Talk to me about owning gerbils/other small rodents

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The Whatsit household is in the market for a small pet of the rodent variety. I am leaning heavily towards gerbils, as they look cuter than hamsters, are more social, and I have read that they also smell less and are friendlier.

MrWhatsit, however, heard from one of his co-workers that really the way to go is with a desert rat. I have Googled this and have come up with very little information on keeping one of these as a pet, which makes me suspicious.

Either way, if current gerbil or mouse owners could provide tips, advice, pointers toward helpful books and/or websites, that would be great. I’ve never owned a pet before in my life (well, except for a short-lived goldfish that I won at the school fair) and we thought this might be a good first pet for the family.

2

Mother of a former gerbil owner here.

A gerbil’s urine is HIGHLY concentrated and if the cage isn’t cleaned frequently enough it can become smelly. Additionally, gerbils are messy. Be sure to set your cage in a large low-sided bin or you will have shavings (and other stuff) everywhere.

Gerbils can be quick and and disappear in the blink of an eye. Ours kept trying to hide in the couch. It was a real pain the ass to get it out of there.

Finally, if you have small children, be careful. Gerbils bite HARD. Ours drew blood from me several times.

3

You don’t say? :dubious:

Rarely is the setup in a post this good

4

:smack: Damn! I backed right into that one didn’t I?

5

Second on the gerbils bite hard. Way harder than hamsters. Also: Do not get a male and a female. They breed like f***in gerbils!!!

6

Would a guinea pig be too big? I’ve heard they’re smarter and friendlier than hamsters and gerbils.

I’ve had both and I can’t really say which was better. I think my hamster was friendlier than my gerbil, but not enough to make some kind of lasting impression on my memory (obviously).

7

Aren’t a desert rat and a gerbil the same animal?

I had them as a kid. They were more “look at”-pets then "play with"pets. We always gave them a cage full of hay, which they then chewed down into a neat inch of cage liner within a day or two.

And we put a rock in their cage. It lay on a sunny spot, and when the rock warmed up in the sun, afterwards a whole heap of gerbils would snooze on top of it. That was cute.

8

I’ve had guinea pigs before, and I think they’d be pretty good starter pets for getting used to the rodent family. Yes, they’re quite a bit bigger than hamsters and gerbils, but they tend to be a bit easier to keep track of, are fun for “floor time” activity, and seem less scary to hand tame. There are a lot of different types of guinea pigs, and, like a lot of rodents, have specialized diet needs and will need some supplementary produce and hay to go along with the pellet foods.

Either way, no matter which rodent you get, you’re going to have to make sure they’ve got plenty of toys to keep them busy and they’re going to need a lot of handling if you want to make and keep them friendly to people.

9

Gerbils bite? Hamsters are the moody buggers, in my experience, due to their absolute insistence on an “I am asleep so GO AWAY” attitude. I’ve not had a gerbil bite me, and that’s with having had a lot of gerbils.

They do want to burrow. Give them a foot of dirt, and they’ll build tunnels through it. Give them a scattering of sawdust in a small cage as you would a hamster, and the mess created is because they’re desperately trying to dig down.

I much prefer gerbils, as you might be able to tell - they can have individual personalities, which hamsters never seem to manage.

10

If you want an animal to look at, get a gerbil. If you want an animal that’s intelligent and interacts with you, get a rat. Yes, I know – get over the squick. The males smell more, and they have in-your-face-baggage, but they are as intelligent as dogs, and love to be with you. I had a whole bunch of them as classroom pets, and the kids spent one day being grossed out, and the rest of the year carrying them around the school on their shoulders and teaching them tricks. My favorite was a hairless rat named Harry that had a thing for erasers and pens off my desk. He would snatch one up, and I would say, “NO, Harry!”. Then he would drop it, stomp his front feet like a two-year old having a tantrum, and hop around for a moment. Then he would come for yogurt snacks and scritches behind the ears. I had to give them all up when I went in for chemo, and I miss him terribly.

11

Gerbils seem to be more energetic than hamsters, but I think that hamsters are much calmer and slower in case they do waddle away from your hands temporarily.
I raised hamsters for the better part of my childhood. When raised right, they are mellow and sweet as can be. Rats are even better, in my opinion. They seem to be much smarter, grateful, and aware. The downside of rats would be the larger poops and the squicky tail, but I would recommend a rat above all other small rodents if you’re looking for something semi-aware and friendly.
By semi-aware, I mean that they don’t seem to have that pet loyalty and cuddliness that cats and dogs do. They’re small. They like to take food from your hands. They love to run around. They won’t nuzzle up to you after a long stressful day.
That all being said, I also raised degus. Never buy degus.

12

The American Gerbil Society Gerbil Care Handbook

Veteran gerbil owner here. Had eighteen at one point. :eek:

Just a few tips:

I keep mine in glass terrariums. We started with wire cages, but got tired of constantly having to sweep up the bedding they kick out through the bars. Watching them build tunnels and sleeping chambers through the glass is neat, too.

We use a mix of paper bedding (good packing material for tunnels and sleeping chambers) and corn chips (cuts down on odor) in their tanks.

Keep cornstarch handy to stop bleeding. I dump some into a mixing bowl and then plop the bleeding gerbils in. They calm down enough that you can get them thoroughly coated and find the wounds. Then, after I’ve made relatively sure the bleeding’s stopped, I put them back in their tank to calm down and groom themselves.

