# gerbils and sand



## lil muppet (Apr 4, 2008)

ok might be a stupid question because i know they are desert animals but... could i keep them in play sand??


----------



## SophieCyde (Oct 24, 2010)

i have no idea but didn't want to read and run , we kept ours in peat (soil stuff)


----------



## lil muppet (Apr 4, 2008)

i did this with my spiny mice because i had some left over from when i had my snails then rehomed them


----------



## lil muppet (Apr 4, 2008)

anyone else??? :confused1:


----------



## lil muppet (Apr 4, 2008)

please! as im going to clean them out tonight!


----------



## Guest (Jan 9, 2011)

I probably wouldn't use just sand tbh, but I don't have gerbils


----------



## Saria (Aug 26, 2010)

You could try Chinchilla sand, mine spend hours digging in it


----------



## Petitepuppet (May 30, 2009)

I would use chinchilla sand rather than play sand. When you say play sand do you mean for like a childs sand pit? Not sure if it would be safe or not...? Better to be safe than sorry!


----------



## Myth (Apr 5, 2009)

I know people definitely use 'childrens play sand' for reptiles in place of more expensive substrate.
Have heard of it being used in place of 'chinchilla sand' for rodents, mostly for 'toilets' and 'sand baths' though.


----------



## davidc (Dec 15, 2010)

I've heard that normal sand is too dusty for gerbils.
But if you do use any type of sand, I *think* it's got to be wet regularly to stop it collapsing.

I just put some chinchilla sand (dust extracted) in a container, such as a lunch box, and my gerbils love to roll around in it during out of tank time.

Personally, I wouldn't trust sand not to collapse, I still use what I've used from the start: wood shavings and vegetable parchment bedding or plain unscented white toilet paper. Whatever you use, it's up to you though.


----------

