Our Blog Is Moving!

We are moving our blog to WordPress... In order to ensure that no previous posts are lost during the transition, the new blog will be at www.twinsqueaks.com/gerbilblog.

Yes, we'll take a hit in our search-engine rankings for moving the blog... But we'd rather take that chance than risk losing previous posts and comments, and Blogger's migration tool isn't working so great at the moment.

We'll work on getting links redirected to the new blog address, and we hope you'll follow us over there in the meantime!

Happy Birthday, Bach!

Bach turned three months old today!

We can’t believe how fast the baby of Twin Squeaks has grown up! It seems like just yesterday that he was a tiny five-week-old pup at the Midwest Gerbil Show! We took the photo to the right today.

Bach celebrated his birthday by turning a Pop Tarts box into a new nesting box and by creating a lot of new tunnels in his tank. He’s also been hard at work, gnawing on a couple new chew toys.

The birthday boy is all worn out now and snuggled up for a nap with his tankmate Sebastian. :)

Featured Shelter Gerbil: Robbie

Today’s Featured Shelter Gerbil is Robbie, a very handsome fellow who is at the Texas Rustlers Guinea Pig Rescue in Double Oak, Texas, waiting for a new home.

Robbie’s adoption fee is $5. For more information, please visit Robbie’s Petfinder page.

Sebastian & Bach “Dance”

I took this photo of Sebastian and Bach last weekend. It cracks me up. Looks like they’re dancing! :-D

Featured Shelter Gerbil: Reba

UPDATE: Dec. 13^th - Reba is no longer looking for a home.

Today’s Featured Shelter Gerbil is Reba, an adorable little cutie who was abandoned at the beginning of September. Reba is at the SPCA of Texas - McKinney.

How Do You Clean Your Gerbils’ Tanks?

I thought it would be interesting to ask all of you how you clean your gerbils’ tanks. Any great tips??? If so, please leave a comment on this post and share with everyone!

I’ll share a few of my own to get things started.

In the past, I used a shop-vac to get the last of the bedding out of the bottom of the tank. It worked really well, but the air in my apartment’s so dry that the shop-vac generated too much static electricity, even when I used a humidifier. But it might be a good tip for those of you who have better climate control in your homes!

One thing I currently do is use a large dog food scoop to shovel the bedding out of the tank. It works great when cleaning tanks that are too heavy to pick up and dump before some of the bedding is removed.

Finally, I’ve only found one thing that works to pick up small bits of gerbil bedding and gerbil food that land on the floor while cleaning. Shark’s cordless sweepers do a great job of picking up loose bedding and food, even along the edges of walls. (Notice: I have no association with Shark whatsoever. I just wanted to share, because I’ve tried so many types of vacuum cleaners and sweepers over the years. Most just pick up food and bedding and toss them back out again.) I think the model I have is the VX3. It’s not perfect, but it does a really good job of picking up gerbil “debris.”

So what tips do you all have? How do you get the bedding out of your tanks? Get the inside of the tank clean? Keep from spilling bedding on the floor? Keep your gerbils busy and happy after a tank cleaning? Please share your tank-cleaning tips here!

Gerbils In The News: Gerbil Agility!

Just stumbled across this article on gerbil agility training. Enjoy!

Bach Stretches & Yawns

Stretch. YAWWWNNNN!

Isn't Bach just too cute?? :)

Gerbils In The News: H1N1 & Gerbils

You may have read recently about cats and ferrets contracting the H1N1 flu. According to this article at NewsWest9.com, gerbils and other pocket pets are also susceptible to H1N1.

If this story is true, what does it mean for our beloved gerbils?

Continue to wash your hands both before and after handling your gerbils. Because our gerbils don’t typically leave our homes, we are not likely to contract H1N1 from our gerbils. Our gerbils are much more likely to contract the flu from us.

It’s good practice to wash our hands before and after handling our gerbils anyway. There are the obvious health reasons, but also, because gerbils recognize each other by scent, it’s important to wash hands to ensure that gerbils don’t smell other gerbils, perfume, etc. on our hands. (Foreign smells can cause two gerbils to fight.)

For the reasons listed above, for years, I’ve kept a bottle of hand sanitizer next to each of my gerbils’ tanks, and I’ve used it before and after handling my gerbils.

If H1N1 can be transmitted between humans and gerbils, keeping hand sanitizer next to each gerbil tank has even more value.

Featured Shelter Gerbils: Crush & Chunks

UPDATE: Crush and Chunks are still looking for a home as of December 26th! Let’s help them find a home for the new year!

Today’s Featured Shelter Gerbils are Crush & Chunks, a very cute pair of boys at the Humane Society of Sarasota County in Sarasota, Florida.

Crush and Chunks came to the shelter with their mother and sister. The adoption fee for Crush and Chunks is $10, and the boys should be adopted together so they can keep each other company.

If you’re in the Sarasota area and can help these boys find a home, please visit their Petfinder page.

Cassie Follows In Herman’s Pawprints

You may remember that Herman was a talented show-jumping gerbil.

This week, we let Herman’s great-granddaughter Cassie try show jumping, and we discovered that she has a natural skill for show-jumping, too!

This video was taken less than 10 minutes into Cassie’s first training session. :)

Meet Bach!

Please welcome Bach to Twin Squeaks!

Bach is a black pup that we adopted at the Midwest Gerbil Show from Donna of ABC Gerbils in New Hampshire.

Bach was just five weeks old at the time, the perfect age to introduce to Sebastian, who had been living alone since his dad passed away last month.

Bach is a great little pup. He’s exceptionally friendly and loves to hop in my hand.

Sebastian and Bach were split-caged for several days, and then, last week, I put on a pair of gloves, just in case, and I removed the divider. Bach crept over to Sebastian, and Sebastian immediately started grooming him! The introduction was very peaceful, and the boys have been doing great ever since!

Sebastian seems happy to have a pup to care for, and Bach is happy to have been “adopted” by an older gerbil.

And I’m thrilled to see Sebastian and Bach have each other to play with and snuggle with. :)

Featured Rescue Gerbils: Beans & Oats

UPDATE: Beans & Oats are still looking for a home as of December 26th. If you haven’t seen their video yet, please check it out on their Petfinder page.

Today’s Featured Rescue Gerbils are Beans & Oats.

Beans is the black gerbil, and Oats is the spotted one. They are lovely, adorable little boys who are waiting in foster care at Small Angels Rescue in Frederick, Maryland.

The adoption fee is $20 for the pair. For more information about adopting these handsome little boys, please visit their Petfinder page.
If you can’t adopt Beans and Oats, you will also find information about sponsoring them on their Petfinder page (click the Sponsor Me For The Holidays link).