Gerbil

This page is educational reference material for preparing questions. A licensed veterinarian examines the animal, makes the diagnosis, and sets the treatment.

Housing needs

Gerbils weigh about 2 to 4 ounces and often live 3 to 5 years. They are awake in bursts through the day and evening. A 10-gallon tank with an inch of bedding is not enough. They want deep bedding to dig, a wheel, and a lid, because they chew plastic and they kick bedding out of short cages.

Pairs do better than singles. Watch for a gerbil that is barbered bald or sleeping apart and bleeding. That pair is over. Seizures happen in some lines and look terrifying. A one-off seizure still deserves a note to a vet. A gerbil that is seizing and not recovering needs help the same day.

Health and California law

The orange scent gland on the belly is normal. A sore that grows is not. Teeth overgrow if the gerbil cannot chew. A fat face can be an impacted cheek pouch. ASPCA covers small-mammal basics. A gerbil that ignores food is small enough to crash quickly, which is why the not-eating page matters.

Steppe burrowers, then a lab colony

The pet gerbil is Meriones unguiculatus, the Mongolian gerbil, from arid steppe in Mongolia, northern China, and the Russian borderlands. Wild gerbils dig family burrows and spend the hot part of the day underground. The animals in pet shops come from laboratory colonies started in the twentieth century, which is why you see black, pied, and nutmeg coats that a steppe burrow would not hide. The digging habit did not leave with the color mutation.

Footprint, depth, and a dry room

The quick-facts row says 10 gallons and up with deep bedding. The note under Desert rats that need a tunnel is the one to follow: a 10-gallon tank with an inch of bedding cannot hold a burrow. A same-sex pair needs a footprint that can hold a tunnel, a nest, and a wheel at the same time. A 40-gallon breeder, about 36 by 18 inches, or a tank near 100 by 50 centimeters, is the size that works. Put down 8 to 12 inches of paper, aspen, or hemp. Glass beats a thin plastic bin, because gerbils chew out of bins. The lid is mesh and it latches. A solid wheel around 8 to 11 inches keeps the tail straight. Wire wheels catch toes.

Room temperature around 65 to 75°F suits them. Heat into the 80s is when they sprawl and stop eating. Damp bedding and a muggy room go with nasal dermatitis, the raw pink nose keepers call sore nose. If you smell ammonia, the clean is already late. Spot the wet corners twice a week and change most of the bedding before it compacts, leaving a clean handful of the old nest so the pair still recognizes the house.

Daily diet

The table lists gerbil food, hay, and vegetables. Put a fortified pellet in the dish, or a mix that stays mostly pellet rather than sunflower seed, about a teaspoon to a tablespoon per gerbil each day. Add a tuft of timothy or meadow hay they can shred, and a few bites of rinsed food a few evenings a week: a cucumber slice, a cilantro stem, a piece of carrot. Sunflower seeds are a counting treat. A bottle of fresh water, checked, because a clogged sipper looks full. A gerbil that is round and skips the wheel is overfed. A gerbil that is hollow over the hips has stopped eating, and an animal this size does not have a spare day. That is the not-eating page.

Seizures, the scent gland, and illness

Some lines seize. A short seizure, with the gerbil upright and eating afterward, still gets written in a notebook and mentioned to a veterinarian. Clusters, or a gerbil that does not come back around the same day, are a clinic visit now. Do not put a finger or a drug from the dog cabinet in the mouth. The orange patch on the belly is the ventral scent gland and it belongs there. A lump, an ulcer, or a bad smell on that patch does not. Incisors that miss, and a face swollen on one side from a packed cheek pouch, are the dental problems. Tyzzer's disease, a bacterial gut infection, shows up as diarrhea, a staring coat, and deaths in a group that was stressed or newly mixed. Isolate the sick animal, dump soaked bedding, and see an exotic-mammal veterinarian. A bottle of bird antibiotic from a feed store will not treat this.

Tail skin that slides off is the degloving injury in the questions below. What is left of the tail often needs a veterinary amputation. Wrapped and left alone, the tail dries and infects.

