Gerbils and bathing

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I really want to know if you can bathe gerbils. I have one of my own, and my
sister wanted to know if you could give them a bath, so here I am asking. So,
can you? If you can, then, how?
Nicoo

ANSWER: Gerbils are desert animals and don't need baths like in a sink. What you can do if you think they are dirty is place a bowl or chinchilla house in their cage and fill it with Chinchilla dust. This will allow the gerbil to bath and it removes oils from their skin and leaves them feeling nice and clean.

If you need help finding out what a Chinchilla bath is or the dust here is website:

http://www.petsolutions.com/Chinchilla-Bath-House+I45160411+C40001946.aspx


http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx?familyid=7479&Ntt=chinchilla%20bath%20hou

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752955&utm_source=cse&utm_c


Here is a link and at the bottom is a video that shows a gerbil bathing in dust if you would like to view it.

http://www.squidoo.com/gerbils

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Umm, well, would sand work? Because me and my sister got some sand
yesterday, and, so yeah.
PS. Pumpkin, (The gerbil) well, she don't know what to do, so, how long will it to
take her to know how to do it?

Answer
No, it is not good to give them desert sand to take bath. The idea of chinchilla sand as bath sand in the hamster cage is for hamsters to have fun rolling in the sand as well as an added benefit of cleaning their fur. It is not a necessity, just a luxury. So you can wait until you find some good chinchilla bath sand but don't use desert sand. Though hamsters are desert animals, the ones you have at home are tamed and don't have the same immunity that wild hamsters have. So the desert sand can cause allergy and irritate their fur as well as cause infection if it has some insects / mites in it. So better to go for packaged sterilized chinchilla sand from pet shops.


As far as her figuring out how to clean herself this will come easily because its "natural habit", if she is a little slow that is okay, too. Just leave it in there and when she is ready she will get a bath and even play in it :)