Gerbil Information Index

Gerbil Classification

If you notice that all gerbils, and in fact all species on earth, are designated a two-part Latin name to identify them. This system of classifying animals is known as binomial nomenclature. These names are important because they allow people around the world, no matter what language they speak, to write and communicate to others about any particular species. In theory, every name given is unique to that animal. The scientific names also give a clue as to what their relationships are to other animals...

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Gerbil Distribution

The Mongolian gerbil inhabits the steppe regions of the middle, southern and northeastern Mongolia. On expeditions in Mongolia it was rarely found inhabiting mountainous regions. In the northwestern region the mongolian gerbil extends its boundaries into Tuva in southern Russia. In the northeast region it again extends its boundaries in to Southern Russia and can be found inhabiting the Transbaikal region...

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History of the Mongolian Gerbil

In 1935 Professor Kasugo who had been studying the Mongolian gerbil in the wild, imported a batch of twenty pairs into Japan. The scientific community then used this initial batch for research. It is this first batch of gerbils that were originally captured around Eastern Mongolia and Manchuria that are the probable ancestors of most of the gerbils that we now keep today as pets...

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Gerbils on the Isle of Wight

On conclusion of the filming of Tales of the River Bank, an independent company working for the BBC decided to release the cast of small rodents into an area of land at Cothy Butts near Fishbourne (about 2½ miles west of Ryde). While the others - rats hamsters and cavies - died shortly after being introduced in 1973, a group of about 10 Mongolian gerbils managed to survive.

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History of the National Gerbil Society

The Gerbil made its debut in the UK around 1964, and quickly established itself as a popular pet. In 1969 the first ever Gerbil Show was held by the Birmingham Mouse Club on 23 February. The event was a big success with more gerbils being shown than had been expected, all were Golden Agouti Gerbils and the winning gerbil was owned by a Bert Gardener, the judge that day was H. Smith. The standard for the golden agouti was published in the Fur and Feather on April 10th of that year...

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Exhibiting Gerbils

Showing Gerbils is great fun and a good way of meeting other gerbil fans, to chat, swop information and renew friendships. But, first of all, how do you get started? How do you read the schedule? Who do you need to contact to put in entries? The list can be endless...

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Warren and Rosie

From humble beginnings in a litter of four, himself, two brothers and a sister, Warren was plucked from mediocrity and placed 'Big Brother' style into a nation's gaze. Although he was originally christened 'Brian' from Monty Pythons 'Life of Brian', Yahoo decided to put his name to an international vote and after many hundreds of thousands of votes the public decided to name him Warren...

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Tribute to Percy Parslow

Percy Parslow was born in 1914 during World War I. He originated from Kingston upon Thames and suffered a very bitter childhood, which resulted in having no faith in people throughout his life. He had a jewellery business and was a salesman, but his great ambition was his love for animals. Eventually, he knew he would leave the jewellery business to pursue a career with animals...

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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 each other, 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