Free to a good home

MrPudding

Hi all

Our 2 desert gerbils are the proud parents of 5 babies. They are now 4 weeks old and ready to move on with their lives somewhere else. Is anyone interested in taking some off our hands?

MrP

Hellrazer

Are they easy to keep???Would probably be interested in one or two.You`d probably have to set everything up for me.
Richie

MrPudding

They are very easy to keep. We bought them for our daughter, she can even help with them. You need a cage which must have a wheel. We got a cool one with 3 levels and cool tubes that they can run up and down and a little house. Then you just need to put a layer of saw dust on the bottom of the cage and some nesting wool. They will then take the wool and make thier own nest. We were told that their food should be topped up everyday, in practice we do not do this as they never get close to finishing it. It is dry food so I don't think there is a freshness issue, anyway they are thriving. Oh they also need a little water dispenser. You need to clean out the cage every week or so, fairly easy, usually just means emptying the base into the bin and putting in new bedding. 10 minutes work. All in all it cost us about €50 to get set up, but that was with a huge cage which cost 40 odd by itself.

All in all they are very cheap and easy to keep. Let me know if you fancy a couple.

MrP

Hellrazer

Where are you located???Id probably be interested in a couple.
Richie

watty

There is a theory that says pets should *NEVER* be "free to a good home".

Something along lines of what people have had to fork out for is more likely to be taken good care off.

Some points to consider.

Snake owners like small furries offered "free to good home"

I'd only give an offspring pet "free" to someone I know well. Otherwise charging sensible money does the pet a favour.

Other expenses:

Cage / hutch, water bottle(s), feeding bowl, possibly pet carrier for journies to holiday cottage or vet.

Ongoing costs:
Vet, bedding (newspaper, hay, straw etc depends on anaimal), food etc.

Holidays:
How will this work?

Can I give pet attention when doing exams / overtime / business trips / school or Uni projects / or sick?

(It is like being "Mummy")

watty

Oddly with many small furries they lose interest if the "dry food" is out too long. This is why the books / websites recommend daily top up or replacement (or with bigger furries twice daily).

Our cavies could have "half a bowl" but if it has been there more than about 10 hrs they won't much touch it. Put out a fresh full bowl (we chuck the old stuff out as it might have been "wee ed" into by them or a visiting mouse) and they are pushing each other way from it to get at the stuff.

Baffling. But they do know if it is fresh out of bag or the old stuff brought back!

Several times we have spotted in BROAD DAYLIGHT a wild field mouse actually approach and feed from bowl at same time as Adult Piggie. Since our largest is about 1.5Kilo (near as much as Dwarf Rabbit), the tiny mouse obviously thinks it knows the inside info on Guinea Pigs. Generally they ignore the little fella unless he tries to snatch something they have taken a fancy too. They are more inclined to grab food off each other.

(Yes our colony does live outside!)

Any uneaten fresh items should be removed twice a day as these can rot and become toxic esp. inside with central heating (Carrot, Lettice, Cabbage and such like). Many animals have a low tolerance to too much Brassica ( Cabbage, Brussels, Cauliflower etc) and Lettuce has little nutricional value though good for some vitimins and minerals.

Most animals do not need added vitimins, the exceptions are Cavies (guinea pigs) and Apes etc that can't make Vitimen "C", they get it from fresh grass / fruits or in winter use plain tablets crushed onto food, not in water bottle.

MrPudding

They had another 6. We have tried to give them to a pet shop (we rang 10) but they do not want them. Things are getting desperate, does anyone have any ideas? If you feel your suggestion may be frowned upon you can pm me. I would prefer not to have to "dispose" of them.

MrP

red_ice

i used to breed hamsters and when they start to multiply like that you have to seperate the cage.

2 males will fight, even in the early month when they start to grow hair.

Your going to have to start keeping females if you dont want to have this problem. There is an alternative which is actually building a massive hutch and sectioning it off between the gerbals and use that for the time being. I had to resort to that when i got 15+. Luckly at the time my friends were interested in them when they were grown, so i was fortunat enough to be able to take the hutch down.

If you have a 3 story cage, keep all the babies with the mother, and leave the male on his own in the top section with newspaper covering the sides and bottom of the top layer to avoid him leaving mess ontop of the other gerbals. Also, you are going to have to make a wall about 3 inchs high to stop him urinating over the side of the cage.

Seperate them, and stop them breeding. You are only making it worse for yourself.

If all else fails, feed em green foods and give em wettail (jokin).

Hope thats some help

Rabies

Originally posted by MrPudding
They had another 6. We have tried to give them to a pet shop (we rang 10) but they do not want them. Things are getting desperate, does anyone have any ideas? If you feel your suggestion may be frowned upon you can pm me. I would prefer not to have to "dispose" of them.

If a pet shop will not take them as pets to sell on, could they take them as snake food :dunno: I know you said you don't want to "dispose" them, but at least they will be going to some sort of good use instead of getting flushed or dumped outside.

red_ice

ohh yea, how silly of me...

There is the option of offering them to schools for younger kids in juniou infants to 2nd class as a class pet type thing... not for research ;p

Also, they make a great pet for elderly people. We gave my nanny the male that started my group of hamsters and she absolutly LOVED it. They let it run about the sitting room all day and it would actually sit and watch TV and occationally walk up and around my grandads armchair.

They are amazing pets if they have the same tendancies as hamsters. You Might wanna consider some of those options

hadook

I take in small animals & work closely with Tipperary Small Animal Rescue. I can take the babies from you & rehome them either in the Dublin/Kildare area or Tipperary.

Can I make a suggestion - keep a male & female baby & seperate the parents? That way your gerbils still have another to keep them company & arent breeding out of control. If you need help sexing them (baby gerbils can be harder to sex) I can do it for you.

Or get the male neutered, its not that expensive & will also solve this problem. I can recommend a vet no problem.

PM me if you want me to take them.