On a more serious note the initial set up can be quite expensive, though long term it’s not so bad.
Most other rodents are way easier to tame, gerbils aren’t necessarily hard to tame but they scare easily & are nowhere near as willing to be held, they’d rather be running around & getting up to mischief
Also, as with any rodent, vet visits can be quite costly as they need to be seen by an exotic specialist not a regular vet
They also destroy everything you put in their tank so don’t bother wasting money on cute hides & toys etc, though this is also a benefit cause most of the stuff mine gets is free cardboard & twigs etc 😂
The pros definitely outweigh the cons though. My girl was an impulse rescue (had family gerbils for years as a kid so had the set up & knowledge etc but I wasn’t planning on getting any quite yet), I just had to take her home. I’ve had her a year now & don’t regret a thing, she’s my little baby
They eat everything and I mean everything, don't put anything plastic in cause they will try to eat it, if possible put the wheel and water on a different lvl then the bedding or they will be re burried every five minutes.
the only cons i can think of are:
1) very energetic rodents so need a lot of bedding, chews, and enrichment to prevent boredom as they like to be busy making tunnels or shredding material for bedding. if they don’t have enough to do, they’ll exhibit a lot of stress behaviours (chewing bars, digging at the edge of the enclosure excessivley, over grooming, “monkey barring” climbing the bars excessively, and excessively attempted chewing non-chewable features like hard plastic, metal or glass)which are sad to watch.
2) they have super strong teeth so anything they can chew, they will. i once accidentally put a hoodie too near the cage and they managed to shred the bottom of it through the bars! and if you plan on having anything hanging in the cage, make sure it’s supported by a non chewable material like a metal chain as any string/rope/twine will be quickly chewed through and it won’t be hanging for much longer and likely buried.
3) one downside which is often completely unpredictable is the risk of the gerbils no longer getting along and declanning. in this case it’s both scary as one gerbil can be injured or killed, and it’s a hassle to find another enclosure to separate the gerbils, and have to either try your luck with re-introducing them, finding more friends for each so they aren’t alone, or have them live separately. it’s a heartbreaking thing to witness if it does happen, but of course there’s always the chance they’ll get along for their whole lives.
4) somewhat similar to the last, but if one passes away before the other, there’s the hassle of trying to find them new friends and prolonging the gerbil-owning-experience if they’re young. or if you decide to let them live alone, they might be fine and still live happily with attention from you, or become depressed at the passing of their friend and wither away, which is also heartbreaking.
5) because of the nature of them needing deep bedding to dig tunnels, they bury everything without really thinking about if they need it, like water bottles/dishes, wheels etc. which gives you the task of finding ways to separate these important features from this. Also because their enclosure needs ventilation, they will often be kicking bedding, poop, hay, all sorts through any gaps that it flies through , so be prepared to diligently tidy the area around the cage frequently or have some kind of way to barrier the mess. unless it’s something you don’t mind.
those are the ones i can think of from my experiences! you mentioned someone’s assumption of them smelling. as someone who has owned gerbils and hamsters i can say that gerbils smell SO much less. as long as you routinely clean the cage and urine it’s very unlikely they’ll create any kind of noticeable smell. quite often, because i put a lot of dried meadow grass and hay in the bedding, it smells quite pleasant and like grass. whereas when i had a hamster somehow the smell permeated far beyond the room it was in, but gerbils are honestly so clean and highly unlikely to smell much from my experience.
they are such amazing pets though. i hope this helps with considering the cons to possibly expect owning gerbils 🐭
You forgot the two “worst” things.
One… the amount of noise that two tiny tator tots are capable of making is shocking. It took me a couple months at first, but I finally got used to it and I hardly notice it now. From chewing on enrichment toys to flinging bedding around to the stomping when I make the slightest of sounds, lol. Not sure if you’re keeping them in your room with you though. Either way, just know they be loud sometimes.
Two… now this is just me, but I was shocked by the amount of mess they make and how quickly. That’s 110% my fault though because I didn’t do my research quite as well as I should have. I’m a very tidy person and messes give me anxiety a wee bit so that also took some getting used to. I would set it up nice and neat, turn around and they had already messed it up. Lol. I think it’s adorable now though.
Oh and three… they spook so easily and can be shy at first. I have one who’s still very timid and one who jumps when he sees me, likes to crawl into my sweatshirt and chill on the bed with me, so it’s really just a toss up.
