Hello everyone!

I'm new to the forum. I'm Laura and I have 3 cats, 2 gerbils and 2 tortoises. My gerbils, Heidi and Mysti, are over a year old and they live in a fish tank that is 2ft 6" in length. I've been told this is an adequate size for them but ideally I would like something bigger for them. I have them in a fish tank because of my cats - they are sneaky buggers and would have their claws through the bars of a cage in no time!

I've been looking at bigger fish tanks with a beech cabinet on the bottom (perhaps a 4ft tank) but they are extremely expensive so I started looking at vivariums (again, 4ft) but again they're quite expensive. We've also talking about building our own but I was looking into different woods as I know treated wood or certain woods can be poisonous to gerbils. Are there any particular woods that are ok? Also, with gerbils weeing everywhere they like it can end up everywhere - is there anyway I can stop the wood going 'funny'?

Does any of this sound ok? Is this ok for gerbils? Has anyone else made there own and can offer any advice?

Laura xx

I made a cage for gerbils a few years back. I used plain untreated pine (what you would use for chinchillas/degus) and never had a problem. To stop the pee soaking into the wood, coat it in either Plastikote, non- toxic wood preserver/varnish, or childrens crafts PVA glue which is safe as it is non toxic. Gerbils chew incessantly, as you almost certainly know!, so I give mine loads of cardboard to keep them occupied. I would highly recommend you do this - otherwise your lovely new cage might well end up as sawdust

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