Hands, smell, and nails

Let a gerbil walk into a cup or onto a flat hand. A pinch on the tail pulls the skin off. They do not get baths. A chinchilla dust bath dries the nose of a gerbil and does not belong in the tank. Nails wear down in deep bedding. A nail that has curled into the pad needs someone who has trimmed one before, or the clinic. Do not hand a child the clippers for a first try.

The dig is the exercise

Cardboard tubes, a willow ball, and a wooden house they can bury and rebuild are the toys that get used. An exercise ball cooks a small rodent and catches toes. Floor time is a dry bathtub or a pen with no gaps under the door, and only while a person is in the room. They fit under a door and they chew the baseboard on the way.

October 2026 prices, and the vet you call first

These are planning ranges for a US shopper in October 2026. A receipt from your own shops will differ. A 40-gallon breeder plus a locking screen lid often sits between $80 and $180. The first deep load of paper bedding is about $20 to $40, then roughly $15 to $30 a month to keep that depth. Food for two, if you are not buying sunflower-heavy mixes, is about $8 to $15 a month. The pair itself is often $20 to $60 from a rescue or a careful home, which is the small number. An exotic-mammal exam is commonly $80 to $200 before any test. Phone the clinic before the gerbils have names and ask whether they see Meriones. A dog-and-cat practice will send you across town on the day the pouch is stuck.

States where gerbils are illegal

California does not allow gerbils as pets. The Department of Fish and Wildlife lists them with ferrets, hedgehogs, and sugar gliders, and says restricted-species permits cover research, exhibition, education, or shelter. A pet kept in a bedroom does not qualify. Fish and Game Code section 2118 restricts rodents, with exceptions that name Syrian hamsters, certain domestic mice and rats, guinea pigs, and not Meriones. Title 14, section 671, adds domesticated Phodopus hamsters and chinchillas to the exceptions and still does not name gerbils. Hawaii's Department of Agriculture lists gerbils as prohibited for private possession. A website that will ship to a California zip code has not changed either statute. Read CDFW's restricted-pet page and Hawaii's animal guidelines, then your city, which can add a ban the state did not.

A pair for someone home in the evening

Someone who wants two animals, a deep tank, and activity in the evening can learn this. A child can pour the measured food. A child should not be the one who grabs, because a tail slip takes one pinch. Cats in the house are a lid problem. Gerbils do not share a cage with hamsters, mice, or a stranger from the shop added to a lonely survivor. Adult introductions often end in blood. They are a bad fit for a person who wants a daytime lap pet or a tank in a steamy bathroom.

Before you buy

Ask for a same-sex pair that already lives together. Watch them sleep in one pile. A bald spot, a gerbil sleeping alone, or blood on the bedding means that pair is finished. Look at the nose, both eyes, and the belly gland. A wet nose or a head tilt is a reason to walk out. Ask which pellet they eat so the food does not change in the car. Have the clinic's name, and have your state wildlife page open, before the tank is in the back seat.

Gerbil questions

Can gerbils live alone?

They can, and many are miserable that way. A same-sex pair from a young age is the usual plan. Adult strangers often fight. Do not add a new gerbil to a grieving one without a careful split cage.

Why are they illegal in some places?

California bans gerbils as pets. Other states do not. Check your state before you treat a pet-store tank as permission.

What is a degloved tail?

The skin can pull off a gerbil tail if you grab it. Never pick a gerbil up by the tail. The injury often means amputating what is left.

How deep should gerbil bedding be?

Eight to twelve inches in a tank with the footprint of a 40-gallon breeder or about 100 by 50 centimeters. A 10-gallon tank with a shallow layer is the setup the care section rejects.

What temperature do gerbils need?

About 65 to 75°F, dry, with no ammonia smell. Heat in the 80s and damp bedding go with a gerbil that stops eating or develops a raw nose.

How much do gerbils cost to keep?

As of October 2026, a proper tank and lid often run $80 to $180, bedding about $15 to $30 a month, and food for a pair about $8 to $15 a month. The exotic exam, commonly $80 to $200 before tests, costs more than the animals.