Gerbils

I remember our gerbil being a lot faster than the hamster. Much more difficult to handle. It also use to bite a lot more.

Get a hamster from a breeder. They do well.
 
They can bite hard if you miss-handle them, you have to pry their mouths open to get them off. They aren't great pets for a kid tbh. They are also very skittish and good at escaping.

Try degus, they are like big gerbils but much tamer and they are active during the day.
 
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If you think the kid is too young then don't get them one. It's not fair on the animal if it stands to be neglected.
They also only tend to bite if scared or hurt.
 
Had gerbils and rats before.

Rats smell a lot more so need cleaning much more often. Gerbils, with a 3ft gerbil tank filled 3/4 with wood shavings (its also possible to use soil, has to be sterilised though) and a cage topper on, they need cleaning out quite infrequently. I used a ceramic dog food bowl on the upper shelf filled with a special sand (forget the name but theyll sell it in the pet shop). The gerbils used this bowl as their toilet so it was really easy to clean out without needing to do the main tank as often.

Also gerbils dont do well alone. If one dies then ideally you should introduce two new youngsters (following proper separation procedure) because otherwise the one left alive will be very unhappy.
 
Dis86 said:
If you think the kid is too young then don't get them one. It's not fair on the animal if it stands to be neglected.
They also only tend to bite if scared or hurt.
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They'll be looked after , by me if needs be. But I appreciate your concern.
 
I had a few gerbils living all together after I bred a few, and separated the sexes, fish tank on the bottom with wet peat/compost every week for making tunnels, and a cage in top, use a solid wheel not a one with gaps in otherwise the tails gets caught, had 7 queing up to use the wheel at one point lol.
 
I’ve always wondered what makes a rodent use a wheel. It can’t be a natural instinct as you don’t get wheels in the wild. They must use their own intelligence to work out what’s it for.

I used to put my hamster in a ball and let her dart around. She loved it. Got to the point where she’d actually run to the cage opening when she saw it. much more intelligent animals than people think.
 
arc@css said:
I've quite often thought of getting a gerbil or hamster but what puts me off is that they don't live long.
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My hamster lived 30 months. Got up one morning and found her dead. Looked like she had heart attack climbing through her house window. She had rigor mortis, so I couldn’t get her out. Had to bury the poor little thing still jammed in her house. How undignified :(
 
Crizzy said:
They mostly come out at night, mostly.
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That's hamsters, gerbils are very active during the day.

Someone commented that they like to chew which is so true. We used ours as a disposal unit for toilet roll tubes and they could destroy one in minutes!
 
Feek said:
That's hamsters, gerbils are very active during the day.

Someone commented that they like to chew which is so true. We used ours as a disposal unit for toilet roll tubes and they could destroy one in minutes!
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My lad and wife are terrible with toilet roll tubes. What is so hard with putting them in the recycling?

Hopefully they'll give them to the gerbils...
 
lnoton said:
My lad and wife are terrible with toilet roll tubes. What is so hard with putting them in the recycling?

Hopefully they'll give them to the gerbils...
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They will pretty much shred anything made of wood or cardboard in minutes. Plastic as well, so you have to avoid giving them any plastic things.

As someone said above though, the best thing is just get a deep glass tank and fill it with stuff for them to burrow in.
 
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