Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just reading some of the posts under that thread & all of a sudden... gone. Censorship getting tighter? Hmmm.....

Eric

Yeah what happened? I wasn't able to read it after this morning and I wanted to see if there was anything else debated. And Poof, it's gone. I don't see where debating where gerbils come from is a violation of the TOS. Did someone get nasty or something?

Mark

>>I was just reading some of the posts under that thread & all of a sudden... gone. Censorship getting tighter? Hmmm.....
>>
>>Eric

Maybe I posted too many outside websites...oops.
Anyway, I think by now everyone agrees that the gerbil commonly found in pet stores is of the Mongolian variety, but that there are many species of gerbil found across Africa, the middle east and Asia. Many of these gerbil species overlap with the range of ball pythons and are likely to be prey. So yes, gerbils are found in Africa and ball pythons do feed on them.

But, I agree that (as many people jumped on me to point out) you would be hard pressed to find the african variety of gerbils at your local pet store (but maybe some do sell these animals?) and this was never a point of disagreement for me, but apparently it was for other people.

I hope nobody was offended by my posts...I can get a little spirited in a disagreement....

wish you all the best...

All I was saying is what you just posted above...that the "pet store" variety of gerbil was from mongolia, and that any gerbils BPs find in the wild are of a different variety. Personally, I knew that to be absolute fact, and felt like you were calling me a liar or idiot or something....you definintely come across as a bit of a smart-A, but then you admitted to that up front....lol! No hard feelings?

You may find captive bred african jerboas(fat tail gerbils) in some pet stores but they are not the easiest to breed, and you will not find cheap ones (for feeders anyways) because they are more expensive than the regular gerbil.
You will also not find cheap imported ones because there is a CDC ruling of a ban on all civets, genets, and rodents from Africa. Hence no gambian pouch rats(man ball pythons grow on those things!)
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"Quality isn't Quality without customer service so I guess I sell quality"

Gambian pouch rats are the ones that get huge right? A friend of mine had a pair of Pouched rats from Africa & they were nothing short of scary (HUGE), expensive big buggers to.

I'm not much of a rodent person and had no idea Jerboas were also called Fat tailed Gerbil's, so thanks for the info.
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Chad Bachman

unless there was another thread started that I didn't see.

The animal we (US anyway) know as Gerbil's actually come from Mongolia. Now, unless your Ball comes from Mongolia, our Gerbil's are not a natural prey item. Ball's eat what they want, when they want (I have a few that will not touch Mongolian Gerbil's). Most of my Ball's prefer Rats, but some still want "only" mice, and one will touch nothing but Deer mice.

BTW: I know how bad it is to feed a Ball mice LOL, but the ones eating only mice are as large as the Rat feeder's.
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Chad Bachman

This reply is not to Phi or MarkS, I just thought I would start the topic up again for you guys....LOL.

Later,
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Chad Bachman

OK so look up fat-tailed gerbils, they are found throughout africa and can be found in some United States pet stores as well as purchased on-line.

Go ahead do an internet search and satisfy yourself.

Dont Gerbil's found in Africa inhabit harsh desert areas? Ball's do not inhabit desert areas as far as I know.

The only type of Gerbil I have ever seen in US is the Mongolian type, and that is what 99.9% of people here are talking about when they say "Gerbils are a natural prey item".

This whole Gerbil thing is new to you, you only found out about it after your rude statements (had to look it up on the internet didnt you LOL).

Sorry to upset you Mr. SmartButt..Get over it!!
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Chad Bachman

How many Ball's did you find in Africa in plastic boxes?

Well, how many?
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Chad Bachman

You CAN find african gerbils in pet stores that have a good small animal section. The reason they are not more common is because the fat little tail looks like a male appendage, lol.
They inhabit all sorts of enviroments in ghana, togo and benin, among other places, and I have imported adutl ball pythons that have regurged one or two occasionally.
The mongolian gerbil is not the only gerbil in stores, there are more but the mongolian is by far the most popular, because of docilness, ease to breed, and trainability.
Jerboas, are harder to breed, harder to find, and not very appealing to alot of people because of their squishy like fat tails.
The one Time I did find some, I had an adult import ball python pastel that wouldnt touch the mongolians or anything else for that matter. I bought a few, tried to raise them, coudnt, fed them off to the pastel and he never hesitated once in grabbing these to eat.
I know of a few other people who had the same results with adult imports, it is just expensive! I think they used to cost me about $35ea or $25.00ea
that is not cheap for a little rodent,
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"Quality isn't Quality without customer service so I guess I sell quality"

.
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Chad Bachman

$30 or more a pr....not the same.....

bushy tailed jirds...same deal.......

