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Super Pet makes a glass water bottle with a metal hanging bracket and a little metal spring thing to hold it in place, as well as a small metal cap for the plastic screw-top. I bought mine after the rats completely chewed through the quick-release for my Lixit bottle and flooded the bottom of their cage. They did this while I was on vacation and my grandmother was watching them, but thankfully they managed to wait until the morning I got back - she wouldn't have known what to do, and she was scared to pick them up from inside the cage, so they would have had to sit in their wet Carefresh until I got home to clean it up. Petsmart sells them in 6 oz and 12 oz sizes, either of which I would think would be big enough for gerbils. If you don't have one local to you, Petsmart ships pretty cheaply.
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Dec 19, 2009 20:22
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Celexi posted:I just adopted a couple ( a female and male ) mice that decided to invade, and their cage isn't that "big". They seem pretty happy Well, if you have a male and a female, you need to make sure you have two separate cages, and since you've been housing them together up to this point, you need to keep an eye out for the inevitable batch of little pink squirmies that they have likely already conceived.
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Jan 15, 2010 23:36
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and don't want to get much out of it.
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I've found that just about any animal will come running at the sound of the treat bag 
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Feb 10, 2010 17:14
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McCloud24 posted:How many could I keep in there? I assume to keep any together it would have to be females unless I wanted babies or flying fur. I know people keep multiple female robos in a cage together, but I never really understood the point. They're not social animals. Get yourself a big fat fluffy teddy bear hamster and let it have the place to itself
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Mar 20, 2010 00:39
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numtini posted:My hamster isn't bothered by the cat at all. It's kind of weird. When we first got her, the cat went ballistic and the hammy just looked out occasionally and would sleep through the cat batting at the tank and such. The cat has slowly figured out that he can't get in and leaves her alone now. This has been my experience as well. Hamsters are the masters of don't give a gently caress. Our cats used to sit on top of the cage my sister kept her Siberian in and I don't think he even noticed, let alone cared. Hamsters don't have the best eyesight, though, so maybe he really just couldn't see that far away from his face. They also have next to no depth perception, as evidenced by repeated attempts to run off the edge of our dining room table.
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Mar 20, 2010 16:40
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kazmeyer posted:The thing in the UK that's always baffled me, though, is keeping them outside like livestock. Guinea pigs need more protection than that; we're talking about a species whose only defense against predators is to breed quicker than they can be eaten (perhaps defeating their predators by giving them heart disease and lifestyle-based illnesses). They really aren't up to dealing with all that Mother Nature can throw at them. Well, there aren't a lot of things in the UK that would eat them anyway, are there? I would have thought that the weather wouldn't agree with them, but then I remembered that they originated in the Andes. I suppose the proof is in the pudding - do they die a lot being kept outdoors?
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May 15, 2010 15:27
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I think it's a little ridiculous to be offended by seeing a picture of a cooked animal that is eaten in many parts of the world, but I agree that the thread has gotten pretty ugly.
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May 29, 2010 02:27
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He looks like a scrapper with those little torn-up ears of his 
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May 30, 2010 20:59
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Karatehamster posted:What are some good ideas if I have twenty minutes of socialization time with a rat? They told me just to stick it in a big tupperware bin and let it run around, but that seems... boring. For the rat, I mean. I'd really like to do a good job with this and giving the animals some quality time, and I freely admit to being quite clueless, so any advice is appreciated. My rats liked two things best: chilling out on my shoulder or lap, and exploring. I used to take a small x-pen and put small boxes on their sides and then drape a blanket or towel over top, and they thought it was loving Disneyland. If you want him to be super tame, just carry him around with you. You can also try some "enrichment" activities for him - tie something dangly to the top of his cage, buy in-shell nuts, that sort of thing.
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Jul 9, 2010 00:56
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Superconsndar posted:If you get them, make sure they never, ever come into contact with each other even for a second. They can be caged in the same room, but that's about it. I think this would stress the gently caress out of the mice, just from being able to smell the rats. Maybe it's an old wives' tale, but I was always told that mice instinctively avoid areas with rat populations because of predation and that they are repelled by the scent of rat. Maybe in separate rooms, but I don't think I would keep them together closer than that. Plus the fact that an escape artist of either species could cause some serious havoc...
