Gerbil
A desert animal that digs for a living and wastes very little water. Pairs bond and stay bonded, so gerbils are kept in twos rather than alone.
Photo by Igor Balashov, CC BY 4.0
Overview
Gerbils are desert animals and they run on very little water. They concentrate their urine heavily and pass dry droppings, which is why a gerbil cage stays less smelly than most, and it is a straightforward consequence of where the species comes from.
They are also diggers rather than climbers. Wild Mongolian gerbils build burrows two to three feet long in soft soil and spend most of their time in them, so bedding you can tunnel through is the single biggest thing you can give one. They live three to four years and are unusual among rodents in being socially monogamous, which is why a bonded pair is the normal way to keep them.
Temperament
Curious, quick, and awake in short bursts around the clock rather than strictly by day or night, so there is usually something happening.
They are a pair or group animal and introductions between adults go badly. The standard method is the split cage, where two gerbils live either side of a divider and swap sides daily for a couple of weeks before meeting, and even then it does not always take. Both sexes mark territory with a scent gland on the belly, which is a bare orange patch and completely normal.
Care and grooming
A plain seed and pellet mix, without a bowl of sunflower seeds to pick out, since gerbils will eat the fat and leave the rest.
The tail needs care. Never pick a gerbil up by the tail, because the skin can strip off and it does not grow back. Scoop with two hands instead. Older gerbils are prone to tumours, with a reported 25 to 40 percent incidence past two or three years, so lumps get checked rather than watched.
Living and exercise
Depth over height. At least six inches of substrate and preferably more, in something that holds it, because a gerbil in shallow bedding will scrabble at a cage corner for hours instead.
A solid wheel rather than a barred one, since tails catch in rungs, and wood to gnaw. Keep the whole thing out of direct sun. A desert animal is good at heat in a burrow it dug, not behind glass in a window.
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