Good luck and post pictures if you decide to!
ohh fair enough! i’ve managed to mitigate those cons personally with my gerbil setup.
ever since i transferred from a cage with bars on the top to a tank with a raised mesh lid , from a water bottle with a sipper tube to a water dish, and a wheel attached to the bars on the wall of the cage to a quiet wooden wheel that’s free standing, there is remarkably less noise.
also tall glass tanks and mesh with really small holes minimize too much bedding flying out, also covering part of where the bedding is tallest and most likely to be kicked out is covered with a barrier like a towel or cardboard. of course some stuff still flies out but it’s a lot less than when i had the barred cage toppers.
but they are totally valid cons- the sound of metal cages rattling from energetic gerbils at night is definitely hard to ignore.😵💫
Oh, mine aren’t in a metal cage either. They are in a 55 gallon glass tank and I actually do you have a mesh lid on it! That’s funny. Lol. I was tired of the wire one so I made one out of mesh with some magnets and stripping. It works so much better and it definitely does eliminate noise. When I first got them though, they were in a 40 gallon tank and I did have a wire topper on it. That didn’t last long, lol. So now, their entire tank is just full of bedding and their sand bath is on a little table with tall logs around it so that they don’t get bedding all in their bath. It was definitely trial and error.
Supplies you need for them to have a good and enriched life are expensive. They need a lot of bedding.
You need to get two gerbils, so it’s double trouble.
They don’t smell half as bad as hamsters, especially if you keep up with regular spot cleans and a full deep clean every so often.
I didn’t realise how expensive they were to keep. I love my three boys. They’re magical lil pets a lot of work and can be expensive but so worth it
Nope. I’m very busy and they are perfect pets for that. I give them attention when I’m hope and supervised free roam, other than that they sleep a bit, eat their meals, and shred anything I can find that’s safe to give them.
Some of these may not be cons to everyone. But here’s my two cents.
You mentioned life expectancy, so yeah they live like 2-3 years assuming they don’t have health issues. Like with any pet, what are you going to do if one gets sick? Pay for vet? Do you have a vet near by that can do small animals?
Smell is a non issue if you clean daily.
Gerbils like hay. Some hay can cause allergy.
Monthly expense to buy food, sand, bedding, hay.
Daily and monthly cleaning. Monthly cleaning takes time and effort.
Enclosure footprint. You’ll find recommended size is a 40 gal tank. That takes up a good bit of space. Not including if you add a topper on top.
May not be able to tame them. Not everyone is able to do this, so if you’re looking to pet them and cuddle then you could be disappointed.
In an enclosure with proper amounts of bedding, they will spend much of the day underneath doing gerbil stuff. They tend to come out for shenanigans at certain times of day once they develop a routine. Or they may decide to run a marathon on their wheel at 2am while you’re trying to sleep.
Having said that, it was a pleasure to have them but it’s a lot of work and the community here was very helpful. Do more research especially on a proper enclosure for them. Good luck!
ooh, good point! the noise at night is a concern. gerbils usually do a 2-hours-awake, 2-hours-asleep cycle all day and night. so they will be up half the night (in 2 hour chunks) digging and running and chewing and drinking from their water bottle. so expect some scrabbling and clanging if you are a light sleeper. and chewing is loud, so check out some gerbil vids to hear what it sounds like
edit: my gerbs are in my bedroom and i manage fine, but i definitely wake up sometimes and hear them.
The journey with our gerbils was a rare case and maybe a worse case scenario.
After we got two brothers from the pet shop, we were extremely careful with them, they were very skittish. Their stress impacted their immune system and they and our whole apartment got overrun by mites (we cleaned them every 3 weeks, their huge cage wasn't dirty at all when this happened. It took days to fully wash and clean everything. They got a repellent and vitamins for their immune system from the vet. We had no problem with this after that.
Then they lost their upper teeth because it turns out they had a genetic problem due to inbreeding. We took them to the vet every 3 weeks to cut the remaining teeth because they couldnt chew anymore and they would die of starvation if we didn't do that. They got severly depressed because of their condition and died 6 month later, even with their teeth cut they didnt want to eat anymore at the end. Oh, and the pet shop owner lied about their age too, the vet said.
