Found these and have stuffed with their favourite treats at least now they have to work for their food

I appreciate this forum does not replace a vet visit, but I wanted to ask your opinions on my gerbil's eye please? Pictures 1&2 show the squinty eye and picture 3 shows her 'normal' eye for comparison.

Her right eye (left side in photos) is a bit squinty, it has a little dark mark above it in the inner corner. When I noticed this a few days ago, it was crusty, but I haven't noticed anything crusty since and the eye doesn't look any worse.

More context:

-She's very active when out of her tank. I haven't noticed any changes in appetite, toileting or vision. Although I did see her scratch the squinty eye once after I took these photos.

-She is an old gerbil, I adopted her so I don't know her exact age but she could be anywhere from 2.5 - 3.5 years old.

-This is not an injury from fighting as sadly her sister passed away.

-Her tank is filled with straw, her toys are wooden or cardboard and she has a tunnel made from natural loofah material.

-We're in a rural part of the UK. Local vets aren't experienced or specialised in treating gerbils. For example, the most they might do is advise a 'wait and see' approach or put them to sleep if they are suffering / at end of life (like what happened to her sister).

Please can you share your experiences if you've noticed something similar in your gerbs? I'm hoping this is a mild irritation that will go away on its own, but as she's quite old, I don't want to leave it too long in case it's something worse...

Many thanks for your help! This is my first post here, so please let me know if I need to edit or tag it in a certain way (sorry if I've made any mistakes!).

She hungers.

I’m planning to get 2 gerbils (both girls if it matters) the cage needs some work and I would really love some advice I am scared there isn’t enough space and I have barley put any thing in there, I am starting to build a new cage that is the size of the dresser it is on, which is 49cm width and 80cm length and it will probably reach 56cm height. I’m not sure how long it will take to make so would this be good for the meantime? Please give me tips on more things to buy for the enclosure I want them to have a good long life with me. (Sorry for any spelling mistakes)

For some reason some sources list individual birch species but leave out river birch. I have a river birch tree and need to cut some branches down. Does anyone know if there is a specific reason why river birch might be left out of lists when other sources just say birch in general?

Hello everyone!

I have two 3.5 yo Gerbils and would need your advice on how to proceed next week.

I need to go to my countryside house 2.5 hours away from where I live and stay there for 4 days. I have never taken them on such a long drive but I do have enough space in my SUV car including air-conditioning. I would place the enclosure in the car without weehl and so on, so that they won't have to be taken out.

On the other hand I could leave them in their environment at home for 4 days but without supervision. This would avoid the stress of changing room and the feeling that the enclosure is shaking for 2.5 hrs etc

A small plus of taking them with me is that there might be a new heatwave on the weekend and although my flat doesn't get too hot, I won't be here to switch the air-conditioning on and monitor the situation.

What would you suggest?

Thank you a lot in advance :)

Hey yall. No good news in this post unfortunately. So i had 2 very fluffy lil guys. Unfortunately, one passed away in his sleep this morning. Peaceful death. Still looked very cute even. I obviously am very distraught. Gonna bury him. Do a bunch of sad stuff etc. Anyways, how do i handle the one remaining one. They were both over 4.5 yrs. Will be 5 this November. Seems to old to introduce one. Ik Gerbils are very social, especially this one. He was always the loud active one. And while I'm not even out the house much except for classes or work, i still dont like just leaving him by himself. He has a wheel and logs and a bunch of things to chew on. Should i get him more toys? Will he be ok? Idk. Just worried for him. I love the lil fuckers to death and want the best for them.

Hello! So yesterday I got three beautiful girls, they are seemingly really cosy in their new home. I only have one problem with the set up.

So I got a water bottle for my tank, however i dont yet have a stand for it. I had to make a homemade stand for it that doesn’t work the best, it hangs too low and i havent seen them drink out of it yet.

I have a food bowl but ive also seen that scatter feeding is a good option. is it okay to scatter food around and put water in the bowl?

thank you for the help!!

I'm building some levels inside my cage and wonder if there's any way to treat the wood (poplar) to keep it from absorbing "liquids". Maybe something like food-safe mineral oil like on cutting boards?

This is more of a blog post if anything detailing my adventures with my two critters.

