What will i need for a happy gerbil?

Im gonna be getting a gerbil soon and wanted to make sure I have all the stuff ready for it. So far i have cage with attached tunnel %26amp; wheel (covered wheel), water bottle and food bowl. What else will i need? Also are they good pets and shall i get 1 or 2? Thankyou.x|||Hi!


To make a gerbil have a happy life you should get two. Get two from the same litter if possible but if not you should get two close to the same age and use the split cage method to introduce them. That method is described here- http://agsgerbils.org/Learn/Gerbil_Care_鈥?/a> Gerbils at 5-8 weeks of age are easier to introduce. If they fight split them up immediately.





Gerbils like to play. Empty toilet paper rolls are great to put in their cage and are a lot cheaper than the plastic ones. Once they are chewed up remove them immediately. I would also recommend getting a ball or play pen for them to stay in when playing out of their cage, especially if you have dogs or cats.





Gerbils chew. A lot. Get them chew sticks and lots of them!





Gerbils love to dig. Tanks are the best cage for them so it was a fantastic idea to get one. It should be at least 10 gallons. Put 2 inches, or more, of aspen or carefresh bedding in for them to burrow in. You can also put shredded paper in just make sure there are no chemicals in it. That includes ink so no newspaper!!





Get a hideaway. A small house that he could use as a bed or whatever he/she wants. They have edible ones at Walmart that they can chew on which is great but it just means you have to replace it when its all chewed up!





That's all I can think of for now! I hope you have a great time with your happy gerbils! If I think of anything else I'll be sure to post again! If you have any other questions feel free to email me!





Best of luck!


-Sady|||Get 2|||Hi!





You should get two, one gerbil can get very lonely, stressed and that can cause them to become ill.





Buy some chinchilla dust for him too and fill a bowl with it, you will find that they will love to roll in it!!! Buy some wooden things for them to chew too, because they simply love to chew anything they can get their teeth into!!





Edit:


You might also want to buy a gerbilarium for them. It is basically an aquarium with a cage attached to the top, so they have plenty of room to run around and you can also put a large amount of woodshavings in for them to burrow in.|||Lol cage is a wrong move.....gerbils like to burrow! There will be sawdust everywhere. We have gerbils and we keep them in a big deep plastic box with a grid on top. Gerbils also love lots and lots and lots of cardboard...(toilet roll tubes work best) they will have them shredded in minutes. That's all they need to keep happy!





Also dont buy one, get two, they are very family orientated and like to have a friend to cuddle up with ( honestly they do and its so cute).|||if its a glass cage great but anything =else not so great because a gerbil will chew through plastic so i would get a glass cage with carefresh bedding a good food bowl a water dipenser and some things to chew on and most importantly get 2 not 1 because they are very sociable and i went to a pet shop about a month ago and there was a gerbil on its own and it looked like it got high because it was crazily stupid but cute.