# Gerbils



## emmilouno1 (Jan 3, 2010)

I am looking to purchase 3 gerbils tomorrow. I have read up on these animals as i have never kept them before. I have however had 7 hamsters in my time and 3 mice. Has anyone got any advice on wheres best to buy these from and the best type of food i.e nuggets or cereal food? Thanks


----------



## Gary Fishman (Jan 3, 2010)

You'll have great fun with these. They're clean too cos they don't wee much. Someone locally will sell you some chap if you put an ad in the wants. Make sure you have more females than males or they'll never leave her alone. :001_tt1:


----------



## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

If you pm Marcia she will be able to help you, looking forward to pics of your gerbils when you get them.


----------



## emmilouno1 (Jan 3, 2010)

Hey thanks for this advice... really excited to get them  cant wait, my son wants to make them an assault course for when they are settled and tame bless him


----------



## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

Just to say that unless you want to breed then you need to get same sex animals, they will breed even if they are related.


----------



## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

emmilouno1 said:


> I am looking to purchase 3 gerbils tomorrow. I have read up on these animals as i have never kept them before. I have however had 7 hamsters in my time and 3 mice. Has anyone got any advice on wheres best to buy these from and the best type of food i.e nuggets or cereal food? Thanks


Good choice on getting some gerbils, they're the best pets ever! 

I would buy them from a breeder or get them from a rescue because gerbils are often in very poor quality when bought from a pet shop. And pet shops often get sexing wrong so you could end up with babies if you're not careful.

A good quality gerbil mix is all you need as a main diet. I use charnwoods gerbils mix but they don't ship anything smaller than a 20kilo sack which i think might be too much for only 3 gerbils lol.

Anything else you need, feel free to ask 

I've just read that your son is 4 years old? Gerbils don't make suitable pets for very young children due to their skitty behaviour and there's the risk of your son grabbing the gerbil by it's tail.


----------



## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

Gary Fishman said:


> You'll have great fun with these. They're clean too cos they don't wee much. Someone locally will sell you some chap if you put an ad in the wants. Make sure you have more females than males or they'll never leave her alone. :001_tt1:


You should never have more than 1 male in with a female and visa versa.


----------



## emmilouno1 (Jan 3, 2010)

thanks for your advice marcia, i went to PAH today and they had 2 rescue gerbils in from our local wildlife rescue centre, they are only 14 weeks old but previous owner had unwanted babies, they are adorable both agouti but 1 with a slightly darker tail than the other! Both males called them Charlie and Alfie (my son named them) my son doesnt have alot to do with any of the rodents iv had in the past but he loves sitting by the cage talking to them and even reading them a story lol! So he wont be handling them! They are sooooo cheeky  cant wait to start getting to know them better once they have settled into there new gerbilarium!


----------



## emmilouno1 (Jan 3, 2010)

just a qwik update the my boys are doing really well! We are slowly building trust, i hand feed them every nite a nice lil treat and once they have took the treat from me i stroke them while they are eating quietly, whats the best process for taming these lil guys as i dont want to rush into it x


----------

