This is my first gerbil. I have had birds, rabbits, horses and many other animals. But they have never bit me or hid when i tried to touch them. Can anyone give me any ideas or helpful hints?
Have you got a single gerbil? They are very social, and should be in pairs, so he may be more skittish because of this - although please bear in mind if this is the case that you CANNOT introduce an adult gerbil to an adult gerbil without a splitcage ( info in sources).
The first 24 hours or so you should leave him to settle down and get used to his environment so you should be alright now to start. What type of housing is he in? As you may know, gerbils must have room to burrow - a good 6 inches of a decent substrate such as megazorb, finacard, carefresh etc (not sawdust or cedar or pine based as this can cause serious breathing difficulties) so a tank is best for them.
But tanks are tricky to tame rodents in as you have to approach from above - exactly what a predator would do. I have a barred tank topper on my cages, this solves that problem and also allows a decent area for silent spinner wheel, hammocks, and a good area to have water and dust baths without them getting buried.
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I'd recommend getting hold of a topper if you don't have one already as it does make taming much easier. You need to get him used to your scent, so talk to him for a bit as they are very curious animals - then when you have his attention reach in slowly and let him sniff your hand, or if you have bars then just poke a sunflower seed, pumpkin seed or similar through for him. I find dried mealworms are a big favourite and I tend to pick out sunflower and pumpkin seeds from their mix to handfeed as gerbils can get fat very quickly on a lot of commercial mixes!
There is a good guide to handtaming here
http://www.twinsqueaks.com/tips-archive/... and then how to pick up your gerbil once he's no longer scared of you
http://homepage.mac.com/kyleekay/tip-of- ... - the main thing to remember is you must not pick up a gerbil by its tail, they are very delicate and could break off or cause your gerbil to deglove which is very painful for them.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com Two days isn't long for the little guy (or girl!), So I wouldn't worry just yet. Most gerbils are very friendly, intelligent and curious little things so I'm sure he'll overcome his shyness soon. All my gerbils have become handtame, one within days (though we got him from a breeder so he'd been handled before). Even my girl who was abused, and started off very vicious and terrified, became a sweetheart after a few months!
okii first of all ....
With having new gerbils u have to give them a few days to settle down and get used to their new surroundings/environment.They are very tame and never bite. Ihave lots of gerbils. (A new litter of 3 boys) and they are very friendly, i remember the first day i bought gerbils. (they were the firsdt rodent i ever owned) anyways they were very friendly and climbed all over me, they loved playing and being around u, and thats when i knew i wanted to breed them and keep all the babies lol.
They don't bite, but u have to keep them entertained, don't ignore or neglect them, play with them everyday for a while and they will love being handled, many ppl say that gerbils don't sit on ur shoulders or sit still when u hold them. but mine have been looked after so well, they sit on my shoulder and they sit in my hands or lap while i pet them. the babies (not the new ones obviously) are very cute and loved to be stroked lol ..
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good luck with ur new lil guy, he will warm up to u.
DONT TOUCH THEM YET !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have relocation stress don ' t touch them for 3 days.
