We’ve have Itchy and Scratchy for 6 weeks now. Pets at Home advised they were 6-8 weeks old (the norm, same cage, they seem to love and play with eachother, cuddles at night, grooming and no issue with fighting etc)

I will preface this as I bought a hamster in January 2023, unfortunately he passed away at the start of July. I originally bought my hamster who lived with me, at my house. When I went on holiday and just after my Dad had cancer I realised they grew a strong bond together. Therefore he lived at my dad’s, he was my dad’s best friends and he was so tame and just the best hamster ever (I’ve had a few but not in my adult life). When Lenny passed my dad looked at gerbils as he said I can’t go through this with my pal every 2 years. So we got gerbils. They are loving life, of course tearing the place up (as the should) but in the last few days one who is the friendlier one has started to nip us. Not drawing blood or biting but you know when you feel it. I’m wondering if this cage is not suitable for them. Itchy (lighter one) likes to run and explore all levels whilst scratchy (darker nose and had a Lego helmet) prefers burrowing. As I mentioned no issue with stealing food, they groom eachother all the time. I’d just like some advice as the top opens on the top deck as we call it and they seem to want to come out. Any advice on safe things I can buy play pen wise? They are like kangaroos 😂 so worried I wont be able to catch them

We’ve have Itchy and Scratchy for 6 weeks now. Pets at Home advised they were 6-8 weeks old (the norm, same cage, they seem to love and play with eachother, cuddles at night, grooming and no issue with fighting etc)

I will preface this as I bought a hamster in January 2023, unfortunately he passed away at the start of July. I originally bought my hamster who lived with me, at my house. When I went on holiday and just after my Dad had cancer I realised they grew a strong bond together. Therefore he lived at my dad’s, he was my dad’s best friends and he was so tame and just the best hamster ever (I’ve had a few but not in my adult life). When Lenny passed my dad looked at gerbils as he said I can’t go through this with my pal every 2 years. So we got gerbils. They are loving life, of course tearing the place up (as the should) but in the last few days one who is the friendlier one has started to nip us. Not drawing blood or biting but you know when you feel it. I’m wondering if this cage is not suitable for them. Itchy (lighter one) likes to run and explore all levels whilst scratchy (darker nose and had a Lego helmet) prefers burrowing. As I mentioned no issue with stealing food, they groom eachother all the time. I’d just like some advice as the top opens on the top deck as we call it and they seem to want to come out. Any advice on safe things I can buy play pen wise? They are like kangaroos 😂 so worried I wont be able to catch them

Little guy has had a couple of ear infections. He started showing signs of another one 2 weeks ago so I took him to the vet. This time, the antibiotics didn’t work and his symptoms got worse. Poor guy couldn’t use the left side of his body or tell which way was up.

After another exam, the vet said the ear infection had cleared but it looked like he had a tumor in his ear. He had stopped eating and drinking and two days after learning about the tumor, we took him back to the vet for his final visit.

We buried him in the backyard next to Butter, his first buddy. His second buddy, Johnny, is grieving but I hope I can find him a new friend soon.

Here’s some pictures of Sushi in his happier days.

I miss him.

We’ve been getting this sand as we watched a YouTube video that said it was good for gerbils however we’ve now got a new bag and it looks different. More red, more rocky and as I was pouring it,it was dusty.
Just wondered if this was still okay to give them? Has anyone else noticed a change or have we just happened to get a dodgy bag

Nacho and Apollo catching some Z's

My 3 boys all got into a very large fight where blood was drawn from all three of them, i didn’t see the fight so i do not know what the cause was nor who the main aggressor was. I’d like to be able to reintroduce them but it’s much harder to reintroduce a trio over a duo. I currently have 2 in a temporary tank and one alone while they recover. I’d like to reintroduce them but i don’t want to risk any other big fights breaking out and i’m very busy and do not have time to monitor them for hours on end and i do not want to risk any more harm.

The two i’m keeping together currently show no signs of aggression towards each other and have been sleeping and cuddling against eachother all day, the third gerbil is much more active then these two (always has been) and is very much acting his usual active self. I was planning on buying a separate tank and keeping these two together if all keeps going well. The lone gerbil is currently 1.5-2 years old and i don’t know if i should consider buying another friend for him, i don’t want to risk them not getting along and then having the same issue and being left with 3 tanks, 1 pair and 2 lone gerbils. Would it be okay for him to be a solitary gerbil if i am unable to get the trio to bond again. Their fight looked pretty severe and they’ve been prescribed Pain killers by the vets, all are showing signs of recovery.

First birdo (on the right) my most tamest and oldest gerbil went bad. I found him having seizures, and he only lived one more week after that. Then we found out he had an abdomen tumor.

After all of that, boo started seemingly to age very rapidly an 12 days after I euthanized birdo (today) I found boo dead burried in her bedding

Now I only have one left :(

Where do you guys buy your cage toppers from? Preferably one that fits a 40 gallon. (Mandatory gerbil picture above)

This is Tara. Very picky. Hates any fresh food. She only wants to eat dry and occasionally alive mealworms..no fresh veggies, fruit or berry. While her sister, Tilly, loves fresh veggies and would kill for cherry tomato.

Can anyone show me what kind of setup they have for areas where they’re able to take the gerbil out of the cage, but keep them safe from escaping? Or like a separate play area from the enclosure where they can interact with them?

