Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys-

I am an animal science major at UConn and I take a class where we learn about all laboratory animals, and every undergraduate student has two pet albino rats we get to adopt at the end of the semester. And we're learned alot about gerbils so I was planning on purchasing a pair(male/female) and I have a few basic questions that weren't answered, per se, in class:

(1) I'm going to keeo them in an aquarium tank, what kind of litter and decor should I get?

(2) How can I sex them, if where I go they do not know how too?(cause pet stores aren't alwawys the most truthful)

Any more words of advice would be great, thanks ya'll!

Zach

Sounds very Cool what you are doing, awesome career choice for sure, best of luck to you.

As far as the gerbils, here is a neat little site for you to check out may answer more of your questions then I can, heheheheh

Let us know from time to time how your doing, post some pics for us when ya get your rats, check out our rat forum also

Gerbil Care

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PHEve / Eve

That site is GREAT. thanks. I am going to ask a question going to post it now that the site doesnt answer but its a great site. I am new to gerbils and put that in my favorites.
thanks

I recommend Aspen bedding or Care Fresh. All my gerbils seem to prefer Aspen because they can chew it up and break it into smaller pieces for nesting.

Sexing is easy. Get a clear glass or clear plastic surface you can hold above your head to look into it. Plop the gerbil on it (most gerbils sense heights and will not fall or jump off). Hold it above your head and look up into it. It will be very easy to tell. Boys have obvious testicles and girls do not. You could also say boys will have this big butt looking thing and the girls will not have it at all. You can start sexing gerbils easily at 6 or 7 weeks of age. However, all girl gerbils have a pee pee thing that looks like a miniature penis but is not so don't be fooled by that little thing - it is realy a urethra or whatever you call it. Boys have it too - it is really a urethra. I don't think you can see a gerbils peni's. Not that I would want to - ha ha.

There is also a way to sex very young gerbils. When they are two weeks old you can see the nipples on the females - they are kind of moved off to the sides like almost under their arm pits and there will be six (three on each side).

Hope this helps.
Lori