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Jul 25, 2010 02:36
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Superconsndar posted:When I was breeding mice for show, I kept them in the same room as my rats. They seemed happy and ran on their wheels and bred easily and didn't cannibalize their babies, and they were in my rat room which contained 40+ rats at a given time. v Well, that's good. Maybe domestic mice are enough dumber than wild mice that the smell won't bother them 
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Jul 25, 2010 20:44
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Mr. Pricklepants 
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Jul 27, 2010 23:36
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My vet charged me less than $30 to euthanize my last rat, and I live in an expensive area. It's worth asking around. I'm willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt if he calls around and finds out there still isn't any way he can afford humane euthanasia, but if he hasn't even made any calls then there's really no excusing it.
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Sep 20, 2010 02:56
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TLG James posted:I just buy dried fruit at the grocery store. My hamster seems to love it. Dried apricots, cherries, etc.. Way cheaper than the pet store stuff. Just be careful that you get the preservative-free stuff, some of the chemicals that are safe for human consumption and used in dried fruit are not safe for little critters.
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Apr 5, 2011 03:18
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TLG James posted:Raisins: Ingredients: Sun Dried Raisins It's usually more of an issue with things like banana chips, dried pineapple, etc.
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Apr 6, 2011 03:04
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TLG James posted:Apparently a European Hamster. They get up to 10" big. My grandmother said she saw a ton of them being sold in the meat market in Turkey. Apparently they're eaten in much the same way that guinea pigs are in South America.
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Jun 13, 2011 01:44
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Wow, I used to go to the VA State Fair every year, and I never saw guinea pigs there. There were always a few questionable rabbit breeders, but the majority were pretty good as far as I could tell.
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Oct 9, 2011 02:43
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That's pretty old for most types of hamsters, but it might be worth a non-emergency visit if you have a good exotics vet in the area. We had one growing up that followed the same kind of progression - eyes got a little gunky, and eyesight started to falter, energy level dropped, etc. and he eventually died in his sleep. He never seemed unhappy or in pain, though. Still curious about stuff, still enjoyed his little treats, still bit my sister occasionally for poking at him...
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Mar 29, 2012 04:17
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SmellsOfFriendship posted:I think they're ok for hamsters. But they're deadly for chinchillas. They're pretty bad for guinea pigs too, iirc, and someone posted a flyer here a couple of years ago for a Petsmart event that showed a guinea pig in a ball.
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Apr 9, 2012 20:04
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kazmeyer posted:Yeah, hamster balls are fine for hamsters. The big ones are marketed toward chins and guinea pigs, and they're unbelievably unsuited to either. I can only speak for guinea pigs, but their spines don't bend the right way, their toes are prone to getting caught in the vents, and flipping around inside the ball can cause major injuries. It's just an all-around bad time for them. It's kind of a running joke among guinea pig owners that every one of us bought one of those things before we knew better, and the moment we got serious about our pets' welfare was the moment we threw the damned thing away (or turned it into some kind of avant garde art piece). I've heard they make great hanging cage toys/hay mangers.
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Apr 9, 2012 22:37
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I was going to say I know a number of places you can get transparent or translucent acrylic piping with an ID of over 6", but then I looked and realized the pricing on that size is upwards of $70/foot. Probably more than you want to spend on a hedgie run. One site I had saved sells theirs in 6' lengths and they're $389 for a single, $302 each for 2-9. Ouch. Clear PVC seems to run about the same.
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May 2, 2012 13:04
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Suntory BOSS posted:Wow, I'd never have imagined a tube of plastic could run so high I've looked at the small stuff for costume projects, so I knew there was bigger. You may be able to find clear tubing of some other material that would be cheaper. I mean, Habitrails don't cost hundreds of dollars, so they've got to be using something cheaper. PVC and acrylic are just the two that immediately came to my mind because they're sturdy. I've seen clear plastic mailing tubes up to three inches in diameter, I wonder if anyone makes that in a larger size? Now you've got me curious, because I'm looking at getting back into keeping rats and I would love to build them a tube system...
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May 3, 2012 00:39
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w8wtf posted:
I was envisioning something made up of lots of smallish segments, so the animal would never really be too far in the tube to be removed easily, but I can definitely see your point.
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May 4, 2012 16:38
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Serella posted:How utterly unsurprising, considering they're the worst pet product company pretty much ever. I think Hartz may still have the edge on that one.
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May 6, 2012 18:38
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What kind of wheels do you have for them? I bought the rats a large Wodent Wheel and it's all but silent. They're not the cheapest model on the market, but they're very solidly constructed and designed to not have any dangerous points for pinching feet or tails.
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May 17, 2012 15:48
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My husband and I were climbing Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath and rounded a corner to discover this little guy: Thought you rodent goons might like him
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Jul 12, 2012 03:56
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w8wtf posted:I like him, but he's not a rodent I know, but it's the Rodent Thread.
