Playtime for your gerbil

Your gerbils are rather frisky little fellows, so you've got to keep yours busy to keep them happy. Playtime with safe toys in and out of the cage will keep your pets in good physical condition, too.

Playing with gerbils is fun!

It's important to provide toys and diversions that encourage your animal companions to do what comes naturally to them. Wild gerbils spend a lot of time curled up in secret hiding places, for example, and their domestic counterparts also love to chill out in enclosed spaces. You can put a small box or a flower pit in their cage, or arrange a few rocks into a small cave. Gerbils are major diggers, too, so a small box filled with bedding material will be much appreciated. And PVC pipes, plastic connecting tubes and cardboard tubes from toilet tissue and paper towels are great for fulfilling their inherent urges to tunnel and burrow.

Gerbil wheels are great excercise

Another good toy for your pets is the exercise wheel. Some individuals love 'em, and some ignore them completely. You should set one up in the cage to find out if your pets are big on running. Do make sure you get the solid plastic or metal kind without any rungs, however. Tiny tails and feet can easily get caught in runged exercise wheels.

Gerbil toys should include things to gnaw

We can't stress enough that there must always be something in the cage for your little guys to gnaw on. Gerbils' teeth grow continuously, so your pets need to chew--a lot!--to keep their choppers worn down and in tip-top condition. Make sure your gerbils have some twigs or branches that haven't been treated with chemicals for this purpose. Very large branches can do double duty as super climbing surfaces in the cage.

Once you've hand-tamed your gerbils, you should let them out of the cage for supervised exercise every day--in a screened-off play area or secure room, please. You'll need to remove any electrical wires from the area, as well as anything else that curious gerbils could, but shouldn't, chew.

Be sure to keep them busy during these out-of-cage sessions by providing all the requisite cool gerbil toys--flower pots, boxes and tubes for exploring, and rocks and ladders for climbing and crawling. Note that gerbils have poor eyesight, so watch yours carefully to make sure they don't fall off tables or chairs.