Thursday, February 10, 2011

Gerbil Sensory Tub

What’s in the tub:

Hamster/gerbil food,
Bowl,
Water bottle,
ABC blocks,
Chew sticks,
Cardboard tube,
1 gerbil,
Exercise wheel,
Measuring cup,
and aspen shavings as the base.



This sensory tub is very similar to the hamster one. The only differences are the gerbil and the cardboard tube. Our gerbils love cardboard tubes so I thought I’d include one. Other things you can include are small paper bags, pieces of cardboard, tissue boxes, pieces of paper, wooden houses, scoops, extra bowls etc. It all depends on the size of your tub and how many kids are there. Since the gerbil was so big, I decided to have the wheel next to the tub.



Since plush gerbils are hard to find, some substitutes are mice, rats or of course, hamsters. I know TY makes them as beanie babies and Aurora makes rodents as well. You can usually find some good bargains for small stuffed animals on Ebay. I have never seen a plastic critter or rodent set, but if you could find something like that, it’d work even better. This particular gerbil is handmade and was customized from a picture of our first gerbil named, Fudge. I wish I still had the link to the person who made him, but I can’t remember her name. She specialized in making plush cartoon type rodents. To make it more realistic, you can include a pair of gerbils since gerbils should almost always live in pairs.


Some other base ideas include shredded paper or sunflower seeds. Gerbils love to chew on and nest in shredded paper and ours love eating sunflower seeds. Cheap sunflower seeds can be found at feed stores. I think a 5 lb bag costs $3.00 at our local feed store. They also have cheap bird seed, hamster food, guinea pig food or other types of seeds if you wanted to use any of those as a base. I hope these ideas have been helpful.
Here are photos of our gerbils that we’ve had over the past five years.
Mozart, Sophie and the brothers, both called Fudge have all passed away. Our current gerbils are brothers called, the Brownies.

The girls, Mozart and Sophie
Fudge eating sunflower seeds!

Light Brownie loves the wheel!

The Brownies together.




Guide to Gerbils as Pets
Gerbil Coloring Pages

2 comments:

  1. What a cute idea!! We have a pair of gerbils at our daycare and the kids would love a sensory box like this!!
    I loved your comment about the toilet paper tubes, our gerbils are OBSESSED with them too!
    They are addicted!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. my preschool would really love this even if not real ...i love it better as it not real !thamks

    ReplyDelete

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