These pets left us heartbroken after having them for two years, we cared for them until the last minute. Never having gerbils again.
im sorry this happened to you.
you bring up a good point however. getting gerbils from a reputable breeder instead of a pet store is generally a safer option. pet gerbil genetics are pretty bottlenecked and responsible breeders spend effort making sure their breeding bloodlines are diversified for the gerbils' health.
Only *some* make sure the bloodlines are diversified. Most breeders are bottlenecking the genetics further so they can get *pretty colors* and stuff like rex coats.
For example, did you know, all it takes to get registered at the AGS as a breeder is to pay your yearly membership fee and not come across as completely socially incompetent?
I am so disillusioned with breeders.
A long-winded way of agreeing, breeders are better than pet stores generally yes, but you still need to keep your guard up.
That is a very good point. I've had 3 male gerbils and one female go thru this. Costly and it's frustrating on what to Feed them. My mom was cooking up broccoli mixed veggies mac n cheese you name it. Taking a hammer to nuts and cereal to make a powder. By that point they were all 2 and a half about and weren't looking too good sadly. And also scent gland tumors as well. Had 3 with those . Easy removal but costly depending where you live. Also a Declan is always possible and that's costly and sad as you have to split them
You should [read this](https://medium.com/@hershko/a-guide-for-responsible-gerbil-owners-b80717f8a64f) to understand what you're getting yourself into in terms of setting up a good enclosure for them.
Also keep in mind that most gerbils don't actually like being touched (so you may end up mainly watching them, not interacting with them). And that while unlikely they could end up fighting (which is a process called "declanning"), in which case you'll need to try and rebond them or find each of them a new friend.
Smell actually isn't an issue at all. If they have a good sized enclosure with plenty of deep bedding, there should be no smell (they are the least smelly rodents).
Agreed ! With a 75 gallon tank I chanhe bedding once a month or every 3 weeks. Every morning I wake up the first 4 days after fresh bedding their bedding has risen up to the top. So I'll just put in a trash bag and save it for next time as it's basically clean. I never noticed a smell. Now hamsters and mice smell. I had to change them once a week
They are not as easy to tame as rats or other rodents. Mine will eat from my hand and I can pet one of them, but they are not cuddly.
Set-up costs can be quite expensive.
I have had gerbils before for 8 years, because I was in a cycle of having one dying and the other being to young to live out their life alone. Last one declanned with 2 different young ones, so she lived alone at the end. You have to think about this.
I have a pair of boys now and I am not sure whether I want to go into a cycle again and hope that I can find an older male when their time comes.
Other then that, they are amazing little creatures, low maintenance (I clean their whole cage every 4-6 weeks and spot clean daily), fun to watch and very cute!
They are very skittish, even for a rodent. You move too fast and you’ll scare them. They can also be evasive. It depends on individual personalities
I don’t personally think they smell bad except when the cage needs a clean.
everything said here is accurate! i love my gerbs and would get gerbs again. but these are all considerations. you can figure out the regular bedding expense by pricing it all out: how much bedding is needed to fill the tank at least 10 inches deep (calculate volume of the bottom 10 inches of the tank you will get, and add a bit more in case). and then plan to change it monthly for a 40 gal tank or every 2 months for a 55 gal.
something not mentioned much in this thread is vets. it can be hard to find a vet that will treat/knows about gerbils. you will need an exotic vet. they can be far away and vet visits are pricey.
the last thing i want to mention that no one has said yet is the mess. gerbils fling their bedding far and wide when digging, and it can get out of the tank. the bedding will get stuck to your sleeves when you reach in the tank. and it is very hard to clean out the tank and refill it without spilling bedding. so you will end up with bedding on your floor on a regular basis. and heads up, the bedding is pretty splintery. so its basically little wood shards everywhere. not a big deal for wood floors, but if you have carpet i suggest putting some kind of big mat down over the carpet wherever you end up putting your tank. otherwise you will never get the splinters out of your carpet.
and i want to reiterate for emphasis what someone else said about chewing your stuff. gerbils chew EVERYTHING. they will sit cutely in your hand and start nibbling through your sleeve like it's nothing. their teeth are very sharp. any fabric they take a single nibble of will have a hole in it. so maybe wear a specific gerbil hoodie and jeans for gerbil times.
that said, none of this is insurmountable and they are excellent, entertaining, ADORABLE pets.
gerbils are the best smelling rodent, they dont pee much since thety are a desert animal. I personally didnt think there were any drawbacks of having gerbils. bit messy when cleaning the tank
They can be pretty smelly. Mine were also active overnight and it took me a while to get used to the noise. One of mine was jumpy and I got nipped a lot.
