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P.S. The hammock they are in looks structurally unsafe as they chewed through one of the supporting straps...
Which reminds me of this a little:
Thank you all - the girls are pretty set on gerbils now so the next step is to get an aquarium/gerbilarium together and get some critters!!
bobgarrod - I'd take any tips with thanks!!
Used to have Gerbils for many years. fun little pets. And quite long lived for little animals. Normally we'd get 4-5 years with them (we have rats now, and its such a shame that for such lovely creatures they are only with you for 18-24months)
As others have said - an old fish tank filled with digging material is great as they love to burrow. they need to naw to keep their teeth in check, they'll devourer a toilet roll in a couple of mins (cut into little crescent moon shapes) any paper you need shredding, they'll happily oblige. when young they'll live in bigger groups, but till declan as they get older, but will be fine in pairs or 3s.
We ended up with 21 gerbils at one stage, after helping out a rescue... we took a group of v.young boys from a group that had been dumped on this lady's doorstep, but when we double checked the sex we had 1 girl - so we ended up going and just taking the lot off her hands (she mostly dealt with hamsters) We have plenty of tanks sitting idle if your near to Rossendale, as we dont have any gerbils ATM (and we're prob never going to be needing to house 21 again in groups of 2 and 3)
Gerbils can be handled, but they are lightening fast and very skittish. The most you can really do with some of them is to have a mound of food in the palm of your hand and stay still... they'll eventually pluck up the courage to venture out and sit in your hand to eat.
they dont pee a lot, nor do they drink a lot. love sunflower seeds (makes em fat)... and crickets & moths.
Earlier comments on rats smell - it depends. We have 8 male rats currently. dont notice a smell unless they've been on certain foods (never giving them sprouts again!) 6 of them came from a lady who found she couldnt cope with the smell of them, but we think she was over cleaning them and she'd also brought some small animal shampoo when we picked them up... so they were probably just over compensating on the sent marking. We have one lad who gets very excited and pees when he's running up your arm. Can walk around the house with them on your shoulder (or up a baggy long sleeve) Friends let theirs free roam all round their office room (even have little steps down to the floor for them) Rats need a big cage to move around in and things to climb, chew and hide in so they do take up a lot more space than what gerbils need... but it can be vertical space for rats.
One thing with gerbils - they do tend to wage war on the water bottle - love to naw at the soft plastic of the bit that holds the spout. for one gerbil we ended up enclosing it in chicken wire as she'd chew threw a bottle in days.