One thing great about having gerbils is that they take small naps throughout the day and aren’t at all grumpy at being woken up. Since the weather has gone considerably colder than when I first got them (during summer), they have started sleeping curled up in tiny balls of fluff…
BUT of lately, due to the overall warmth of the apartment (heating has gone up since it’s just a few days shy of winter), the gerbils have taken to stretching out on their bedding just to snooze with ease (sometimes they even sleep belly-up but sorry, no pics of that!)…here’s a look at what I mean.
While I’m busy with my spinning and stuff, the gerbils are busy with their own stuff, especially warming up the wheel the old-fashioned way. I just want to go snooze after looking at this pic!!!! XD
It has been a while since I last shared pictures about these two boys. We have had them for nearly two months now and am glad to say that they are finally getting used to the idea of being picked up and all. Scratch no longer nips when confronted with a hand and Emile is bolder, choosing to climb all over my hand at every chance he gets.
We were very fortunate to pick up a glass tank that someone had unceremoniously dumped at the rubbish bin. There was not a single scratch on it and it was just the right size for a play tank. We could always move them permanently there but I think it’s better to have a separate play tank where they can dig and climb around like crazy. Anyway, here are a couple of my favourite shots. For more, do check out the entire set on my Flickr page here.
…utterly adorable.
When Scratch is looking around…
…and so is Emile…
Just because they look adorable…
These were taken while I was busy working with my dyepot – I guess they are pretty used to all the noise and such. The two boys loves to nap during the early mornings and mid-afternoon, choosing to get super active around breakfast and dinner time. Why? Because that’s usually when I’m feeding or handling them! Can’t you tell that they are all about food and play? ^.~
A gerbil’s teeth are constantly growing – similar to guinea pigs, rabbits, etc – and as such, they require hard objects such as wood, branches and logs to gnaw on. Failure to provide such objects to gerbils (or any other similar animal) often results in overgrown teeth which can lead to starvation and pain.
I’ve set up their main tank with a few log tunnels but decided to add a little more in their playpen which is connected via a tunnel. Anything is game really, as long as it isn’t plastic and is safe to swallow – things like cardboard, pine cones and more logs. Since my mother-in-law has a few apple trees in her garden, I thought it’d be nice to throw in some branches as well. I sunned them together with the pine cones for a few days and toss them into the playpen.
As you can see, they were an instant hit!
When there is food and TP (toilet paper rolls), our two little boys get all hyper and excited! Of course, they each have their own preference – Emile prefers food and Scratch likes cardboard more than anything else!
And of course, there is that pose that they strike once in a while; this time, it’s Emile.
I thought I’d zip out the camera and take a photo of the two boys today…they are a lot less skittish but still, the camera needs some getting used to. I decided to use Hubby’s instead of mine simply because his makes less of a ruckus when it’s snapping or focusing.
As you can see, I still have a long way to go before churning out “worthy” shots but this is my favourite so far…