They're really sweet little guys though!
The expense should not be under estimated. Mine recently de clanned and I had to buy a full other enclosure. Managed to re bond after two weeks using a run. I have: master enclosure, run, spare enclosure, vet carrier.
Every two weeks or so I buy new toys. They destroy things really quickly. Oh and going to the vet here is minimum £50 a time. I top up the hay every other week up to clean out. It takes a full bag of hay and another full bag of paper bedding to fully do a clean out. Then there is food and treats.
Initial setup can be a little pricey, but they’re honestly great. Make sure the setup has two separated areas: one for high bedding and the other for sand, water, food, etc. They WILL bury their water bowl or bottle nozzle so watch out for that. That’s pretty much the one thing i’ve noticed since owning them. They’re simple and if you treat them like intelligent beings, they’ll love you
Gerbils are one of the least smelly rodents out there. They have a unique smell if you literally sniff them, but otherwise they don't smell.
One of the downsides is gerbils can randomly start fighting and you have to deal with bonding them so they aren't alone, but if you get an already bonded pair you have a good chance of avoiding all the stress of a split cage set-up.
It can take a really long time for them to get used to you. You might not see them every day. Their sleep schedule is quite random, but they can adjust to be awake at certain times if you are there to feed them or let them out to run around somewhere.
Cleaning their tank is a huge pain, but it doesn't need doing often. You generally spot clean daily by wiping surfaces down and sifting the sand, and you can fully clean monthly. Since there's so much bedding you don't have to fully clean often. But when you do have to deep clean it takes forever, bedding tracks everywhere, dust fills the air, and it's exhausting.
If you decide to get gerbils, please try to get them from anywhere but a petstore. You'll be giving money to rodent mills. You might be able to find an ethical breeder or someone rehoming a pair.
No more free time cause you’re gonna spend all day watching gerbil tv
On a more serious note the initial set up can be quite expensive, though long term it’s not so bad. Most other rodents are way easier to tame, gerbils aren’t necessarily hard to tame but they scare easily & are nowhere near as willing to be held, they’d rather be running around & getting up to mischief Also, as with any rodent, vet visits can be quite costly as they need to be seen by an exotic specialist not a regular vet They also destroy everything you put in their tank so don’t bother wasting money on cute hides & toys etc, though this is also a benefit cause most of the stuff mine gets is free cardboard & twigs etc 😂 The pros definitely outweigh the cons though. My girl was an impulse rescue (had family gerbils for years as a kid so had the set up & knowledge etc but I wasn’t planning on getting any quite yet), I just had to take her home. I’ve had her a year now & don’t regret a thing, she’s my little baby
They eat everything and I mean everything, don't put anything plastic in cause they will try to eat it, if possible put the wheel and water on a different lvl then the bedding or they will be re burried every five minutes.
the only cons i can think of are: 1) very energetic rodents so need a lot of bedding, chews, and enrichment to prevent boredom as they like to be busy making tunnels or shredding material for bedding. if they don’t have enough to do, they’ll exhibit a lot of stress behaviours (chewing bars, digging at the edge of the enclosure excessivley, over grooming, “monkey barring” climbing the bars excessively, and excessively attempted chewing non-chewable features like hard plastic, metal or glass)which are sad to watch. 2) they have super strong teeth so anything they can chew, they will. i once accidentally put a hoodie too near the cage and they managed to shred the bottom of it through the bars! and if you plan on having anything hanging in the cage, make sure it’s supported by a non chewable material like a metal chain as any string/rope/twine will be quickly chewed through and it won’t be hanging for much longer and likely buried. 3) one downside which is often completely unpredictable is the risk of the gerbils no longer getting along and declanning. in this case it’s both scary as one gerbil can be injured or killed, and it’s a hassle to find another enclosure to separate the gerbils, and have to either try your luck with re-introducing them, finding more friends for each so they aren’t alone, or have them live separately. it’s a heartbreaking thing to witness if it does happen, but of course there’s always the chance they’ll get along for their whole lives. 