Sand, Bathing Sand & Sandboxes for Gerbils

You can order sand, bath sand & sandboxes quickly and easily at DRD Rodent Shop ^® The Gerbil Webshop for your Gerbils!

Gerbils are desert animals that like to dig in sand to make holes and bathe to keep their fur clean. Gerbils need a daily sand bath to keep the skin and coat in good condition. Especially for Fat-tailed gerbils , a sandbox filled with bath sand is a must ! If there is no sand bath with chinchilla sand, the gerbil's coat can quickly become greasy. As a result, the coat insulates less well and the gerbil can catch a cold.

Which sand is suitable for Gerbils?

We distinguish two types of sand for Gerbils: digging sand or bathing sand. Chinchilla sand is suitable as bathing sand. Other types of sand such as play sand do not care for the fur, so they do not have a caring function, only bath sand has this.

NB! Never use shell sand in the sandbox. This sand is too sharp for the Gerbil's skin.

What is the difference between digging sand, play sand and bath sand for Gerbils?

Digging sand is intended for digging. This sand is usually composed on a clay basis and ensures that dug tunnels remain standing. Play sand is clean sand that the Gerbils can dig in, but the sand does not have a good structure and does not support the dug tunnels, so tunnels do not remain in play sand. Bad sand is intended as care for the animals. Gerbils can't really dig in bath sand, let alone make tunnels. The sand is very fine.

How often should Gerbils take a sand bath?

Daily! We advise Gerbils to offer a permanent sand bath in the residence. It is also possible to set up part of the accommodation as a sand part. In that case, part of the enclosure is deposited and chinchilla sand is used as ground cover instead of standard ground cover. The latter can be especially useful for larger Gerbil groups and allows the whole group to bathe at the same time.

When should the Gerbil sand be changed?

We always say as soon as it starts to smell, it should be replaced. As we have mentioned, Gerbils are very clean animals that do not urinate much. This ensures that the sandbox remains quite clean in most cases. In most cases the problem will be that the animals empty the sandbox rather than that it starts to smell. By the way, we have a handy trick for the poops! We have special sieve scoops with which the sand can be sifted and therefore lasts longer.