I thought that it would be nice to keep the gerbils familiar with our hands on days that we do not pick them up. So I stroked both of them gently while they were eating in the food dish. They feel so tiny and I was very careful to be gentle. It makes me feel big and clunky in comparison. I also stroked Gizmo’s tail while he was eating. I’m not sure if it’s just because we don’t have them, but I find it very interesting. They only seem to have control at the base of the tail, the rest of it just follows them around. I think it’s very funny when you can just see a little tail sticking up out of the teapot.

They went through another tube today, I’m not sure how we’ll keep up with them. I think maybe if I put the tubes together in interesting ways it may take them longer to destroy them. I glued three tubes together with non-toxic white craft glue. I am going to wait until tomorrow to give them it so that it has definitely dried.

Gizmo is certainly getting darker than he was. I had a search online and found that it is called ticking. It is showing now because he is moulting his baby coat and getting his grown up gerbil coat.

Drumming

Gnawing now seems to be one of their favoured activities, because their toilet roll had been chewed right through. They have also been gnawing the jingly ball too. I have taken it back out of the cage, because I’m not keen on them gnawing plastic. They can play with it in the wash tub.

We had another play with them in the wash tub. They are still quite hard to catch mainly because they are so fast. They seem to enjoy having a change of scenery though and some different toys to play with. It's funny, when they wee in the tub I wipe it up with tissue, apparently tissue is very interesting to gerbils, they want to get it. I think it may be because it seems like nice bedding. It does make it hard to wipe up their mess when they keep trying to grab the tissue.

Some new behaviour again today. Gadget started drumming with his back legs. I'm not sure why, I know that normally they do so when they are scared or as a warning. There wasn't any noticeable thing to scare them though, no loud noises or sudden movements. He kept going for some time, so I'm not sure if he just worked out he could do that. Perhaps he was claiming the cage? I'll watch out for it happening again, hopefully he wasn't scared, just practicing.

I gave them some apple today. This is one fresh food that they both seem to like. They had a good nibble before getting bored.

One other thing, looking at Gizmo, I think that he is getting darker in colour. I'll keep an eye on that, maybe it is to do with him growing up.

They seem happy to use the new tube to get up and down, and don’t seem to be missing the sock. Both of them seem to enjoy sliding down the tube, but there are a few squeaks if the other one is sat at the bottom.

The wheel is back to being their toilet again, so much for running in it. They don’t seem to be very impressed by the jingly ball either.

They pushed it almost in front of their green tube, so that they have to hop over it to get out. Apart from that they didn't seem to move it around much or to be that bothered about it jingling.

Gadget has been climbing again today, and I managed to get a picture. It isn't great, but you can see what he's doing. There is also a picture of Gadget gathering paper for the teapot.

I’ve noticed that they have started scuffling with each other. I think it is because they are both growing up, and trying to establish territory. It isn’t anything nasty; it tends to start of with sniffing each other’s noses, then pinning each other. I will keep an eye on it though in case it starts to become more serious.

Something else I noticed today was a peculiar noise that they were making. Not their usual squeaks that they make when one of them steps on the other one, but a rhythmic lower pitched squeak. I wondered if it was something else making the noise, but it went on for quite a time and was definitely coming from them. They were sat in the teapot at the time. I’m not sure if it was one or both of them, but I will listen out for it happening again. I may even be able to get a recording of it.

First Clean Out

Today was their first clean out. I felt a bit mean messing up all of their paper constructions, but at least it keeps their minds busy if they have to rebuild. We put the boys into the washtub for a play while I was cleaning. We gave them their log to play with and a cardboard box with some paper in.

I tipped out all of the old bedding from the cage and cleared out the teapot. After a wipe and time to dry I put a good layer of wood shavings on their floor, followed by lots of shredded paper. I also removed the socktraption, because we had found a more permanent solution in the form of a long tube. I tie-wrapped this to the edge of the cage to provide a tunnel down from the top floor. I had to move the wheel to the left side of the cage so that the tube would fit in. I refreshed the water and dry food, put some new bedding in the teapot and put the cage back together again.

