Hi! My two gerbils are 9 weeks old and are doing well, but for some reason, they will still pee and poop all over the second level of their cage. They do have a toilet, which they ALSO use.… not to mention the wheel which is always a good spot for a pee 🙄
Any suggestions on how to direct them to use just the toilet? could This be a phase they will grow out of?
in the meantime, what is the best cleaning material? The second level surface is a slate slab. Any type of wet wipes that are safe to use? I thought about putting a pee pad on half the surface of the slab, but worry about the material not being safe for them?
thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions!
Xx
This is where they were for a couple of days
They had been treated, so I think it was just an egg that had been left behind…. I put Xeno 50 on them and kept them in another cage with just kitchen roll for a couple of days. Then baked all the wooden toys, disposed of any that couple be replaced and desinfected the bin before adding brand new bedding. It should be good now, but will reapply the medication in a couple of weeks :)
I’ve tried a bunch of different toilets, none actually worked yet. Glass jars, ceramic bowls… I also noticed that they tend to bring the sand out with them when they step out of it as well… I’m trying to get a tunnel to connect the cage to the playpen… Any suggestions of connector tubes? The ramp is too open and I’m pretty sure Theo will see it as an invite to adventures.
Vincent really isn’t keen on going out, so at most he will come to my hand and keep one paw in the cage. Which is fine. I’m trying to slowly build his confidence. Theo on the other hand is an adventurer and explorer. A little daredevil who will sometimes escape my hand with a sudden jump to freely run around the livingroom. Problem is the more times this happens, the more confident he gets that he doesn’t need me…. Took me 30 minutes yesterday to manage to get him back in his cage 😄
Well they are still young, they may get better with age, but they will still pee and poo everywhere as they use these as scent marks too ☺️ A few ways to encourage them to use your toilet more would be to make sure it's covered, I hung some toilet roll and toys around mine to give them a more sheltered area, you can also leave a tiny bit of pee and poo buried right at the bottom of the sand bath to signal that it's a toilet location, but they will probably always do it a little bit You can use baby wipes, it just needs to be unscented ☺️ I wouldn't use puppy pads as they'll most likely chew it and it's not safe for them. Is all your platform slate? Xx