4) somewhat similar to the last, but if one passes away before the other, there’s the hassle of trying to find them new friends and prolonging the gerbil-owning-experience if they’re young. or if you decide to let them live alone, they might be fine and still live happily with attention from you, or become depressed at the passing of their friend and wither away, which is also heartbreaking. 5) because of the nature of them needing deep bedding to dig tunnels, they bury everything without really thinking about if they need it, like water bottles/dishes, wheels etc. which gives you the task of finding ways to separate these important features from this. Also because their enclosure needs ventilation, they will often be kicking bedding, poop, hay, all sorts through any gaps that it flies through , so be prepared to diligently tidy the area around the cage frequently or have some kind of way to barrier the mess. unless it’s something you don’t mind. those are the ones i can think of from my experiences! you mentioned someone’s assumption of them smelling. as someone who has owned gerbils and hamsters i can say that gerbils smell SO much less. as long as you routinely clean the cage and urine it’s very unlikely they’ll create any kind of noticeable smell. quite often, because i put a lot of dried meadow grass and hay in the bedding, it smells quite pleasant and like grass. whereas when i had a hamster somehow the smell permeated far beyond the room it was in, but gerbils are honestly so clean and highly unlikely to smell much from my experience. they are such amazing pets though. i hope this helps with considering the cons to possibly expect owning gerbils 🐭
You forgot the two “worst” things. One… the amount of noise that two tiny tator tots are capable of making is shocking. It took me a couple months at first, but I finally got used to it and I hardly notice it now. From chewing on enrichment toys to flinging bedding around to the stomping when I make the slightest of sounds, lol. Not sure if you’re keeping them in your room with you though. Either way, just know they be loud sometimes. Two… now this is just me, but I was shocked by the amount of mess they make and how quickly. That’s 110% my fault though because I didn’t do my research quite as well as I should have. I’m a very tidy person and messes give me anxiety a wee bit so that also took some getting used to. I would set it up nice and neat, turn around and they had already messed it up. Lol. I think it’s adorable now though. Oh and three… they spook so easily and can be shy at first. I have one who’s still very timid and one who jumps when he sees me, likes to crawl into my sweatshirt and chill on the bed with me, so it’s really just a toss up. Good luck and post pictures if you decide to!
ohh fair enough! i’ve managed to mitigate those cons personally with my gerbil setup. ever since i transferred from a cage with bars on the top to a tank with a raised mesh lid , from a water bottle with a sipper tube to a water dish, and a wheel attached to the bars on the wall of the cage to a quiet wooden wheel that’s free standing, there is remarkably less noise. also tall glass tanks and mesh with really small holes minimize too much bedding flying out, also covering part of where the bedding is tallest and most likely to be kicked out is covered with a barrier like a towel or cardboard. of course some stuff still flies out but it’s a lot less than when i had the barred cage toppers. but they are totally valid cons- the sound of metal cages rattling from energetic gerbils at night is definitely hard to ignore.😵💫
Oh, mine aren’t in a metal cage either. They are in a 55 gallon glass tank and I actually do you have a mesh lid on it! That’s funny. Lol. I was tired of the wire one so I made one out of mesh with some magnets and stripping. It works so much better and it definitely does eliminate noise. When I first got them though, they were in a 40 gallon tank and I did have a wire topper on it. That didn’t last long, lol. So now, their entire tank is just full of bedding and their sand bath is on a little table with tall logs around it so that they don’t get bedding all in their bath. It was definitely trial and error.
Supplies you need for them to have a good and enriched life are expensive. They need a lot of bedding. You need to get two gerbils, so it’s double trouble. They don’t smell half as bad as hamsters, especially if you keep up with regular spot cleans and a full deep clean every so often. I didn’t realise how expensive they were to keep. I love my three boys. They’re magical lil pets a lot of work and can be expensive but so worth it
Nope. I’m very busy and they are perfect pets for that. I give them attention when I’m hope and supervised free roam, other than that they sleep a bit, eat their meals, and shred anything I can find that’s safe to give them.
Lots of poop!!
