Natural Housing

[Jocelyn Kessinger]

Hi,     Every year for school I have to do a science fair project. I always seem to wait till the last minute and just barely get done in time. I also always tend to do the project on things that I don't really care about, so therefore I don't care about the project. Well this year I decided to change all that. I wanted to do something with gerbils (nothing that would hurt them), so it would be something I enjoy. I also decided to start as soon as I got the idea so I would not have to rush anything. Oh and this project will actually be next years I already have one started (before I got breeding gerbs) for this year. Anyway........     I was reading this gerbil book I got for x-mas (I wrote a message on it earlier), and I came up on the section about housing. The book talked about how some more experienced gerb owners use a method called Natural Group Housing. In which the cage is filled with clean dirt and natural things and the gerbs are allowed to build their own tunnels, etc. I thought this would be a really cool and interesting science project.     I would set up one 20 gallon tank using this method, and one 20 gallon tank using the "traditional" synthetic method. I would monitor the tanks till this time next year and keep a detailed log of everything that happens. I could watch the death rate, birth rate, activeness, how long they live. That was all I could think of can anyone else thing of anything else? And what do you all think of this in general? Also any info on this type of housing or anything else you think I need to know is greatly appreciated. Thanx.   Jocie Kessinger The Titan Clan