BUYING YOUR GERBILS!

Gerbils make ideal pets for young and old alike. However, before buying a pet gerbil there are many things that need to be considered very carefully as owning a gerbil requires a commitment in terms of time and finances.

Here are all the Categories we have here:

1. Considerations Prior To Buying Your Gerbils - 

Advice On Things To Consider Before Buying A Gerbil

2. Places To Buy Your Gerbils -

Information on the different places to buy a gerbil.

3. Buying Your Gerbils From A Breeder

Information given about breeders and shops

4. Buying Your Gerbils From A Rescue Home

About Rescue homes! blah blah what else!

5. Buying Your Gerbils From A Pet Shop

Dangers About Pet shops.. 

6. Selecting Your Gerbils -

Advice on selecting a healthy gerbil.

7. Preparing For Your Gerbils  -

Advice about preparing for the arrival of a gerbil.

8. Preparing Your Gerbils Home - 

What Stuff you need and that in it! lol

9. Bringing Your Gerbils Home

Advice on bringing a gerbil home and having it settling in.

Got most pictures, need one for selecting your gerbils!

Anyone got a nice picture and would care to send it by email to me! would be awesome!

1. Considerations Prior To Buying Your Gerbils

Taking on any pet requires a commitment to provide proper care for it during its life and in the case of gerbils this can be for 3-5 years or longer. 

**Gerbils like to live in PAIRS. 

So its best of getting 2 or more and not one.**

A gerbil will need attention and daily care and feeding. In addition a gerbil may require veterinary treatment if the gerbil becomes ill which can be costly.

A child cannot be expected to provide all the care and finances required to keep a pet gerbil, particularly if the gerbil requires veterinary treatment, 

so it is important if buying a gerbil for a child that an adult member of the family is prepared to share the commitment of owning a gerbil.

2. Places To Buy Your Gerbils From

Gerbil breeders may be located through gerbil clubs or advertisements for gerbils for sale.

Better to Buy from Breeders,

Read This Article:

(I highly recommend you to read this)

"Taming Mongolian gerbils is usually a smooth process, providing they were from a rescue or ethical breeder. Pet shop gerbils may be harder to tame due to their past mistreatment. Pet shops tend to buy stock from mass importers – conditions during shipping can be very bad with overcrowding and lack of adequate food and water. Often gerbils die in transport. By the time they arrive at the pet shop they are severely traumatised.

The best thing you can do is to avoid buying from a pet shop until you know for absolute certain the supplier is ethical.

Independent breeders tend to breed because they love gerbils – every gerbil is their baby!

Wherever you get your gerbil from though always give a new pet a few days to get used to a new environment before attempting to handle them."

3. Buying Your Gerbils from a Breeder

The advantages of buying directly from a breeder is that breeding has usually been carefully planned and thought through with regard to producing robust, healthy gerbils of good temperament. Many breeders will also offer some form of guarantee contracting to take the gerbil back if not suitable. Unfortunately the same cannot always be said for gerbils sold in pet shops where the history of the gerbils for sale is often unknown.

Some breeders of gerbils also show their gerbils and so breed towards producing a good healthy show gerbil with a view to keeping one or two themselves so quality and temperament is of vital importance when planning their breeding.

Although breeders of show gerbils have usually carefully planned the breeding of their gerbils, there are also owners who have bred their pet gerbils. These may be the result of a planned or unplanned pregnancy but the gerbils have usually been well cared for and handled.

Buying a gerbil direct from the breeder means that there is the opportunity to see the parents and know the date of birth of the gerbil(s) that it is intended to purchase.

Unfortunately not all private breeders are reputable - there are breeders who, whilst not "commercial" take on gerbil breeding as a financial hobby and as such their main aim is quantity rather than quality.

4. Buying Your Gerbils from a Rescue Home

Another option when seeking a gerbil as a pet is to obtain a gerbil from a rescue home. Many gerbils, both young and old, unfortunately become abandoned or homeless through no fault of their own every year.

