# Do gerbils become "addicted" to freedom?



## CASMITH (Sep 6, 2014)

My girlfriend and I have had a pair of female gerbils for almost a year now. Long story short; they're very timid and seemed content to stay in their 'gerbilarium' most of the time, but we've been trying to re-build trust with them and I think we've been succesful to a point. They still don't really like being handled but they'll happily run out onto our hands, run up and down our arms and crawl along our shoulders etc. Recently we've been letting them out onto sectioned off areas of the floor or onto the furniture to let them explore the flat a little bit but now whenever we put them back, one of them starts to feverishly gnaw at the cage door until one of us opens it, the door will barely be open before she tries to squeeze herself out!

I'm worried that they're becoming unhappy with the space they have to live in because right now it's just not possible to have anything bigger, their current tank is 52.5 x 26 x 52cm. We love having them running around on the furniture etc. but I am starting to feel really bad when I have to put them back in the tank, can gerbils get accustomed to "too much" freedom?


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## Lil Miss (Dec 11, 2010)

hi there, your problem is most likely that your tank is actually much too small, its recomended to have around 3ft x 1.5ft surface space, with atleast a foot and a half of bedding to dig in and make tunnel's, sadly at under 2 ft long your tank is very much on the small size


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## CASMITH (Sep 6, 2014)

I was afraid of this, I guess this is what happens when you take the advice from employees at Pe's At Home.  I guess it's taken so long to realise the lack of space is a problem, since the gerbils have mostly been too timid to want to come out until recently. Now that they've got the courage to come out, they're making it very clear just how unhappy they are with the space they've got! Problem is that even if we could get a bigger tank for them, it might have to wait at least a month.


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## emzybabe (Jun 30, 2009)

Offer them as much free range time as you can at least this way they will only want to sleep and eat when back in their cages. 

You could also put in a new toy every time you put them back some scrunched up paper will entertain them. Or alternate their toys. 

Keep an eye out for any ebay bargains that may be suitable. 

The bigger the better is always the saying with cages, buy the very biggest you can afford. 

Have a look at other people cage photos for inspiration too


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