......

.........food is food...........

as mentioned by others..I have some that won't touch a gerbil.....but eat chinese hamsters..........white foted mice.....and some just regular mice or rats......

......
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is between Jerboa, and Gerbil.
Jerboas are natural food items for Ball Pythons, also known as Fat Tail Gerbils.
Now people forget to include the fat tail part.
The common pet store gerbil is from mongolia.
The Jerboa is found all over africa. It is a common animal in Casava fields(a veggie they eat in alot of dishes in africa) and so are Ball Pythons because they live there, cause there food is found in large numebrs there.
Being so, a hatchling ball python can take a sub adult jerboa no problem. You would be surprised what they can eat when survival is at stake, and due to the increase in casava fields, there is an increase in rodents, and thus a HUGE increase in the population of Ball Pythons.
The main thing ot remember though is JERBOAS are a type of gerbil.
That is why alot of wc adult ball pythons eat gerbils you find in the store(the ones from mongolia). Reason being they are similar, but keep in mind not anything like the same.
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"Quality isn't Quality without customer service so I guess I sell quality"

I think jerboas have skinny tails and long thin legs like an odd kangaroo rat....very skitzy.......LOL.....for a word.....

bushy tailed jirds are like a gerbil with longer bushier tail of course....

fat tailed are ??? duprassi?.........

.......

yes...all some gerbil type looking things....

$15 each to $65 for gerboas last time I saw them.....which was maybe 10 years ago...jerboas are not found in stores here..

lots of stuff not found here...they may be on ""THE LIST"""

.....seems there is a list of non-allowable stuff....due to monkey pox I am told......don't know...just hear this stuff......

stuff like (4 species) of African Zebra mice and pygmy mice.....

wish I could find some of the odd stuff again..I miss them.......

anyone have them?.......** alot I can get ...

*wanted*

Zebra mice*****
pygmy mice
jirds
duprasi
jerboas
degus
african puched rats
island rats (forget name of island..they get 15 pounds)....
Brazzillian pygmy opossums ***

........

neat would be....but $$$...striped opossum ....australia I think...(*used to be @$1000 )

......illegal now...(all bats..).....Egyptian fruit bats.....

./.......

all this stuff..used to see it alot.........

..have fun..........

.........

by the way.....if the ball won't eat mice or rats...sell the damn thing for $5 just to save a headache?.....I am about to start this philosify.........
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>by the way.....if the ball won't eat mice or rats...sell the damn thing for $5 just to save a headache?.....I am about to start this philosify.........

Once I pay off the Butterscotch hypo (dare I say Butterscotch LOL) from you, I'll take the rest for $5 ea. The extra albino males you have want my cages!!!???? Yes, I'm thinkin........and the Butterscotch is still slammin rats.
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Chad Bachman

My mouse feeders all have better muscle tone.....They are stronger, and less mushy...It's the little things I see!!!
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Chad Bachman

Every ball that I have seen that eats mice is leaner and more muscular, than ones that feed on rats or other rodents. I don't know if that is good or bad, but I bet mouse fed balls live longer...not to start up a whole seperate conversation.

Glad to hear it's not just me that sees it.

I agree, Gerbils do suk...LOL
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Chad Bachman

but I had a thought today....something I noticed....noone in here actually knows who the hellp we are anyways....if only they did.....hahahaaaa..........

anyways..good to hear the ghost is eating....people lost out on him.........wait a couple years..we'll have so many ghosts it'll almost suck......almost........

.....yea........them rat eaters are so fat bodied and little headed......pin-heads are too odd.......

.....

pastel still has such a small head here.....and he is so big for it..........

have fun......

have to read up more on "gerbils....all 86 species or whatever it said.............still haven't seen the words Ghana,Togo on any of their pages......

......yep......
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As I stated in the original post that got removed...

there are about 100 species of gerbil that belong to the genus gerbillus. Of those, several are native to Africa. One of these is the fat-tailed gerbil, another is the nigerian gerbil and another is the north african gerbil. However, the fat-tailed gerbil is the only one that I have ever seen sold in the US that is native to Africa. But there might be more sold here??? I suspect the only way a wild ball python has encountered a mongolian gerbil has been after it was imported to the US or UK.

I had posted a really great website link from U of M, but I suspect that may be one of the reasons the whole post got removed (or maybe it was all the wise cracks). Anyway, I am exhausted with this topic, but glad that everyone has more or less come to the same conclusion...Gerbils suck...

I hope everyones snakes will eat mice or rats...or even hamsters.