Gerbil Nature

The Mongolian gerbil is an inquisitive and friendly animal. Their behaviour is very unique and you can get hours of pleasure and enjoyment just by watching them run around and go about their day.

Gerbils are very intelligent creatures and they are known to take on a personality of their own, anyone who has owned a pet gerbil can understand this. They don’t keep still for very long as they are always climbing, sniffing, running and investigating everything around them with a fearless nature.

Be careful what you leave in reach of your gerbil as whatever is available is usually chewed to bits, not much escapes their gnawing teeth. In the wild gerbils chew and gnaw to find food and scratch their surroundings to widen their living space, while not practical in a cage they will still do it. Look for what toys are on the market that have been designed for your gerbil to chew apart and destroy.

Gerbils will explore their surrounding everyday in their natural habitat and in captivity, this is how they search for food. They also guard their nest and territory against any invaders. When a gerbil comes into a new area they have not been to before, they will quickly try to claim it as their own and mark it with scent that they use to distinguish between territories.

During the day gerbils will groom themselves a lot by moistening their paws with their tongue and clean the mouth and whisker areas. They move their paws all the way across their fur to their ears. You will notice that your gerbil can clean its ears with it’s hind legs and it stretches its tail all the way around and slides it between its paws to clean it thoroughly.

Your gerbil will enjoy sand baths every now and then, which will helps to clean off dirt and oil from their coat. Note that gerbils do not normally enjoy bathing in water although the do know how to swim, if they do fall in any water you should rescue them quickly.