Gerbil — care sheet

Beginner–Intermediate. Busy, curious and fascinating to watch — but marketed as “beginner-easy” when the social side is actually delicate. Gerbils must live in company yet a bonded pair or clan can suddenly turn on each other (“declanning”), and they need a deep-bedded tank to burrow, not a typical barred cage. Get the housing and the grouping right and they’re rewarding and low-odour.

A good-quality food made specifically for gerbils — a compound pellet or a proper seed mix — as the base. You can supplement with small amounts of fruit (pear, melon, apple, orange) and vegetables (cucumber, carrot, pumpkin, fennel) as part of the ration. Avoid feeding too many fatty seeds like sunflower (they cause obesity), and never give grapes or rhubarb, which are poisonous to rodents. Provide fresh water at all times.

A “gerbilarium” rather than a standard cage: large, with solid glass or plastic walls, a secure wire-mesh top, and a solid floor — deep enough to hold a thick bed of substrate. Barred cages aren’t recommended, because gerbils can injure their legs on the bars and gnaw them (damaging their teeth). Aim for around 50 cm of height with 20–30 cm of bedding, so they can dig proper burrows and still stand fully upright above ground. Include a stone or rough surface to help wear their claws down.

Gerbils are clan animals (wild groups run from two to fifteen) and must never be kept alone. Keep them in same-sex pairs or groups formed early in life and kept stable — don’t add an adult stranger later (established clans rarely accept newcomers, except juveniles under about five weeks, introduced gradually through a split cage). Watch closely for sudden fighting between clan-mates (“declanning”); if it happens, they may need to be permanently separated. Never pick a gerbil up by its tail — the skin can slip off, exposing the bone.

An ideal range is about 20–24°C. Keep them out of direct sun and away from damp and draughts; they’re desert animals but still need a stable, comfortable room temperature.

A deep layer (20–30 cm) of a mix of rough-grained woodchips and hay, so they can dig and build stable burrows and gnaw at the same time. Give plenty of shreddable material too (ink-free cardboard, plain paper, toilet-roll tubes). Spot-clean every few days and deep-clean only every two to three weeks, since over-cleaning destroys their scent and burrows.

Gerbils are highly motivated to dig, gnaw and explore: deep substrate for tunnelling, plenty of cardboard and gnaw sticks to shred, and wooden tunnels, bridges and toys to climb on and chew. A large-diameter, solid, axle-free exercise wheel is good — never an open-rung wire wheel, which can trap and break a leg or tail.

Gerbils keep themselves clean and are nearly odourless. Their claws wear down naturally through digging and walking on rough surfaces (a stone helps), and their teeth wear down through gnawing, so keep gnaw materials available. Check for overgrown teeth and, in older gerbils, lumps on the belly scent gland — and never handle by the tail.

None needed on a good-quality gerbil diet.

Small — adults weigh about 50–90 g, with a body around 10 cm plus a fur-covered tail adding roughly another 8 cm. Males are slightly larger than females.

Typically 2–3 years.

See a small-animal or exotics vet if you notice: A seizure or a frozen, trance-like episode — gerbils are prone to epilepsy; usually brief, but tell your vet; A red, crusty or sore nose or eyes (nasal dermatitis, often stress-related); Diarrhoea with a hunched posture, dull ruffled coat and low appetite — a sick gerbil needs a vet promptly; Any lump, especially on the belly scent gland in an older gerbil; Sudden fighting, wounds, or one gerbil driving another away (declanning); A degloved or injured tail after rough handling or a trapped limb.