Any Gerbil owners out there… got a question

[cadburybunz]

 So I’ve had patrick for about 2 1/2 months… I got him from petsmart (I know… I know…. &#160 Anyway, he has a fairly nice (at least I think so, for a gerbil) 3 story cage, the levels are plastic, and I noticed today, when I took everything appart to clean the cage that he’s been chewing, and apparently EATTING the plastic!  I frantically starting digging through the trash, thinking, maybe it was in the bedding, but nothing… 

He’s eatting his food, I buy him zupreem pellets ONLY, and I suppliment with fresh veggies, and some fruit, and occasionally some unsalted sunflower seeds (when I can find them) and of course fresh filtered water everyday, just like all my other furkids… I use carefresh (or critter care) bedding for him, and give him toliet paper rolls to chew on, and nice natural wood sticks, (which he often devours) 

Could he have some sort of problem? am I not giving him enough proper nutrition? or is this normal of gerbils?  I’m kind of worried about the little guy, his active is the same it’s always been, and he seems to be eatting, and pooing normally. Am I just a worry wart? 

[Stickerbunny]

I had that problem when I had gerbils, they LOVE to chew – mine ate the entire plastic house we had for her o.O think they’re a lot like buns in that … could you maybe replace the plastic levels with metal or wood? Or something not chewable?

[Flinchabun]

 I had gerbils for about 8 years when I was younger.  From my experiences they will eat through plastic cages and toys/wheels extremely easily.  Had several escape attempts because they ate out a corner of a plastic cage lid.   What worked best for me was just a glass 10 gallon fish tank with a screen lid and a couple inches of carefresh.  They love digging through the carefresh and making nests.  

[Monkeybun]

I made levels for my gerbils out of little slabs of wood. I had them in an aquarium as well. Worked great!

Gerbils chew just like bunnies. their little teeth don’t stop growing either, and they don’t eat hay like bunnies do. Chewing is what they need to do, so the wood helps alot.

[cadburybunz]

THANKS!!! His cage itself is metal, and the tray is metal, but I’ve been considering switching to an aquarium with the lid, and then seeing what I can find for him to chew, chew, chew. I give him the toliet paper rolls, and paper towel rolls all the time, but he eats through those within 15 minutes!

[longhairmike]

yes on the aquariums… you will not need to buy bedding,, just shread some kleenex the first day,, after that just give them all your junk mail and cardboard boxes

they love candied fruit pieces

[LBJ10]

Hamsters and gerbils will chew and eat the crap out of plastic. Oddly, none of mine ever seemed to have any ill effects. Almost all of mine lived to like 4 years old, which is old age for them.

[Elrohwen]

I don’t currently have gerbils, but I owned them for about 15 years and have had many, In general, anything plastic will be chewed and possibly ingested. I really really don’t recommend plastic cages or toys for gerbils as they’ll just destroy them, at best, or hurt themselves. I would recommend a large glass aquarium-type cage.

 

Mike, what a cute picture! Makes me miss having gerbies around.

[Joyfull_music]

I had gerbils as a teen. And also learned the hard way that they will obliterate anything plastic in the blink of an eye. Not to mention mine loved to make their toilet areas in the tubes. Not fun. Metal wire cages are also no good because they will kick the litter out of it like nobodies business. Plain old 10 or 20 long aquarium will do. Because I own reptiles I have no shortage of them now. Also, be careful with what kind of running wheel they have. They will obviously eat a plastic one. So I used to have the open metal type with the two support bars on either side. I had a very young gerbil who loved to run at high speeds, tumble out of it and it crushed his ribs and he died.

[Elrohwen]

Joyfull, I had a girl break a leg – I think on the wheel. I was away for a work trip for a day or two and when I came home she was gone and seemed to have destroyed her leg. Very sad! That was my first bad experience with one of the metal wheels in 10+ years though.

There are some plastic wheels that I do like and I found that the gerbils didn’t chew them, but a hard runner would wear them out after a few months (which just meant I had to keep a supply on hand)

[Stickerbunny]

Wheels I was always told were safest were the ones with a solid back and base to avoid the animal getting in between the wheel and the base. You can use them for birds as well as small animals too.

[Joyfull_music]

The machinist in me wants to design a light weight, destruction proof polycarbonate wheel, with a ball bearing spinner and noise canceling capabilities. And enclosed on one side so the animal can’t tumble out. It would be like a $100 gerbil wheel, but pretty cool. My biggest problem with my gerbils was digging. I even gave them plenty of litter to dig in and burrow things, but they still loved to think they could dig through a glass corner. Kinda sounds like the problem I have with Momo.
 

[Author]

Messages