When you bring your pet gerbils home, there are many places where you can place their cage.
And where you put their cage in your house is very important. The good thing is that there are different rooms in a house that can be suitable for gerbils to live in.
One of the more common rooms that some people keep gerbils in is their own room. But can you keep gerbils in your bedroom?
You can keep gerbils in your bedroom and it’s recommended that you put their cage in a place that isn’t close to loud noises like a TV.
Keeping your gerbils in your room can be a really great experience for you and them.
However, you should know what to prepare for when they’re in your room so that you can make it easier on yourself.
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Keeping Gerbils In Your Bedroom
So it’s true that you can keep gerbils in your bedroom with you. However, there are some things that you need to consider when you’re keeping them in your room.
One of those things that you should think about is all the noises that they’ll hear. It can come from music, a loud TV, or even you if you’re talking in a loud way.
Those types of noises can be loud for gerbils which can cause them a little bit of stress if they find it scary.
You can tell that they don’t like those sounds because they’ll be on high alert and you’ll hear them start to thump their legs.
Another thing that you should consider is if their cage is too close to the door.
Most gerbils don’t like sudden movements so sometimes you may see them scatter when you walk in and out of your room.
That being said, gerbils can become familiar with your movements, music, and the sounds from your TV.
So because they’ll get used to those things as time goes on, you’ll notice that they won’t get scared as easily as they did when you first brought them into your room.
What To Expect When You Keep Gerbils In Your Room
There are many things that you can expect when you keep your gerbils in your bedroom.
Firstly, gerbils aren’t actually nocturnal so they will be up and down all night.
That means everything that they do during the daytime they will usually also do at night.
So when it comes to what you should expect when you have your gerbils live in your room some of those things are:
- Loud chewing.
- Noise from their water bottle.
- Squeaks over their food.
- A lot of running on their wheels.
- Your gerbils digging and tunneling.
- Seeing and hearing your gerbils scratch at their cage.
- Hearing them rearrange the things in their cage.
What You Can Expect To Hear
So one thing that you can expect is a lot of loud chewing. Gerbils usually love to chew on anything that they can find.
So some of the things that you’ll hear while they’re in your bedroom are them chewing on their wooden toys, their cage bars, and even their running wheels too.
That chewing can be very loud especially at night when things are quieter. Another thing that you can expect to hear is some noise from their water bottle.
The noise mainly comes from a clicking sound from the little metal ball that’s inside the water bottle that goes up and down as they’re drinking from it.
Also, be prepared to hear little squeaks over their food at random times throughout the day.
Although this usually only happens when one gerbil is hogging the food bowl while another gerbil is trying to get some food at the same time.
Gerbils love to run and exercise in general so that they can release some of their pent-up energy.
So what you can expect is a lot of running on their wheels. This can actually be really annoying if the wheels that you have for them are cheap because they’ll be very loud and squeaky.
What You Can Expect To See
You can also expect to see your gerbils do a lot of digging in the corner of their cage and tunneling through their bedding.
This is normal behavior for them and you can usually see them doing it almost every day.
Another thing that you’ll see your gerbils do almost daily is scratch at their cage.
They’ll mainly scratch at the corners of their cage and sometimes in random places too.
Sometimes they’ll do it just to move their bedding around and sometimes they’ll even scratch at stuff so that they can try to trim their nails down a little bit.
One last thing that you can expect is that your gerbils will rearrange the items that are in their cage.
They will move any item that isn’t permanently attached to parts of their cage and they love to do it.
Tips For Keeping Gerbils In Your Bedroom
If you decide to keep your gerbils in your bedroom, then I have a few tips for you that’ll help make it a better experience for you and them.
The 1st tip, which was actually my first mistake, is to make sure that you have quality wheels for your gerbils that don’t squeak.
Remember, gerbils run on their wheels multiple times throughout the day and night. So if they run on cheap wheels eventually those wheels will become loud and start to squeak.
That can make it hard to hear while you’re doing things in your room during the day and the noises can also make it hard to sleep at night.
So you’ll want to get your gerbils quality wheels that will remain quiet like these Silent Running Wheels on Amazon that I personally use for my gerbils.
These wheels are great and I really recommend them because I’ve had them in my gerbils’ cage for about 2 years now and they haven’t started squeaking at all yet.
The 2nd tip that I have is to put your gerbil’s cage in a part of the room that’s a good distance away from your TV and bed.
If their cage is too close to your TV it can be really loud for them and stress them out more often.
Also if it’s too close to your bed the noises that can come from their cage might keep you up at night.
The 3rd tip is to make sure that you keep a lot of different safe chew toys for them.
That way those toys will help prevent them from chewing on their cage bars as much.
Plus having many different toys for them to chew on can be good because gerbils sometimes get bored very easily and they love to have some variety.
The 4th tip is that you should clean their cage more often than you usually would if you kept it in another room.
The reason why you should do this is that bedrooms are typically smaller than other rooms in a house and the smell from their cage will become stronger a lot sooner.
The 5th and last tip that I have is more of an overall one and it’s to make sure that they have enough food and water before you go to bed.
Gerbils will eat and drink randomly all night long so you’ll want to be sure that they have at least enough to last them through the nighttime.
Sleeping In The Same Room With Your Gerbils
Sleeping in the same room with your gerbils can be easy as long as you’re prepared for all the noises that they will make.
The noises that gerbils make within their cage can be very loud in the daytime and nighttime.
However, that shouldn’t deter you from keeping them in your bedroom because having your gerbils with you in there is still a really good experience. Try not to let those noises at night bother you too much though.
Because in some cases, gerbils will slowly start to match their owner’s sleeping schedule.
This means that even though gerbils will be up and down all night, sometimes they’ll still fall asleep around the same time that you do and that can make it easier for them and yourself.
So you should never try to force them to go to sleep at night because usually, they will start to fall asleep when you do more often as time goes on.
Keeping your gerbils in your bedroom can be a really fun and great experience to have.
Even though sometimes it can be hard at first, eventually it will get easier over time.
This will happen as they get used to you, and you get used to the common noises and activities that your gerbils will do in your bedroom throughout the day and night.