Advice of the Gerbil kind!

chmmy

This forum has some good ideas

http://gerbilforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=housing&action=display&thread=1111

Im looking for a suitable tank/cage so would love to see pics of how you get on, pp! Would the top of the hamster cage (without the plastic base) fit on your tank somehow?

remembered-nights is yours the plastic tank with cage topper gerbilarium (savic?).Is it worth it? It is quite expensive at around £50 for the small or £70 for the large.

picklepick

ooh chmmy that sites brilliant thanks very much,

my problem is that the hamster cage is bigger than the tank othersie i would just try and stick the cage part on the top iyswim. i guess i could cut a massive hole in the middle of the plastic base so it can sit on top?

Dreamy

You could probably use a heated knife to cut the plastic base but it may be hard to keep it at the right hight, I would think that your best idea would be cutting several holes one in each corner would probably help keep it stable and pushing the tubes through there you could also put one through on an angle in the center.
One thing I would be worried about is chewing our gerbils had a plastic tube in there gerbilerium and ate it in less then a night !

picklepick

yes i did think that but i had them before and u can get the metal rings that go over the ends to stopo them gnawing.

thats a good idea about the tubes, me and the other half have been thinking about how we were gonna keep it from just falling through or falling off the top! ha so a tube at an angle might help that. thanks dreamy. hes an engineer so its up to him to dream up ways of making it work i think!

heather_tiffany

I fear I may be a little late with this reply, but I literally just put together my gerbilarium today! I managed to buy a HUGE fish tank (3' x 2' x 1.5') for only £20 from ebay. I previously had copious amounts of rotastak and so (with a lot of help from my bf) we have a hinged lid on the fish tank, half with a mesh covering for ventilation and half with hard board to put stuff on. we have stack of rotastak next to the tank with a curly tube leading into the tank, through a small hole cut into the hard board.

I have filled the tank with alternating layers of organic compost, hay, and shredded news paper.

I have three gerbils living in there and we managed to build it all for £35 (minus the rotastak) and it is very HUGE!

picklepick

ooh no its not too late we havent built it yet. any chance i could see some photos of that?
sounds fantastic. thansks for replying

heather_tiffany

unfortunately, as a new user, I can't post pictures directly into my reply however, if you want to give me your email (in a pm or however you'd prefer) I could email some pictures to you, if you'd still like to see them

jimbugalee

My boyfriend and I recently bought 2 gerbils (for Valentines day aaaawwwwww! lol) and he made our tank as below. The tank was from freecycle, and we already had the hamster cage top bit.

Me being fussy I would like to be neater but the gerbils love it!! The lid is pretty tight on top so would def be cat proof. Only problem is they have knawed the plastic ladder to the top so have to do a leap of death each time they want some food! Have ordered a metal one today.

Only other problem is I have to hoover every day because they make such a mess .... grrrrrr! I am sure they do it on purpose!



ps here's the little guys (actually guys) who we imaginatively named 'Black Gerbil' and 'Grey Gerbil'

roxalana

That looks great Jim. How often do you have to change the sawdust?

jimbugalee

Erm ... I must confess that I haven't changed it yet!!! That is erm almost 2 months.

I think they mostly urinate on that green shelf at the top which I wipe down with pet spray stuff. The tank doesn't smell and plenty of air so to me it seems ok. I read you should do it once every 3 months?

I constantly put in new toilet rolls, kitchen paper etc and would you believe we emptied half that sawdust out and it still looks full!

Gemma