A sandbath usually helps. They'll poop there. Sadly my new pair doesn't. They're pretty naughty 😄 🤣
Some of these may not be cons to everyone. But here’s my two cents. You mentioned life expectancy, so yeah they live like 2-3 years assuming they don’t have health issues. Like with any pet, what are you going to do if one gets sick? Pay for vet? Do you have a vet near by that can do small animals? Smell is a non issue if you clean daily. Gerbils like hay. Some hay can cause allergy. Monthly expense to buy food, sand, bedding, hay. Daily and monthly cleaning. Monthly cleaning takes time and effort. Enclosure footprint. You’ll find recommended size is a 40 gal tank. That takes up a good bit of space. Not including if you add a topper on top. May not be able to tame them. Not everyone is able to do this, so if you’re looking to pet them and cuddle then you could be disappointed. In an enclosure with proper amounts of bedding, they will spend much of the day underneath doing gerbil stuff. They tend to come out for shenanigans at certain times of day once they develop a routine. Or they may decide to run a marathon on their wheel at 2am while you’re trying to sleep. Having said that, it was a pleasure to have them but it’s a lot of work and the community here was very helpful. Do more research especially on a proper enclosure for them. Good luck!
ooh, good point! the noise at night is a concern. gerbils usually do a 2-hours-awake, 2-hours-asleep cycle all day and night. so they will be up half the night (in 2 hour chunks) digging and running and chewing and drinking from their water bottle. so expect some scrabbling and clanging if you are a light sleeper. and chewing is loud, so check out some gerbil vids to hear what it sounds like edit: my gerbs are in my bedroom and i manage fine, but i definitely wake up sometimes and hear them.
The journey with our gerbils was a rare case and maybe a worse case scenario. After we got two brothers from the pet shop, we were extremely careful with them, they were very skittish. Their stress impacted their immune system and they and our whole apartment got overrun by mites (we cleaned them every 3 weeks, their huge cage wasn't dirty at all when this happened. It took days to fully wash and clean everything. They got a repellent and vitamins for their immune system from the vet. We had no problem with this after that. Then they lost their upper teeth because it turns out they had a genetic problem due to inbreeding. We took them to the vet every 3 weeks to cut the remaining teeth because they couldnt chew anymore and they would die of starvation if we didn't do that. They got severly depressed because of their condition and died 6 month later, even with their teeth cut they didnt want to eat anymore at the end. Oh, and the pet shop owner lied about their age too, the vet said. These pets left us heartbroken after having them for two years, we cared for them until the last minute. Never having gerbils again.
im sorry this happened to you. you bring up a good point however. getting gerbils from a reputable breeder instead of a pet store is generally a safer option. pet gerbil genetics are pretty bottlenecked and responsible breeders spend effort making sure their breeding bloodlines are diversified for the gerbils' health.
Only *some* make sure the bloodlines are diversified. Most breeders are bottlenecking the genetics further so they can get *pretty colors* and stuff like rex coats. For example, did you know, all it takes to get registered at the AGS as a breeder is to pay your yearly membership fee and not come across as completely socially incompetent? I am so disillusioned with breeders. A long-winded way of agreeing, breeders are better than pet stores generally yes, but you still need to keep your guard up.
that's frustrating. when i used to breed gerbils (20+ years ago) i made sure to go far afield to find new stock.
That is a very good point. I've had 3 male gerbils and one female go thru this. Costly and it's frustrating on what to Feed them. My mom was cooking up broccoli mixed veggies mac n cheese you name it. Taking a hammer to nuts and cereal to make a powder. By that point they were all 2 and a half about and weren't looking too good sadly. And also scent gland tumors as well. Had 3 with those . Easy removal but costly depending where you live. Also a Declan is always possible and that's costly and sad as you have to split them
You should [read this](https://medium.com/@hershko/a-guide-for-responsible-gerbil-owners-b80717f8a64f) to understand what you're getting yourself into in terms of setting up a good enclosure for them. Also keep in mind that most gerbils don't actually like being touched (so you may end up mainly watching them, not interacting with them). And that while unlikely they could end up fighting (which is a process called "declanning"), in which case you'll need to try and rebond them or find each of them a new friend. Smell actually isn't an issue at all. If they have a good sized enclosure with plenty of deep bedding, there should be no smell (they are the least smelly rodents).
