hi
I presume that my last email didn't reach you as there as been no response!
I'll send it again later....
any way I'm new to the list after having my interest in gerbils fired up
again after 20 years by the sight of a pair of 'burmese?' gerbils....I keep
them both along with an ivory cream female in a 36"x15"x12" all glass
aquarium (second hand leaker with a mirrored back...never mind eh!) with a
'vivarium' lid. they have a 'parakeet' nesting box lying on its side with
the lid removed and the open end up to the glass so that I can see in (this
is kept dark by using the original plywood lid fastened to the outside of
the tank
with 'Duck Tape' for a door) attached to this is a piece of 2" tubing
(from the plumbers) about 12" long this is squeezed into a hole I made in
one of the corners of the bottom of the 'nesting box'. the tank was then
furnished with some aquarium bogwood (sold as 'curio' wood) and this sort of
fills the rest of the tank (ish) on top of this I placed an ordinary bucket
full of moss peat and two litres of chinchilla 'dusting powder' (sepiolite)
I slightly mixed it together as I put it in. I have also placed two empty
coffee jars into the corners. there is a water bottle fixed to the inside
of the tank at the same end as the nesting box and a small ceramic bowl for
their food is placed on top of the nesting box. they seem to love it in
this environment as they change the 'landscape' every day with new tunnels
popping up and old ones being destroyed in the process. I've found that
putting the jars in the corners stops blanche from doing that 'constantly
digging in the corner' behaviour, preventing her from ruining bobs fantastic
tunnelling work (he'd be an interior designer if he was human).
the mix of peat and sepiolite seems to keep the tunnels up for as long as
they allow them too.
they have been named by various members of the household as:
blanche = ivory cream female
bob = (the builder, for totally obvious reasons) burmese? male
shy = a slate/burmese? looking female(at least I believe her to be female)
questions:
is this set-up ok?