I’ve only had to use cornstarch twice, with two males that both wanted to be boss gerbil in their tank. (Good luck separating two gerbils latched onto each others’ throats without coming away bloody, though.)

They’re a good animal to watch, but they’re not cuddlers or anything.

13

Are you getting them for you or for kidlets?

If it’s for kidlets, I’d highly recommend either guinea pigs, rats or ferrets (in that order).

Guinea pig pros: herbivorous diet teaches kids about healthy eating, can go for play time on the floor without disappearing, sturdy for picking up, easy going personality.
Guinea pig cons: no toilet control, can easily become over weight, must always be chewing something.
Average life span is something like 6 years.

Rat pros: personable and trainable, smaller size
Rat cons: toilet issues, though I hear somewhat better than guinea pigs, short lifespans, need to chew, easier to disappear
Average life span 2-3 years

Ferret pros: Incredibly playful and very interactive, litter box trainable, can be fed pre-formulated kibble, sturdy for picking up, less with the chewing.
Ferret cons: musty smelling, can go insane if not properly socialized, can disappear if room not carefully ferret proofed

14

One more thing: Whichever critter you get, if you go with a cage that has smooth sides, don’t put it in a sunny window! Rookie mistake.

15

It seems that yes, desert rat is an older term for gerbil. However, the OP might have been told about Desert Kangaroo Rats perhaps.

I concur completely with the people who suggested rats. They’re very personable, and don’t hold up to any stereotypes. I personally find guinea pig feet creepier than rat tails though. Cavies have talons.

16

I have two gerbils–two males from the same litter. They’ve never fought nastily. That’s probably more of an issue when introducing two gerbils who’ve never met before. It’s best to get a couple, because they’re happier that way, apparently. I know ours groom each other, sleep together, and cheerfully fight over the occasional cashew we give them. I’ve been bitten a couple times, but nothing that drew blood. More of a nip that says “Hey, crazy human! I’m done being handled here!” I think if you take your time getting them used to you and eating out of your hand, you’ll be ok. Just approach the cage every day and make the same noise, and then sit your hand in with some treat like a piece of fruit or cheese, and gradually they’ll realize that you’re not going to eat them.

They’re very self sufficient creatures, and as long as you clean out their cage every month or so, vaccuum around it every couple days, make sure they have food, water, clean bedding, and a place to dig, and let them out to run around (in a closed area–the bathtub works well for ours) every couple weeks, they’re happy. When we got ours, I bought a small $5 book on gerbil care and behavior from the pet store, and it helped explain things.

Cages: Don’t get plastic. They will shred it. They chew constantly, and move their burrows around here and there all the time. We got an aquarium and a wire cage topper, and ours are happy as clams. We fill the aquarium with chinchilla sand, kitty litter, and recycled newspaper bedding. We put fresh sand and some hypoallergenic wood shavings in every week or so between cleaning so it doesn’t smell. They also use sand baths, like chichillas. But, well, they do smell like rodents, and they do kick stuff out of their cage. I mean, they’re living creatures. They gotta go. Not nearly as messy as an untrained uncaged animal, though, I imagine. They bury their pee and poop–after they go, they automatically scratch with their front paws to cover it up, even if they’re just sitting on plastic. Its kind of cute. They also dig like crazy. All the time. And it’s pretty fun watching them recreate their burrows after you clean out their cage, and watching how quickly they shred paper towel rolls.

Warning: Be careful of gerbil tails, which are very tender. If you tug on them, the skin can come off, and if the tail is injured severely, the gerbil will knaw its own tail off. I’ve never seen this, but the book I bought mentioned that. shudder

I enjoy watching them and picking them up and giving them a good scritch and a piece of a grape now and then. They look up at you with this tiny insane rodent face, which is really the closest thing to affection you’re going to get. They’re like a far more entertaining ant farm that you can pet.

17

Another strenuous vote for guinea pigs. They’re a little more durable because of size, they’ll purr/rumble, and they’ll whistle/squeak. They’re a good size for little kids to haul around and play with, they’re a little more difficult to lose, and even though they’re quick, they’re not as quick as a gerbil. I’ve had a couple that were as good as a cat, as far as interaction goes, and cleaning up after them is much better than cleaning a litter box.

18

From experience I can tell you that it can flare up overnight between brothers. Once badly enough that one of them didn’t survive :frowning:

Minor warning: sometimes they forget how much they’ve grown, and get stuck head-first into such a roll. Cut down it lengthways first and you’ll avoid such problems.

19

Concur. Hamsters are moody, frail, shivery little bastards, then they die. Gerbils are much more fun.

They can be difficult to tame though - I’ve kept quite a few and despite handling them a lot, I never got to the point where they weren’t trying to climb out of my hand all the time.

I never gave mine liquid water at all - they just make a mess with it - I just made sure they had fresh moist vegetables such as cucumber slices and carrot always available. They love eating insects too - so I used to carefully swat houseflies (stun only), then pop them in the cage - the gerbils reacted like kids to candy.

20

Hamsters are satan. Gerbils are cute, but not terribly cuddly or very interested in you.
My vote: rats all the way, baby. They’re cute, they’re very smart, they’re friendly and affectionate… and did I mention they’re uber cute?! They come in an absolutely incredible array of colors and coat patterns coat types and body styles. There are tailless and dumbo, curly-haired and hairless. I was the small animal specialist at a pet store for years. I’ve spent a lot of time with a lot of little critters, and bar none rats are far and away the best pets. They’re like little dogs without all the annoying parts about little dogs! I loves me some ratties. Did I mention how cute they are?