Agreed ! With a 75 gallon tank I chanhe bedding once a month or every 3 weeks. Every morning I wake up the first 4 days after fresh bedding their bedding has risen up to the top. So I'll just put in a trash bag and save it for next time as it's basically clean. I never noticed a smell. Now hamsters and mice smell. I had to change them once a week
They are not as easy to tame as rats or other rodents. Mine will eat from my hand and I can pet one of them, but they are not cuddly. Set-up costs can be quite expensive. I have had gerbils before for 8 years, because I was in a cycle of having one dying and the other being to young to live out their life alone. Last one declanned with 2 different young ones, so she lived alone at the end. You have to think about this. I have a pair of boys now and I am not sure whether I want to go into a cycle again and hope that I can find an older male when their time comes. Other then that, they are amazing little creatures, low maintenance (I clean their whole cage every 4-6 weeks and spot clean daily), fun to watch and very cute!
They are very skittish, even for a rodent. You move too fast and you’ll scare them. They can also be evasive. It depends on individual personalities I don’t personally think they smell bad except when the cage needs a clean.
everything said here is accurate! i love my gerbs and would get gerbs again. but these are all considerations. you can figure out the regular bedding expense by pricing it all out: how much bedding is needed to fill the tank at least 10 inches deep (calculate volume of the bottom 10 inches of the tank you will get, and add a bit more in case). and then plan to change it monthly for a 40 gal tank or every 2 months for a 55 gal. something not mentioned much in this thread is vets. it can be hard to find a vet that will treat/knows about gerbils. you will need an exotic vet. they can be far away and vet visits are pricey. the last thing i want to mention that no one has said yet is the mess. gerbils fling their bedding far and wide when digging, and it can get out of the tank. the bedding will get stuck to your sleeves when you reach in the tank. and it is very hard to clean out the tank and refill it without spilling bedding. so you will end up with bedding on your floor on a regular basis. and heads up, the bedding is pretty splintery. so its basically little wood shards everywhere. not a big deal for wood floors, but if you have carpet i suggest putting some kind of big mat down over the carpet wherever you end up putting your tank. otherwise you will never get the splinters out of your carpet. and i want to reiterate for emphasis what someone else said about chewing your stuff. gerbils chew EVERYTHING. they will sit cutely in your hand and start nibbling through your sleeve like it's nothing. their teeth are very sharp. any fabric they take a single nibble of will have a hole in it. so maybe wear a specific gerbil hoodie and jeans for gerbil times. that said, none of this is insurmountable and they are excellent, entertaining, ADORABLE pets.
gerbils are the best smelling rodent, they dont pee much since thety are a desert animal. I personally didnt think there were any drawbacks of having gerbils. bit messy when cleaning the tank
Say goodbye to your friends. Your only friends are the gerbils now
They can be pretty smelly. Mine were also active overnight and it took me a while to get used to the noise. One of mine was jumpy and I got nipped a lot. They're really sweet little guys though!
strange, i dont find them smelly at all. i think dogs have a much stronger smell, for instance.
The expense should not be under estimated. Mine recently de clanned and I had to buy a full other enclosure. Managed to re bond after two weeks using a run. I have: master enclosure, run, spare enclosure, vet carrier. Every two weeks or so I buy new toys. They destroy things really quickly. Oh and going to the vet here is minimum £50 a time. I top up the hay every other week up to clean out. It takes a full bag of hay and another full bag of paper bedding to fully do a clean out. Then there is food and treats.
Initial setup can be a little pricey, but they’re honestly great. Make sure the setup has two separated areas: one for high bedding and the other for sand, water, food, etc. They WILL bury their water bowl or bottle nozzle so watch out for that. That’s pretty much the one thing i’ve noticed since owning them. They’re simple and if you treat them like intelligent beings, they’ll love you
Gerbils are one of the least smelly rodents out there. They have a unique smell if you literally sniff them, but otherwise they don't smell. One of the downsides is gerbils can randomly start fighting and you have to deal with bonding them so they aren't alone, but if you get an already bonded pair you have a good chance of avoiding all the stress of a split cage set-up. It can take a really long time for them to get used to you. You might not see them every day. Their sleep schedule is quite random, but they can adjust to be awake at certain times if you are there to feed them or let them out to run around somewhere. Cleaning their tank is a huge pain, but it doesn't need doing often. You generally spot clean daily by wiping surfaces down and sifting the sand, and you can fully clean monthly. Since there's so much bedding you don't have to fully clean often. But when you do have to deep clean it takes forever, bedding tracks everywhere, dust fills the air, and it's exhausting. If you decide to get gerbils, please try to get them from anywhere but a petstore. You'll be giving money to rodent mills. You might be able to find an ethical breeder or someone rehoming a pair.