Rescue homes usually assess the gerbil's behaviour and health on arrival and ensure it receives any necessary veterinary treatment before offering for rehoming.

The background, exact age or breeding details of gerbisl in Rescue homesare often not know. However, unless the intention is to show or breed then rescue gerbils should be considered.

Poor Gerbil waiting for someone to buy him :(

Depending on the rescue organisation they may require the completion of a series of forms, interviews or even a home visit to assess suitabilty as a potential gerbil owner. Their primary concern is to ensure the correct placement of the gerbils in their care with a suitable new owner.

5. Buying Your Gerbil from a Pet Shop

Some pet shops offer gerbils for sale. These gerbils are unlikely to have come from a reputable show breeder and are most likely to have come from a pet owner with an unplanned pregnancy or from commercial gerbil breed facility. 

There is some risk as to whether these gerbils will be of good temperament or health as the parents cannot be seen and often little or no information can be given 

about their background or breeding.

6. Selecting Your Gerbils

When selecting a gerbil, first of all look at all the gerbils in the cage and the conditions they are kept in. They should be in good healthy condition and not be kept in overcrowded cages. The cages themselves should be clean and the gerbils should have access to food and water.

The gerbils should ideally be 5-6 weeks of age - gerbils should not be sold younger than this.

Once you have found a good pet shop or breeder inspect the gerbils carefully. If one gerbil appears sick the others may also be at risk of being ill so it is best to look in another cage or another shop.

Check that the gerbil is bright eyed and alert when it is awake. It should be inquisitive and not too nervous. Beware of any gerbil that has runny or sticky eyes, runny nose, sneezing, wet or dirty bottom, matted fur, seems lethargic or does not have a firm body. All of these things can indicate a sick gerbil.

Once you have seen a healthy gerbil that you like, ask if you can handle it so that you can see how tame it is. If a shop does not allow you to handle the gerbil you have no opportunity to assess how suitable it is as a pet and cannot check its health properly before buying so is best avoided.

7. Preparing For Your Gerbils

It is best first to go and buy the cage and equipment a day or two before you actually go out to buy your gerbil(s). This means you can make sure you have everything that you need before buying your gerbil and it allows you plenty of time to prepare the cage so that it is all ready for the arrival of your gerbil(s).

When you do go out and buy your gerbil you can then take the gerbil out of the travelling container immediately and place it in the cage, keeping the time kept in the travelling container and stress involved to a minimum.

8. Bringing Your Gerbils Home

The pet shop or breeder will normally give you a container to take your gerbil home in. This is usually a cardboard box with airholes but gerbils have a habit of chewing their way out of these and so they are not ideal 

- particularly if you have a long journey home.

Therefore it is best to go prepared and take a more suitable container with you. This can either be a small plastic carrying box designed for the transportation of small animals sold in pet shops or any suitable sized plastic tub (such as an ice cream tub) punched with holes.

Place a handful of woodshavings or some torn up tissue paper in the container so that the gerbil will be comfortable and a handful of food.

If you already have a cage and it is easy enough to transport then you can take this with you to go and collect your gerbil. 

However, do not fix a water bottle to the cage as the motion of the car, walking, etc will cause the bottle to drip and soak the cage. If you have a long journey provide the gerbil instead with a piece of cucumber from which it will gain some moisture during the journey.

Once you arrive home, place the gerbil immediately in the prepared cageand leave it to settle. It will take the gerbil a couple of days to get used to all the new smells and sounds of its new home and will find this time a little stressful. Therefore although you may be tempted to get your gerbil out and play with it, try to resist for the first couple of days so that it can first of all get used to its new surroundings and feel comfortable. This will help to keep its stress to a minimum.

After a couple of days the gerbil will become used to its new home and will generally seem more settled. This is the time when you can start to introduce your gerbil to handling.

Lovely Gerbils, making information about gerbils more and more easy accessible.

If Anyone Has Good Tips or Photos I Could Use For The Topics Above Please Send Them!

It Would Be Awesome!

Email em: lovegerbils@yahoo.com

Really Need Them!!!