When the gerbils were back in their cage they quickly ran round everywhere, looking at the new layout. They were soon upstairs, and Gizmo was slightly alarmed that the sock was no longer in place. He came to the edge, where the sock should have been and looked over. Gadget meanwhile had discovered the new tube, zoomed down it and then back up again. Gizmo soon realised that he could cope with this new way down too. The tube looks better than the sock too.

Gizmo took a few steps in the newly cleaned wheel, but did not seem that keen on running in it. Oh, I almost forgot, I have also given them a jingly ball that we bought for them. I put it in the cage when it was clean, they didn't seem very interested, but I'll see how they go.

New tube toy

The gerbils had a mad half hour today, zooming around, interested in everything. They seem to be active in bursts and then need to have a sleep. I remember reading that gerbils behave like this, but I have seen it for myself.

I constructed a new tube toy for them today. It consists of a suspended toilet roll tube held up by two strings attached to the top of the cage. Well it did, it now only has one string. While there were two strings both Gadget and Gizmo climbed through the tube. The photo is the only one that I got of one of them in it, so please excuse the bars. Gadget was first to do so, as you may have guessed.

It was Gizmo who chewed through one of the strings though. He just stood on his back legs and chewed until he got through it. You can see him carrying on chewing the now severed string in the photo.

Gadget came to have a chew too, and while he was busy Gizmo found something that looked like string and decided to chew it. Unfortunately it was Gadget's tail! He squeaked and Gizmo soon stopped, I would have thought he would know the difference. The picture shows the moment about to happen, I didn't realise at the time what Gizmo was thinking but it looks pretty clear here.

Now it is much harder for them to get in, because the tube moves around more. It is also hard for them to chew the other string, for the same reason. It is fun to think of new toys for them to play with, and hopefully fun for them to investigate and play with them.

I gave them some broccoli today, they seemed to like it. They were more interested in the top part than the stem. Something else I noticed today is that they have excavated some of their paper ramp that leads up to the teapot, around by the spout. They seem to like going behind the teapot.

The w(h)eel

This morning there was even more paper in the teapot. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to get any more in there, but I'm not a gerbil. There was also more evidence of digging around the back.

I also did some gerbil research and found that Gadget's colour is lilac, and Gizmo is known as a dark eyed honey or sooty fawn. The gerbil book I have mentioned that lilac gerbils tend to be clever, so it seems that it is in Gadget's nature.

The toilet roll tube was nearly chewed all of the way through. They certainly do like chewing things, Gadget still has a nibble of your hand when you put it in the cage.

I thought that Gizmo was learning how to use the wheel, because he took a couple of steps in it. I later worked out that this was because he was digging with his back feet, because both he and Gadget had decided to use the wheel as a toilet. This is quite good in a way, because it keeps their cage cleaner, but it isn't so good because they can't use their wheel without having an unwanted shower.

I tried them with a bit of carrot, they both had a nibble but didn't seem very interested. I tried them with a bit of cheese too, but they didn't even try that.

This evening we had a play with them, because we wanted to get them used to our hands. It was fun to hold them, but they are very active, so it is hard to keep hold of them.

We used our solid wash tub, with some of their toys in. It is deep enough to stop them climbing out, but lets us pick them up easily. This was the first time that they had a play with their log tube. They really enjoyed it, running in and out of the different holes and chewing the bark off. I put it in the cage for a bit and they had a good play. I decided that I would take it out overnight, or it would have been completely chewed in the morning.

Settling in

The boys had piled up loads of paper making a ramp to their teapot this morning. They seemed very snuggly. They even tucked paper in the entrance so they were completely sheltered. You can see this on the photo. They had dug out around the back of the teapot too, you can just about make this out.

They woke up when we were eating breakfast and came upstairs to sniff the cereal smell. We made egg sandwiches for lunch and I tried giving a little of the hard-boiled egg. Gadget sniffed it, but neither of them nibbled any. I left it in the cage, but it hadn't been touched when we came back from work. The sock was a tiny bit chewed, but only in one little patch. It was still working as a ramp for Gizmo.

Gadget still comes over to your hand to investigate, when you put it in the cage. Gizmo is still shy, but he does come over, just more tentatively.

I also noticed that they had been hoarding food from their food dish behind the wheel.

They seem settled with their teapot as a bed now.