Are gerbils truly assholes?

[LaraMN]

I've heard they are pets with nasty temperaments. Is this typical of the species? What about hamsters? Any good? Do they freak out and pee on your hand constantly?

My son says he would really like "a hamster or a gerbil or a lizard".

[TZ]

1. one of my sisters gerbils got out of its cage in the middle of the night

and came into my room and bit me on the knuckles while I was sleeping...this was 20+ years ago and I STILL sleep differently (hands tucked under pillows) because of that.
IMHO, don't get a black gerbil..we had both and it seemed the ones that had the black fur were meaner...

[LaraMN]

4. Omg! It STALKED you down to hurt you!

That does not bode well!

[Jamastiene]

18. I had a black gerbil once and it was pretty sweet.

:think:

[Arugula Latte]

21. Gerbil racist!

:P


:rofl:

[TZ]

22. Pffft!

:rofl:

[arcadian]

2. Is somebody going to post a Richard Gere joke?

Or have we decided not to go that route?

[LaraMN]

5. It's almost too easy.

Particularly given that I made an asshole reference in the OP.

[arcadian]

10. You shouldn't call gerbils assholes.

They might piss in your hand for doing so. :rofl:

[peekaloo]

15. so long as it's not the one about gerbils being lousy drivers

because they get stuck in Gere.

[arcadian]

19. RG has really marred the reputations of all gerbils.

Most gerbils are trying to pass themselves off as hamsters.

[GoneOffShore]

29. Or a Jerry Penacoli joke.

IBTL

[jobycom]

3. I had several hamsters as kids. One lived an amazingly long time.

They were very good pets. Docile, cute, somewhat interactive. They didn't pee on me. The only problem was that they would sometimes escape when you were playing with them. My parents once had to take the fabric off our couch to recover one who had burrowed into the thing. That same one escaped one too many times, and wound up on the wrong end of the food chain. Somewhat traumatic memory for me as a kid, come to think of it.

Don't let them wander too much, and keep them away from your pet cats, and they are darned fine little beastie pets.

[LaraMN]

6. I saw one get loose and be stepped on at my son's school

during an after-school event.

That HAD to traumatize a few kids, because it horrified me!

[jobycom]

12. Ich!

Yeah, something about watching one beloved pet gnawing on the worn skull of another beloved pet will change your perspective of the world. Kind of lets you know that it goes on even when you aren't there to watch it. :)

[kath]

7. Oh NOES!! "gerbils" and "assholes" in the same sentence....

EEK!

[SoxFan]

8. I post this without further comment

[LaraMN]

11. Let's put this to rest once and for all.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/celebrities/a/richard_gere.htm


"The rumor that started all this fuss goes something like this:

Several years ago, 'they' say, Richard Gere was admitted into the emergency room of a Los Angeles hospital with a foreign object lodged in his rectum... An x-ray was taken and it was determined that the foreign object was a gerbil... Mr. Gere was rushed to surgery, where it took an entire team of doctors to extract the animal from his behind. Some variants say the gerbil was found to have been shaven and declawed; others claim the animal had been placed in a special plastic pouch. Still others insist the poor creature was Gere's own beloved pet... In any event, when the gerbilectomy was done the medical team was sworn to secrecy — unsuccessfully, we must conclude — and Gere went on his merry way, suffering no permanent harm other than to his reputation...'Is it true?' you ask?...No. Not a shred of evidence has ever been unearthed to prove it."

[Deep13]

14. I figured it was false.

Still funny though. Just like jokes about lemmings are funny even though they do not in fact commit mass suicide.

[arcadian]

13. They say, some gerbils will leave you 'breathless'.

[NJmaverick]

9. Gerbils are not particularly ill tempered by they are much more active than hamsters

hamsters are nocturnal so they are sluggish during the day. Still neither of these animals particularly like being handled. I had both as kids (multiple tanks of them). I can tell you I feel bit bad for them. They spend their waking existence trying to get out of their captivity.

[MineralMan]

16. For small pets, I recommend

Guinea pigs. They are larger, less fearful, and less likely to bite, eat their young, or escape from their cages. Guinea pigs tame down well. If you breed them, the young are born running, looking just like little guinea pigs, and nurse for just a couple of weeks. Guinea pig births are seemingly effortless.

[Jamastiene]

17. Sometimes, they have personalities that clash with some people.

I get along great with them, but then again I'm a cat person. The reason I say cat person is that they are like bossy little cats in a rat's body, I would say.

If you get the youngest one you can find and train it while it is still young though, you will have a great pet who doesn't bite.

