only put a bowl once a week so they can wash themselfs.
can i leave it in then?

[Ritzie/Admin]

Yes you can! My Mongolians wash themselves every time I refresh the sand! After that they use it also as a toilet!

Just refresh the sand regularly! I can recommend a deep bowl, with high edges. Otherwise they will kick out the sand. Another thing you could do is to make the tank in such a way, that one part or corner of it contains sand. Only a bowl is easier to clean.

[mafff]

in a copple of days I'm gonna get a terrarium (120x55x45) can a take a flowerpot with some sand in it and put it on it's side so they can get inside and that's easy 2 clean i gues. what do you think about it?

Grz Mafff

[sweetie]

I have used a bowl and a few of them kick it out. The others knock the bowl over or fill it with bedding . I have yet to be succesful. There is one member who figured out how to block off 1/4 of the tank and fill it with sand. If you figure out how to keep the solid divider in and not let the sand out. PLEASE let me know.

[Ritzie/Admin]

I have also devided one small part of a tank of my fat-tailed gerbils. I did it with bricks. It is too heavy for them. One side has sand, the other side the normal bedding.

And my other gerbils have a large bowl. Too heavy for them too, but sometimes they still kick out some o the sand. Not all.

[sweetie]

Thanks Peter,

That is an excellent idea. I have bricks readily available also!!

[tasha]

I use a cereal bowl with a high edge. Very easy to clean. If you put a flower pot on its side, they will surely kick the sand out. It seems the best luck is starting with sand, but once they get used to going in the bowl, you can slowly replace it with another substrate. BUT it has to be different from the material that they are using as bedding (shavings, carefresh or whatever). l have a separate sand bath that i give to them when they are out playing, so i'm thinking of switching the toilet material to something else. Not sure what yet. Maybe some kind of paper pellets? The sand works great but gets smelly very quickly!
Another tip is to put the toilet some place higher in the tank (but make sure it is very secure and can't fall on your gerbils). Someone in an earlier post was speculating that gerbils in general like to urinate at the highest spot in the tank, and i think they were right. Plus, you won't get bedding kicked into it.

[mafff]

Ty all 4 your Posts.

I'v have a bowl with sand in the tank for 4 days now and they use it as a toilet.

i'll put it up higher when i have my terrarium.

plz keep posting for ID's 4 other bedding than sand.

again Thx 4 all your help .

[lydia]

I've not bothered potty training any gerbils recently,but,the two I kept as a child were potty trained,and,it was very easy.Although this may have been just this pair.
I used a heavy glass jar,that I lay on it's side in their tank,where they already used as a toilet area.To start with,I put some soiled litter inside the jar.
They always used the jar after this,and never peed anywhere else ever again.In those days,the only litter available was sawdust,their jar was cleaned daily,and,some fresh sawdust scattered in the bottom of the jar,with a tiny amount of soiled sawdust.

Lyd