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Pet Gerbils: Facts About Them

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Featured Image: Pet Gerbil in a nest By Salix

Balance of Pet Gerbils

The most obvious characteristic of pet gerbils is its long hind legs, with which it moves throughout the desert, always in jumps and in a zigzag fashion. To achieve balance, its front legs are very short. This graceful rodent has an extremely long tail that counterbalances it.

Why the zigzag?

The zigzag that pet gerbils follow in their movements is a natural way of avoiding predators that may appear in their path. On the other hand, it favors the search for foods that are hidden in the environment that surrounds them. Apparently, this mechanism is very efficient for these two functions. However, it robs them of a lot of energy relative to their body size.

Adaptations of the gerbil to living in the desert

Gerbils are nocturnal, allowing it to evade the high temperatures of the desert. During the day, it stays in its burrow and only comes out when the heat starts to drop. As its active life takes place in the middle of the night, it has long ears with very fine receptors, through which it can detect the smallest sounds.

What does a pet gerbil eat?

Mongolian Gerbil By Jearu

Wild gerbils basically feed on desert plants and insects. From these, they obtain all the necessary nutrients for such an active life, but also the necessary water. Since a very interesting property of these rodents is that they do not drink. Like the rest of mammals, the precious liquid.

However, in a domestic setting, pet gerbils naturally consume seeds of different grasses and some leaves/herbs. They can also eat veggies and fruits(Not grapes!).

Gerbil predators

The main predators of the gerbil are foxes, jackals, wild cats, and owls. In order to evade them, they have a coat whose colors vary from yellow to light brown. In this way, it blends in with the landscape and goes unnoticed by its enemies. But if one of them is chasing them, they make jumps that can reach 3 meters in length.

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