My Emmet was one of the best pets I ever had. He slept in my flannel shirt pocket and went everywhere with me except school. He had an exercise ball that he used to chase the dogs around in (for fun). He walked outside on a leash. My mother made him a special collar and leash for him with pretty fake rhinestones on the collar. He was a great little guy. I miss him.

He was very tame and calm around the family. It wasn't that way when he first came home, but with the time I spent with him, he came to love me and respond to me. He never bit me.

He did bite my aunt once, but he didn't want her rearranging his cage. She was picking on him (lightheartedly, but still picking) and he didn't like that. He had his cage a certain way and wanted it kept that way. I got a cardboard box and cut it down to hold the bottom half of his cage. I cut it into a picket fence shape and painted a picket fence and a mailbox with his name on it. It served three purposes. It made his home look nice (and made it look like he had a yard). It kept a nice warmth barrier around his cage to keep his body heat in (as my room was fairly cool). And it kept any of his seed hulls from flying out too far into the floor.

Inside his cage, I had placed a box shaped like a bed for him to make his bed in. I would give him cardboard tubes from empty toilet paper rolls to build his bedding with. He always put the bedding in his bed. He wanted it in that spot and not moved around. When I cleaned his cage, I would put it back where he liked it. He just didn't want my aunt touching his bed.

Later, I had two gerbils at one time. Their names were Dusty Rhodes and Half Pint. They weren't as bossy as Emmett. They were more friendly toward other people beside just me. They were great pets, although never quite as opinionated or charismatic as Emmett.

So, like I said. It is a personality thing. If you give one half a chance to interact with you based on their personality and work with what personality (or attitude in Emmet's case) they bring to the family, you won't have any problems.

[Justyce]

20. Guinea pigs have a great temperament & we've never had one

with any kind of mean streak at all. Very sweet pets who like attention.

When we were kids, we had a gerbil that bit my little brother's finger & wouldn't let go... I don't recommend gerbils. Hamsters are good, but guinea pigs are better. (JMO, we've had them all)

[PassingFair]

30. Agree, Guinea Pigs are the way to go...

They are cute, make cute noises, and
seem to actually LIKE people.

Also, look into:

[MineralMan]

31. Plus, they have this sweet whistling sound they make...

Open the fridge to get them a piece of carrot about three times, and they will whistle at you every time you open the fridge for the rest of their lives.

One thing about guinea pigs, though: They do not make their own vitamin C, so you have to feed them something with that vitamin in it on a regular basis. Also, they pee a lot, so you do have to keep current with cage cleaning. Other than that, they are pretty much the perfect small pet.

Oh, yeah...like rabbits, they eat their little poop pellets the first time they poop them. This second eating extracts more nutrients. Just don't pay any attention to this feature.

[Kali]

23. nurture makes a big difference here

(I worked in a pet store for many years and have had them all at one time or another)

In general given no other differences, hamsters are more likely to bite, but handling calmly and gently while young makes a huge difference in rodent type pets.

My natural laziness led me to prefer gerbils because they are true desert animals and don't drink as much water at hamsters, rats, and mice. Drinking less = peeing less, in case that needs to be spelled out and it all means less stench and cleaning!

Rats are the most intelligent and will learn to do more interesting things if given the time and training.

In terms of handling - early and gentle applies to reptiles too.

[wickerwoman]

24. I always had good luck with gerbils.

You can buy them a little clear plastic ball to run around inside (just don't forget about them.)

My brother had hamsters and they ate each other. Ditto guinea pigs. You have to be careful about the genders you buy because they can be really territorial and cannibalistic.

[PeaceNikki]

25. Dwarf hamsters are the coolest little fuckers ever. Get him one.

[Fire Walk With Me]

26. If something as disproportionately large as a human to a gerbil

reached into my home and picked me up, I'd likely bite it as well.

[arcadian]

27. This thread should be combined with the 'Fur or Not to Fur' thread.

Mods?

[DS1]

28. No, they're just attracted to them

[TK421]

32. I had hamsters as a kid...they were pretty cool

we also had a guinea pig; I would recommend either of those

[deoxyribonuclease]

33. Gerbils are social and friendly

Gerbils tend to be cleaner, more active during 'normal' hours, and more curious than hamsters. Because of their social nature you should always house gerbils in groups of 2 or more of the same gender.

Since they are desert creatures, gerbils don't produce as much urine as hamsters.

[XemaSab]

34. Hamsters are nasty

Get a rat. They're sweet. :)