Gerbils and Hamsters

A lady had to get rid of her gerbils and hamsters so they came to live at Lucille's Ark.
The gerbils are adorable, 4 male (she said) babies. They are tiny and cute and fast, and are living in a nice big place now, a large acrylic enclosure that they are not trying to chew out of. They all 4 sleep in this small plastic cup that was meant to be a feed cup but they took it over before I put food in.

The 2 hamsters. They are sorta cute but adults and not used to being handled and tried to bite the bejeezus outta me. One promply escaped into the reptile room, only the fact that I observed the slight rustling of the curtain gave him away.

I have this hamster palace on the way with all the little tubes and play wheels and so on. I'm thinking of giving it to the gerbils because they are far more active than the hamsters and might make better use of it.

If anyone has had either as pets, I'd appreciate any tips or experiences.

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We've had hamsters in the past, and only ever ended up with one that wasn't a nasty little biter..his name was Fuzzybutt. He was also an escape artist extraordinaire, lol. Had him for ages..until he escaped one last time and was never found.

My daughter currently has 2 pet gerbils, and they are really neat little critters. As Sara said, they have very little odor, and are very tame, she hauls them all over the house. She has had the male for almost a year, and we just recently added the female, though we keep them separate.....when I had them as a younger person, mine were SUPPOSED to be 2 males....and I ended up with more gerbils than I knew what to do with, lol. The gerbils are definitely more active than the hamsters ever were, and they love running on their wheels, climbing the tubes, and running around her room in one of those exercise balls.

The gerbils are active and fun to watch. I was thinking of putting the plastic cage with all the tubes inside their large acrylic enclosure when it arrives.

The hamsters, being nocturnel, have not been doing much. I think I may find them another home.

If you do end up keeping the hamsters for an extended period of time, I'd keep an eye on the plastic tubes. I had a hamster when I was a kid that would chew almost all the time on some of plastic areas and was able to escape a few times due to chewing.

Emmalee, I will likely keep them as my son home for the holidays likes them. I am checking the plastic areas daily to prevent escape.
I switched to a finely shredded aspen as bedding for the gerbils and they love it.
They quickly made a pile of aspen and dug a tunnel into it and they sleep underground in their tunnel. At first I was concerned about a tunnel collapse but the stuff is so lightweight that they can dig themselves out should the aspen collapse on them.
They are neat little critters.