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Jul 28, 2012 01:13
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One of the animals I'm watching over Thanksgiving is a little female guinea pig. She's very affectionate and sweet with her family, but she's wary of strangers. All I'm being asked to do is put hay and fresh water in her cage when I go over to check on the cats, but I'm wondering if there's anything I can offer her that would be an awesome bribe to show that I'm cool. Someone dumped her in the bushes at an apartment complex, poor thing. Is there a sure-fire guinea pig treat I can give her?
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Nov 15, 2012 04:54
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Awesome, I have both small paper bags and fresh herbs already at my disposal I don't think my friends have done much to try and get her eating fresh veggies, they've only had her a short while and she was kind of a surprise adoption. Eventually the husband wants to get her a couple of friends and build her an awesome enclosure and all that, but with a baby and a home business it hasn't happened yet.
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Nov 15, 2012 17:26
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I have a lot of fresh cabbage in the crisper, can I give her a little of that? The rats are taking a million years to eat it all. I don't really know anything at all about guinea pigs beyond what I've picked up in this forum.
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Nov 15, 2012 19:03
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I did an experiment in middle school with very young pet store mice where I fed one group nothing but junk food seed mix stuff with no pellets, and the other group got nothing but pellets. The pellet group ended up almost twice the size of the seed group when they were finally grown. But they were never excited about their food like the seed mix mice, so there's that. So hey, the hypothesis that a balanced diet is best gets proven once again
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Nov 17, 2012 17:58
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Thanks for the piggy advice, guys. So much wheeking and jumping around! Definitely another animal I probably won't ever own due to allergies, though - handling her hay was killing me. I stuffed a bunch of hay down into a paper lunch sack and stuck it in a corner. When I left all I could see was the very end of her little butt poking out of the bag She treated the parsley with suspicion, but I offered her a sprig of fresh peppermint from my garden and she accepted that without question. And by accepted I mean ripped out of my hand and devoured. Her owner hadn't offered her mint before, which is funny because their yard is almost completely overrun with spearmint. I bet if they put an x-pen out there and let her wander around in the mint she'd be the happiest pig ever.
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Nov 21, 2012 01:46
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For silent wheels, I love my Wodent Wheel. The only time it makes noise is when Mordin poops in it and the poops dry up and rattle around. This happens relatively often because Mordin practically lives in the wheel and poops in there all the time. I just shake out the poops and it goes back to being silent.
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Dec 2, 2012 03:34
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What's the point of trying to house them together, exactly? They don't get any real benefit out of it, other than warmth when they cuddle up I guess, and it stresses them out. Not to mention the whole possibly shredding each other's faces thing. If you have two cages already, just house them separately. Animals that aren't social by nature really don't need to be housed in groups, and maintaining two separate cages isn't really much more work than a single cage.
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Jan 1, 2013 17:30
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It definitely isn't company-wide. When I adopted the boys I had the option to get the tank they were being housed in at a discount, but I told them I already had a couple of cages and was planning on buying a Critter Nation. I took them home in a cardboard box. I suppose if you really wanted him you could buy the cage and return it to a different store location, or go back to the same store on a different day when different cashiers are working. I've done goofy poo poo like that to get around stupid store policies in the past.
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Jan 2, 2013 05:33
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See if there are any pet-sitting services in your area. They're bonded and insured, and have people who know what they're doing with pets and will follow your instructions.
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Apr 10, 2013 20:40
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My friend's guinea pig knows my voice and wheeks when I arrive at their house, because I bribe the hell out of her.
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Apr 21, 2013 19:45
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cuntvalet posted:I have a question...Jenna did something really weird the other day. Her water bottle is a heavy glass one held up with a metal bracket and a clippy spring. She somehow managed to pull it down off of the wall of her pen and dragged it into her pigloo. I've had animals do that as well. The only solution I was able to find was to hang the bottle on the outside of the cage instead, with just the drinking spout inside.
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Jun 8, 2013 13:07
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I'm babysitting my friend's guinea pig again this week, starting tomorrow. She remembers me! I went over to their house to get the keys and she starting wheeking and bouncing around. Their spearmint bed resisted their efforts to remove it, so I went out and got her a big stalk of mint leaves. Apparently when presented with delicious herbs, guinea pigs can move faster than light - who knew?
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Jun 25, 2013 17:28
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You can always stick an ice pack (the hard ones probably resist chewing better) in a corner of the cage, and if they're hot they'll go sit near it.
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Jul 1, 2013 02:28
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