Does anyone kno anything about Small pets?

[trials_uni]

I looked all over the internet but couldnt find any forums that were used enough to get a good answer to my question. My question is about small animals like rodents(more specifically gerbils) so if anyone knos anything about them or is a vet or something could you reply here and ill ask my question then.

Thanks alot
-Phil

[yoopers]

We learned something about what not to do with small pets this past weekend. Brad caught a little soft-shelled turtle and a small frog out of the pond at the campground, brought them home and added them to his tank with his painted turtle. By the following day, the new-comer turtle ate both the frog and Brad's plecostomus. So back to the pond went the hungry little varmit. We'll have to get a couple more plecostomus this evening.

[trials_uni]

Yeah...Something like that happend to a friend of mine...He caught a little shark down in the Carribean (2inches or so) and brought it home with him. He put it in with his guppies which were the same size. The shark ate all the guppies and now a year later is nearing 21inches long!!

[Jerrick]

Put it in a bigger tank, give it bigger food, watch that sucker grow!!!

Gerbil wise though, they are happy little critters, make sure you give them plenty of food and water, and exercise wheel, keep the cage clean, have plenty of tubes in it for them to run around in, you can even expand the tubes to wrap around the cage or go around the house and get all crazy like that. Also, get one of those balls they can go into so they can safely run around the house.

They are fun to have, and are soft, and dont bite much, so holding them isnt a problem, they dont have one of the longest life expectancies though, besides that, they are great little pets.

[Wheel Rider]

Originally Posted by Jerrick

... make sure you give them plenty of food and water, and exercise wheel, keep the cage clean,...

...but not too much food. Keep the cage clean. When I was a kid, one of my friends had a hamster. He (the friend not the hampster) did not keep the cage clean. Besides being really smelly in his bedroom, I felt sorry for the little critter.

Originally Posted by yoopers

...brought them home and added them to his tank..

I learned a lesson when I was kid about bringing wild animals home. The animal usually suffers often with its life. Please don't take wild animals home. Take a good close look at them in the wild then let them go.

[trials_uni]

Originally Posted by Jerrick

Put it in a bigger tank, give it bigger food, watch that sucker grow!!!

Gerbil wise though, they are happy little critters, make sure you give them plenty of food and water, and exercise wheel, keep the cage clean, have plenty of tubes in it for them to run around in, you can even expand the tubes to wrap around the cage or go around the house and get all crazy like that. Also, get one of those balls they can go into so they can safely run around the house.

They are fun to have, and are soft, and dont bite much, so holding them isnt a problem, they dont have one of the longest life expectancies though, besides that, they are great little pets.

I kno all that. I did lots of research before i got them. My problem is that they(all 3) are afraid of their water bottle... I kno how stupid that must sound but its true. They wont go near it. I cant use a bowl because thats highly unsanitary.

So should i just try a new bottle and hope for the best or what?

-Phil

[skianduniaddict]

get a metal cage my old hamster chewed through his plastic on and escape and we never found im so my parents got me bob

[johnfoss]

Ahh, in post #6 you finally got to the question. Why not ask it in the subject line?

Originally Posted by trials_uni

My problem is that they(all 3) are afraid of their water bottle... I kno how stupid that must sound but its true. They wont go near it.

So should i just try a new bottle and hope for the best or what?

That would be easier to answer if you gave us at least a slight description of this terrifying bottle of yours. Back in my day it was a plastic bottle with a metal tube coming out the bottom and a ball bearing at the end to hold the water when no one was drinking. I think if they're thirsty they'll figure it out.

But gerbils don't like being *in* water, something I learned as a kid. Put a gerbil in a boat in the bathtub, and he's fine... until he decides to step out. Then you get to see what it looks like for a gerbil to try to run on top of a few inches of water. If they would only hold still you could pick them up to take them out!

So they may be afraid of water spilling on them or something.

Other stuff: you may already know this, but gerbils need a burrow of some kind to feel comfortable in, and they always need stuff to gnaw on to keep their teeth under control. Gerbils will gnaw through plastic. This includes the plastic of a Habitrail or other, similar connected-tube habitat system. Our gerbils would have chewed their way out of one of those within a few days so don't house them in plastic! Those things are for (lame-o, roly-poly) hamsters. Gerbils are smarter, better-looking and much cooler.

[yoopers]

Originally Posted by johnfoss

...until he decides to step out. Then you get to see what it looks like for a gerbil to try to run on top of a few inches of water. If they would only hold still you could pick them up to take them out!

It's probably also difficult to pick them up when one is probably laughing so hard.

Reminds me of our kitten that used to jump up on the toilet seat to watch us brush our teeth. Once when the lid was left up, the poor kitten went up and in. Mary could hardly get ahold of him because she was laughing so hard at him scrambling to get out and almost choked on her toothpaste.

[trials_uni]

Your right John..ill do a subject line question next time.

The water bottle you described is pretty much what ive got. The thing is, is that i have them in a 80-100gallon aqarium so its kinda hard to get the bottle secured properly without giving them a way to climb out. So ive tried Velcro straps, and tape. In both cases theyve managed to knock it down, thus scaring the terds out of em. I think that they are more afraid of it falling on them now than they are of the bottle itself.

I agree completely...I had a PVC pipe construction playhouse for them and they dessamated it in a few days,. And gerbils are much cooler that lamo rolly-polly hamsters

They have tons of bedding, Its a mix between the crunched up corn cob stuff and shavings, i also give them socks and other bits of fabric(All new and clean of course) which they tear up and make their own little burrow with.

-Phil

[johnhimsworth]

We had some gerbils, kept in an aquarium. The water bottle hung from the lid (which was a wooden frame with wire mesh over the top), rather than being fixed to the side. Seemed to work.

[kington99]

We used to keep them in an aquarium, that way you can fill the bottom few inches with soil so they can burrow underground and nest down there. Needless to say it wasn't filled with water.

[trials_uni]

Update:

They have started a bit to use the bottle but only if i hold it up for them...They wont touch it if its in the holder. I guess this is a step in the right direction.

[johnfoss]

Originally Posted by trials_uni

...its kinda hard to get the bottle secured properly without giving them a way to climb out.

Uh, you have a top on the aquarium, right? Gerbils are smart, and they're good climbers (so are rats, but that's another story). We used to make wire-mesh lids for the aquarium, with a couple of inches of overlap down the sides. When they felt like it, the Gerbils would walk around on the ceiling.

Leave that top open and it's only a matter of time before they start escaping...

[trials_uni]

The top is covered but they have already climbed the chain i had the bottle suspended from and chewed through once...