>A few weeks ago I posted here re: a humane trap, called a Ketch-all,
>available from Real Goods. Please do NOT use one of these to trap
>escaped gerbils.
>
>I bought one of these b/c I thought it would be useful in case of a
>gerbil escape. To test it out, I set it up and let Pippin climb in. It
>caught his back foot and tail! What was worse, I hadn't read the
>directions closely enough to open the trap quickly. I eventually got
>the thing open and rescued poor Pippin. He was smart enough to remain
>still, and he had no apparent injuries. He lost a little fur from his
>tail, but no blood. Quite possibly I was more upset than he was.
>
>Anyway, I just wanted to make sure nobody used one of these for
>gerbils! Based on my experience, I believe it could cause significant
>injury to a trapped gerbil.
Julie, I have a cousin to that trap, a "Havahart" sized 'for squirrels'.
I purchased it to catch syrian hamsters who seemed to delight in
running loose through the house.
For a tailless animal, like a syrian over four weeks, or a dwarf
campbell over three months, or any chinese dwarf over four
months, it worked well. Once I bent the pan trigger so it was
really really sensitive. The animal would have to go so far into
the trap to set it off, that the ends dropping would not catch it.
Any dwarf campbell younger than three months, would not trip
it. And any gerbil I have had, won't trip it. The campbell, is
too light and small to trip the pan. The gerbils are too sneaky
to trip the pan.
I have always had to manually 'run down' sneak up and corner
and hand catch, my gerbils. The live trap if I'd bought it for
them I consider it to have been a waste. It still works for errant
hamsters, and is still set up in the rodentry.
Last night I had a gerbil manage to pop a hatch and get out
of his cage; and he totally ignored the smorgasboard glued
to the pan of the live trap with peanut butter, and came out to
the family room to thump in the corner....and was rounded up
by hand quickly.
So. I think everyone would do better to just work on their sneaking
techniques so they can sneak up to their loose gerbils...
Deb
Rebel's Rodent Ranch