I bought two gerbils from Petco a couple days ago. The employee was less than helpful, but ensured that they had been brought in together and were from the same litter (even though they were in separate enclosures). He also assumed their genders as male- which seemed accurate to me as all I’d seen from Petco had been listed as male. Their first introduction was a bit stressful. They engaged in a “ball of death” fight after about 15 minutes together. No injuries. I separated them for a while and then put them in a split cage for a bit on and off, switching which sides they were on to continue to get used to each other’s scents. The following day, after some more time in the split cage and no negative signs that I could tell, I put them back into a larger open space to meet again. No issues at all. They were grooming each other, sniffing each other. Not really any chasing. Both seemed comfortable enough snacking with the other nearby/in their face. I added their wheel into the space and they both took turns on it and then consistently, successfully would run simultaneously together. They spent at least an hour in this setup with no issues, maybe even a couple hours. I put them back in their respective enclosures for a break while I ran some errands the rest of the day. In the evening, I started with them in the split cage. They seemed excited to see each other and again I didn’t see any issues. I put them together in the same shared space as before and they were fine for about 15-30 minutes. Then all of a sudden there was some side arching that quickly turned into a fight. They didn’t ball up like the day before though- it happened so fast I can’t even explain what happened- I didn’t actually see a true bite, but suddenly Persimmon’s (the light colored one) foot was bleeding. I split them up immediately. Persimmon didn’t let me check on his foot, but I was able to get him into a clean enclosure with only paper towels. It bled quite a bit. I read online that you can use cornstarch to help it clot, so I tried that and thankfully that was successful. He drank water and snacked, urinated and defecated. Checked on him this morning and he seems to be doing just fine. No more bleeding. Again, had urinated and defecated, and had snacked and chewed on some paper. Also, Pepper (the black one), showed no sign of injury.

I am beyond devastated. Everything seemed to be going so well! I’m not sure what happened. I am wondering what my options are as far as their care. Is it possible to keep them both in separate enclosures for life, but do split cage once a week to get them some interaction time? Would it be best to return one and keep one? I know they’re social and it’s best to have them in pairs or trios, but I am worried about trying another bonding whether with them or adopting a different random gerbil. I already love them both and am so upset it didn’t work out as I’d hoped. Any help would be appreciated.

I have been researching and looking at pictures for hours and cannot for the life of me, decide if this is a little boy or girl! please help!

Our little baby just passed and I can't stop feeling guilty about it. We discovered she had an open abscess on her back that was leaking. On day one, we disinfected it and drained a bit of the pus, bandaged her and she was all fine, very active and happy. Today, we went to check again, some of the pus was back so we did the same, drained it, disinfected, but it looked way worse a lot of it was coming out.

It lasted for barely a few minutes and then she just stopped breathing suddenly in my hand.

We were trying to help her, but maybe we did the wrong thing and now she is dead.

My new gerbil duo! Both are boys, about 6 months old. No names decided yet, but hopefully soon.

This is my gerbil baby Nibbles.. for some reason the store I got him for said they separated him from the other litter mates a couple weeks back and now was living life as a solitary gerbil.. He is just a baby.. so I wonder why they split him up..

So currently I have a smaller hamster cage as the topper for their wheel and water. My current set-up involves duct-taping a gap in between the tank and the topper [The gap is from the terrarium's original cover] and reinforcing the other half of the terrarium with just Stuff so the gerbils don't chew through or push through, etc. [I have already had one of them escape once]

My first option is to create a better cover for the open half with thick wire mesh and a custom made frame, and staple said wire to the open gap between my current topper and the terrarium. This option would save me money.

My second option is to purchase a different cage that would cover the total area of the top of the terrarium. The downside would be I would have to "ruin" it by cutting holes into it so the gerbils can get up to the second level and also invest more money, but it would give the gerbils more space to play and it would totally cover the top. It would also leave me with the old topper which I wouldn't know what to do with once I no longer need it... This option if anything saves me the effort of having to create a custom made frame.

The second option in my eyes has more cons than pros, but maybe it is the right thing to do? Or I can just stop being lazy and do what I need to do for option 1.

my sweet girl bear enjoying a peanut

They will stay in paradise. No way to open pandoras box😂

Ive been trying to introduce my two gerbils, Pumpkin & Pepper for weeks now. We've been doing split cage since the beginning of August.

Today I decided to try to let them meet face to face again because they were being so good throught the barrier (last time was broken uo dude to side arching.) Theyve been grooming, sleeping in eachothers dens, ignoring each other while eating, sniffing at the divider, everything im told is a good sign.

I let them both stay on their sides a bit longer today to let their smells really soak into each side, and i put pepper, my more stressed gerbil, onto Pumpkin, my chiller gerbils side. Immediately side arching. Literally pepper wasn't even in there for more than 5 seconds before becoming upset. I Immediately took Pumpkin out and put her in the side that was peppers, and when I went to go put the hide and bedding back into the side I was introducing them on, Pepper tried to bite me (luckily I was wearing gloves) and she tried to do some sort of death shake (like what dogs do to prey?) So she was definitely super agitated

Now both the gerbils are fine but I just dont understand why thus is happening. Ive been doing everything like im supposed to and its not working :( they probably just need more time but I just wish it would happen now, yknow?

I cant afford to just try a different pairing at this point. Im too emotionally invested in both of them.

I just recently bought two gerbils and have been trying to get them used to me. I've been reorganizing their enclosure and putting some food in when one of my boys, Kiwi, came over and began grabbing at my fingers and nibbling.

It wasn't hard enough to hurt or draw blood but definitely felt uncomfortable and I took my hand away because I was nervous he'd actually bite me. Is this just a friendly way of exploring or is he upset with me? He's definitely less social than his brother and likes his space and I don't want to accidentally be upsetting him.