> My gerbil, Bianca, got her wheel stuck in the shavings, climbed up
nad popped off the top of the cage! Now she is loose somewhere in my
basement! The worst thing is that she isn't very tame and i can't really
pick her up. Can somewone plz tell me what to do? I have a party in my
basement tomorrow! I've place food in the bottoms of a couple of buckets
and made "ramps" leading to the food b/c i read in a magazine that that can
sometimes work.
>-Cyrena
Gerbils can jump high enough to get out of pails.
Live traps, don't seem to work much.
Someone posted awhile back a trap they made of tubing and a
fixed cage.... Gerbils like tubes. I catch mine with tubes, but
it takes patience the way I do it.
You could try their approach, where they used a cage with
habitrail type tubing coming out of the very top of the cage
(no tube sticking downwards below the top of the cage), going
up a bit, then over and down to the floor with a last bend
paralleling the floor. Put a bit of food in the pipe close to
the floor, and a lot (banana chunks and peanut butter)
in the cage. When they enter the tube they'll smell the food
in the cage a lot better and follow it. With luck and you
checking often, you'll find the gerbil in the cage BEFORE
they decide to leave and manage to jump back up the tube.
Gerbils are so fast to catch it isn't funny.
I could get one to loiter around a certain area, if I took it's
cagemate and held it on the floor for a few moments, then
put that one back. The loose one would come by, smell
their buddy (or mate) and hang around there....
I have cornered some, and used the pipe catch method....
Put a piece of 2" pvc tubing on the floor near a wall. About
18" to 24", a few of them around the room. Near each, put
a small towel or bar rag, and something that will plug the
end of the pipe (I use a vitamin bottle that just fits inside).
Gerbil finds tubes, runs in them, finds out they can escape
but otherwise these feel safe. You see gerbil. Slowly and
easily, follow the gerbil around the room. You don't want to
spook it or chase it fast. It'll move at gerbil loping speed,
you move at whatever it takes. Sooner or later, gerbil heads
for one of the tubes, at loping (not greased gerbil) speed.
You by now have a towel or bar-rag in hand. When it goes
into the tube, drop or toss the towel at/on the exit end to
block it. You are now moving very very fast, gerbil will be
reversing to come out the end they went in. Take the
plug and plug the end very fast. Gerbil will reverse AGAIN
and go for the towel end. As they are trying to get out past
the wad of towel, get your hand there and prevent it. The
towel will protect you from gerbil teeth. Holding the plug
in one end and the towel over the other, pick up the tube
and transfer gerbil back into their cage.
This method took patience and 12-24 hours. Every time
I had to do it.
Even six week olds can jump out of a 5 gallon pail. Pail
traps work for hamsters (not chinese though, they can jump
like a gerbil) and other animals.
Good luck. Other attempts have included me using a small
towel to throw over the animal then scoop it up, or a few
cornerings where I was faster than the gerbil and managed
to catch it. Without the gerbil zooming up my arm and leaping
off my shoulder.
Deb
Rebel's Rodent Ranch
