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).

Midwest Gerbil Show Report

I've fallen so far behind on everything recently but definitely wanted to update everyone on the 2009 Midwest Gerbil Show, which was on Halloween, here in Lincoln, Nebraska.

As you know from my previous post, the gerbil show came at the end of a very long and sad week. It helped to be surrounded by others who knew Herman from previous gerbil shows. And it helped to see so many gorgeous and infectiously charming gerbils at the show!

One of the highlights of the weekend was that I got to meet Linette, who frequently leaves comments on this blog!
Linette’s award-winning Halloween decorationsI also got to meet her gerbils, who are every bit as charming in person as I had imagined! (I have a soft spot for Stuart!)

After health inspections and setup on Friday night, most of us gathered in my hotel room to make Halloween-themed tank decorations and have cookies and chips.

Saturday morning, it was time to finish setting up for the show! Jo from Black Wolf Clan Gerbils brought trick-or-treat bags for not only the people at the show but also for our gerbils! We all had a chance to leave treats for both humans and gerbils. Some of the treats in the gerbils’ bags were really imaginative and fun. I think at least two people were leaving treat-filled Halloween ghosts in the trick-or-treat bags. And several of the gerbils also received edible witches’ brooms made from twigs. They were a huge hit!

Katie M.’s great Halloween set-upDuring the show, we let AGS members and the public both vote for their favorite Halloween decorations. Congratulations to Linette, Katie M., and Jo, whose Halloween decorations were selected as the best at the show!

I got a slow start with judging, because just as I started judging my first gerbil, a silver nutmeg, a reporter and photographer from the local newspaper arrived. I think they talked to me for at least 45 minutes before talking to AGS President Donna Anastasi. The reporter also wanted to meet Toby. You can read the newspaper article about the Midwest Gerbil Show here.

We had a decent public turnout for a Midwest Show, especially since this year’s show was on Halloween, when there were many other events happening in town. What impressed me most, though, was that people stuck around for quite a while to admire the gerbils, ask questions, and participate at the kids’ activity table.

Both AGS members and the public voted for the People’s Choice awards. The winners were Black Wolf Clan’s Integrity, a female nutmeg, and Moonstone Gerbils’ Morpheus, an adorable seven-week-old red-eyed silver nutmeg male pup.

One family was very excited about Diane’s knitted rodent necklace. After buying raffle tickets, they went home with the necklace in hand.

Another family was really excited about the watercolor painting made by our own Grace and Tori. And how lucky, their raffle ticket was drawn, and they are now the proud owners of gerbil-created artwork!

Early in the evening, the winners of the show were announced. Four of our gerbils competed in the show, and three of them placed. Hallie received 2nd Place in the Self/Nutmeg Class. Polo won 1st Place in the Other/Honey Cream Class and went on to compete for Best In Show. And Cassie won 1st Place in the Mottled Class and also went on to the Best In Show competition.

Best In Show once again went to one of Kelly’s stunning males from Garden of Eden Gerbils. And GEG’s Cain was indeed an exceptionally handsome agouti male! A big, bulky male with a charming personality and beautiful eyes.

Best of Opposite was our own Squeaks’ Sunset’s Cassie, who was bred by Leah of Sunset Starlet Gerbils. Sadly, Leah was not able to make it to the show, but I’m looking forward to seeing her and more of her very friendly gerbils at the New England Show this spring!

After the show, we had the Pet Class, where gerbils competed in fun activities, such as the Sandbathing Competition and the Cardboard Chewing Contest. Four of our gerbils competed in the Pet Class. Marco and Polo had fun in the Pairs Chewing Competition, Hallie went it alone in the Singles Chewing Competition, and Cassie won points for style in the Sandbathing Competition.

Saturday evening, we were served a fantastic meal from Beacon Hills at the show site.

It's probably the only time a group of “gerbil enthusiasts” will be served a meal with dimmed lights, candles, and piped-in violin music. Alas, we had to blow out the candles before playing Gerbil Bingo. (Instead of shouting “bingo!”, we thump our hands on the table, to the rhythm of a gerbil thumping its feet. This is not conducive to having candles lit on the table.)

It was fun to hang out with everyone, play Gerbil Bingo, and finally have a chance to relax after the show!

All in all, it was a really good weekend, but it went by way too fast! I wish we all could have had more time together, because it’s always great to see so many friends and all of their gerbils!

To see more photos from the show, please visit my 2009 Midwest Gerbil Show photo album.