A Comprehensive Guide to Gerbil Care: Care Sheet and Tips for 2023

As soon as you bring home a brand-new gerbil or are even considering it, it can be daunting knowing exactly what’s ahead. Relax; these animals are easy to take care of and enjoyable companions – especially with tubes and small exercise balls they love to use to move around their enclosure or home (with supervision), your hand, shoulder or even hand!

Let’s dive in to all aspects of owning and caring for gerbils.

Gerbils typically reach 4 inches long with their tail. Their body color ranges from golden agouti, white, blue, lilac and grey to patterns. Gerbils typically live for 4 years before needing replacements are found.

Gerbils are native to China, Mongolia and Russia where they thrive wild. First noted in history in 1866 when Father Armand David, a missionary priest and zoologist sent them back from Northern China to France so they could be named and documented at a museum there. Pet gerbils didn’t become widely popular until 1954 when a group was imported for scientific study into the US from where most pet gerbils today descended from this population.

Gerbils distinguish themselves from other rodents in several ways. Their tails are longer than those of hamsters, with longer haired tails than either rats or mice; longer noses and longer bodies than their counterparts; capable of standing, unlike their non-standing brethren; associability wise, gerbils thrive best with another cagemate than do hamsters which prefer living alone.