Artificial burrow systems & ceramic nest boxes by Ed Cope

As a breeder of mongolian gerbils and many gerbil species I believe that one of the most important factors when attempting to breed or keep gerbils is to get their micro environment just right. This is especially apparent when breeding gerbils and in preventing stereotypical behaviour. An example of stereotypical behaviour in gerbils and jirds is digging at the corners of the tank for hours on end in a fruitless attempt at building a burrow. Once this behaviour becomes a repeated pattern it is known as stereotypical behaviour.

Read all about making artificial burrows and ceramic nest boxes

Homemade tanks by Derek Trelore

A practical way to make your own tanks for gerbils, clear instructions and photos.

Read all about making a simple home made tank from storage containers

Recycling

Finding safe toys and accessories for gerbils for sale in petshops can be a tricky business, when you have several, or many tanks to cater for this can become very expensive as well. There are many items that you can find at home that will make excellent toys and cost very little or nothing to adapt to make them safe for your gerbils to gnaw and/or play in. Here are the some of the ones we use.

Read all about recycling household objects to make gerbil toys

Indestructable Water Bottles by Eli Wolfmayr

A common complaint from gerbils keepers is the amount of water bottles their gerbils manage to go through, Elisabeth has solved this problem by making her own water bottles, again a simple but effective idea.

Read all about making indestructible water bottles

Water Bottle Holders by Matt Wright

A water bottle in an animal's tank makes the use of the inefficient bowl unnecessary. Although bottles are better, those specifically designed to hang from tank top can be expensive and gerbils (or other species) will chew and destroy them.

Read all about making a simple water bottle holder

Split-tank construction and method by Elizabeth Arblaster

Whenever introducing two strange gerbils to eachother, always use the split-tank method. This way you can guarantee no fights between your two little fuzzies. The method may take, days or weeks to successfully introduce two gerbils, it all depends on their own personailities, some will accept eachother straight away, whilst others may take weeks to do so.

Read all about making a split-tank and the split tank method

Moving up in the world - Cage extensions for glass tanks by Rachael Stanley

I like to give my animals the biggest possible enclosure, and at the same time, try to provide an appropriate environment for any given species. Space is often a limitation for owners and I like to use the 'upward' space for a lot of my animals. In particular, Persian jirds appreciate taller cages, naturally being rock hoppers. I have therefore designed an enclosure that will provide an area for food storage and hoarding requirements using a glass fish tank, whilst providing a cage extension on top to satisfy their jumping and climbing skills.

Read all about building tank toppers & cage extensions for glass tanks

Gerbil Photo Box by Elisabeth Wolfmayr

An excellent and unique way to photograph your gerbils and jirds, very easy to make with clear instructions and variations.

Read all about making a simple photo box

Gerbil Playground by Isabel Saldanha

Here is a simple way to make a playground or photo backdrop for your gerbils. This playground will offer them a bit of freedom, the loose sand will enable your gerbils to have a bath and your gerbil will feel safe as he will be able to disappear into a burrow if he senses danger (which makes recapturing a bit difficult, but oh well!) You can make many different landscapes, but one of the most effective and easy are sand dunes.

Read all about making a playground for your gerbils

Gerbil Playpen by Anna

A safe, secure playpen is ideal to let your gerbils have that extra run about during their times out of the tank.

Read all about making a deluxe wooden playpen for your gerbils  

Highrise Gerbil Tanks by Eli and Kira

Here in Austria gerbils have to be kept in 'tanks' of at least 45 gallons, so it's hard to find enough space if you want to keep a few tanks. To solve this problem I designed a gerbil highrise set up. It's pretty easy to make and looks really good too.

Read all about making highrise gerbil tank units

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