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Do this.
If you have a medium to large tank this should
work great.
You'll need:
2 Packs of Aspen about 3000 cubic inches
worth.
4 Manila Folders.
2 (12") Wood Ladders.
*Use the Kaytee brand of Aspen bedding only. Other
products are cut into 'splinters'
*and are not soft shavings like the Kaytee
brand. Get them at Petsmart.com.
Take manila folders, cut them in half and
quarters. Make paper tubes from them.
*Roll them up, insert finger and 'wind' them up
from the inside to make the curl
*tight then when
released they should unwind and set into nice smooth sized tubes.
*When finished, you should have about twelve 9"
long tubes. And two 12" tubes.
*Manila Folder Tube idea from The Snooty Agouti
;-)
Place larger 12" tubes; 1
lying along the middle back-side and 1 along the middle
front
side.
Now place about 4" of Aspen evenly onto the tank
floor, covering the 2 tubes.
Fun part. Take all the other small tubes, and
place them randomly around on top of
the Aspen. Insert some 'into' the ground at an
angle. Place some crossed lying on-top
of each other.
Some lying flat.
Now take 1 ladder. Place one 2 inches away from
the left side of the tank glass, with
its bottom 'feet' inserted into the
aspen, and the
top 'feet' resting at a 45 degree angle
to the back-side of the tank glass. So the front
should be on the floor and to the front,
and the top should
be 6 inches above the bedding and to the back.
Do the same to the opposite side of the tank,
except reverse the front-back placement.
Make sure it's 2 inches from the left and right
sides. They can build a tunnel along the sides
between the ladders too.
Now put the rest of the aspen on top of the entire
structure, shake some into and behind
the ladders. Don't place any into tubes that are
sticking out.
Now importantly, pack all the aspen down until its
firmed up a bit.
You should have a structure that's about 9"
high.
Introduce the gerbils and let them goto
work.
Come back in 6 hours.
They will have dug everything down below into a
chamber maze, and everything on top
should be gerbil terraformed into hills and
valleys. They'll be very tired-out
to-boot!
After a few more hours things will be settled down
enough where you can place a bowl
of food into a corner along with the water bottle
(you may need to position it away from
any hills) as well
as their toys and tissue paper they will tear up and bring below for
nesting.
Behavior changes;
Compulsive digging will have stopped.
Gerbils may start acting 'out-of' captivity, and
be more likely to exhibit natural instincts and
escape down below more often. No problem here, you can unveil the chambers and
observe them like I have done by removing a cardboard background I have taped onto
the
outside glass sides for privacy.
Enjoy.
Me
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