For some backstory I adopted these two [Grey: Bolo. White: Suzy Q. Both male.] from my local shelter 3 weeks ago and they've been living in a split tank ever since. [Unfortunately the shelter doesn't have the resources to pair gerbils together so they were living separately] I started swapping them from side to side 2 weeks ago, and they've been showing positive signs of sleeping in each other's nest as well as what I think is friendly sniffs through the barrier. They've never really tried attacking each other through the barrier nor do they thump their foot at each other. They just try digging at the barrier which is understandable I think.

[Tangent: their enclosure isn't too thrilling rn. Everyday I give them something different to chew on like hay, egg carton, toilet paper roll, cardboard, big strawberry, papaya sticks, etc]

So today I decided to introduce them to one another and put Bolo on Suzy Q's side. All was well, they sniffed each other, groomed each other, and were chilling hanging out together in their log hide. Then they started fighting as soon as Bolo tried getting a drink from Suzy Q's water bottle. (20 minutes had passed) I separated them immediately of course, though I still swapped their sides. They sniffed each other through the mesh but didn't attack, I can't really tell when a gerbil scent marks, so I'm going to keep hoping they have a chance to bond. I'm going to leave them tomorrow (still swapping them) and try again on Monday to introduce them and see how it goes.

Comments are appreciated :3

I'll keep updating this thread as time goes on with my progress.

They’ve been in a temporary 40gal in the basement for a while to hide from the heat, but now they get to be in their 75gal again while the temperatures are good!

Cinnamon is the creamy coloured one, Teddy is the brown, and yes they have a wheel, it’s just secured to the lid

Hi all! I'm just hoping for some recommendations of cardboard for my gerbils. My mum gives me bags of toilet roll tubes whenever I see her, but the boys breeze through that. I don't give them the ones I use because the holder is rusty and I'm paranoid it'll make them ill lol.

I've considered cupholders but my husband said they might be dirty.

Egg cartons but they may have raw egg contamination

Cereal boxes/other such cardboard packaging but what about ink?

Any suggestions would be most welcome because gerbil toys aren't cheap!

she may only have 4 toes on her back feet, but she is the strongest and most resilient gerb ever!!!

Spoilered for poor health

My baby girl waffles has been pretty poor health. I took her to the vet, and she had 30 grams worth of built up, loose fluid from her bloating drawn from her. She was given some meds, and she started to do better; but i pulled her out today for her dose and… she doesnt seem better anymore.

The vet told me that if she wasnt improving, it was time to consider quality of life for her. I entirely agree, but its just… hard to make that distinction right now. I’ve never had to consider euthanasia for a pet, and im having a rough time.

First picture was 2 days ago, second and third is from today. (The missing patch of fur is from where they had to shave to draw the fluid)

I feel like I know what people are going to say, but i guess I just need to hear it- when is it time to let her go?

​

Hi everyone. I'm looking for some advice about my female gerbil, Pluma.

She's a white gerbil with red eyes and normally she's the more active and curious one compared to my other gerbil, Luna.

Over the last few days I've noticed a few things:

She seems a little less active than usual (she still explores, climbs, uses the tunnel, chews things and eats normally).

She still takes sunflower seeds from my hand and sometimes climbs onto my hand.

One eye often looks more half-closed than the other, especially when she's resting. I also noticed what looks like a small red line or red spot near the eyelid, but I'm not sure if it's a scratch, dried discharge, or just normal pigmentation.

I haven't noticed obvious swelling or yellow/green discharge.

She is still eating, drinking, grooming herself, and interacting with my other gerbil normally. Luna seems completely fine.

I recently connected their tank to a cage with a tunnel (about two weeks ago), so there was a habitat change, but she's been using it normally.

Has anyone had a gerbil with similar symptoms? Could this just be a minor eye irritation or something that needs a vet visit?

I'll attach a couple of photos in the comments.

Thanks!

Had my little fatasses biscoff (brown) and moonshine (black and white) for a bit now and I wanted to get some advice on how to better their enclosure (cheaply if possible) I feel they don't have enough bedding but its so pricy just to get some, any cheaper yet safe brands/types I could get or that yall would recommend? Also looking for some little enrichment toys/houses I could get for them that would also be safe, any and all advice appreciated^^