Pocket-Sized Pals

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Pals! PSP strives to promote small and exotic pets as well as educate people about these amazing miniature friends. This blog focuses mainly on gerbil and Syrian hamster care, but includes information about all small pets. Click on the links below for more information!

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Caring for Elderly Gerbils

Any gerbil that is over the age of two-years-old is considered to be an “elderly” gerbil.  Not much will change once your gerbil enters his or her retirement years, but here are some things that you may want to consider:

- Older gerbils may chew less, so you may want to start using crunchier treats or harder chew toys that will help wear down your gerbil’s teeth. - Older gerbils may sleep more, so make sure that they are housed in a part of your house where they can nap in peace. - Older gerbils may have a decrease in appetite, so extra protein or fat in their diet can help keep them at a healthy weight. - Get a scale!  If your gerbil is sick, the first sign will be a loss of weight.  Gerbils are prey animals and it is their instinct to hide their illnesses, so the quickest way you will be able to figure out that something is wrong is if you weigh your gerbils regularly!

Common Illnesses to Watch for in Elderly Gerbils: - Tyzzer’s Disease: A bacterial infection that causes diarrhea, it can spread rapidly and can kill a gerbil within 24 hours if it is not treated.  Antibiotics are the only solution that helps, but there is no way to cure the disease once it has set in.  Tyzzer’s Disease can occur at any time in a gerbil’s life if they are exposed to the bacteria, but it is particularly dangerous for elderly gerbils that have lowered immune systems.  The only way to prevent this disease is to keep your gerbil cage clean and make sure that your gerbils are not exposed to any foreign bacteria. - Nasal Dermatitis/Respiratory Infections: Sore noses are highly common in gerbils and can make your gerbil look like he or she has a bloody, crusty nose due to the build up of mucus around the eyes and nose.  These sore noses can easily become infected and must be treated with antibiotics.  The risk of infection increases with age.  Respiratory infections are also highly common in gerbils and may become more prevalent with age.  To help prevent this problem, use a bedding that is relatively dust-free and non-irritating to your gerbil’s sensitive nose (I suggest Carefresh or Kaytee Clean & Cozy, NEVER use pine or cedar bedding).  Also make sure that you keep the humidity in your household below 50%. - Tumors: Gerbils of both sexes are prone to tumors along their scent gland, which is the dark strip of fur that runs down your gerbil’s stomach.  These tumors become more prevalent with age, so always check you gerbils for lumps and bumps.  They can’t be prevented, but they can be surgically removed.  Speak with your vet to determine if these tumors are malevolent (dangerous) or benign (harmless) in order to decide how to treat them. - Strokes/Loss of Function in Inner Ear: Some elderly gerbils are prone to strokes and may have difficulty with loss of function in their inner ear.  There’s no way to prevent or treat this, but it can be easily diagnosed - if you see your gerbil tilting it’s head to one side and seeming off-balance, then they likely suffered a stroke or loss of function in their inner ear. - Overgrown Teeth: As mentioned before, elderly gerbils may show a lack of interest in eating or chewing, so their teeth may become overgrown.  Check your gerbil’s teeth regularly to make sure that they’re being worn down naturally.  If you are unable to make your gerbil chew on their own, you will need to speak to your vet about having their teeth sanded down.

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Syrian Hamster Diet & Nutrition

This is a quick guide to Syrian hamster nutrition and what I feed my hamster.  Keep in mind that this is ONLY for Syrian hamsters - other species of hamsters have different nutritional needs.

Syrians NEED 18-20% protein (more for pregnant females and babies), 4-6% fat, and 8-10% fiber in their diet.  They also need a lot of VARIETY - pellet foods can be great but hamsters need more in their daily diet.  I highly recommend that you make your own personal seed mix to ensure that your hamster is getting all that they need in their diet.  I also highly recommend using a couple of different commercial brand foods to provide a healthy variety.

Commercial Hamster Foods I Recommend:

Hazel Hamster

First five ingredients: ground wheat, toasted wheat, flaked peas, soybean meal, whole corn

16% protein, 4% fat, 8% fiber

Vitakraft Vita Prima Sunscription Hamster & Gerbil Formula

First five ingredients: wheat middlings, oats, soybean hulls, dehydrated alfalfa meal, wheat

13% protein, 4% fat, 14% fiber

Vitakraft VitaNature Hamster & Gerbil Food

First five ingredients: oats, wheat, heat-processed barley, timothy meal, soybean hulls

15% protein, 4% fat, 13% fiber

Oxbow Essentials Healthy Handfuls Hamster & Gerbil Food

First five ingredients: timothy meal, pearled barley, oat groat, linseed meal, canola meal

15% protein, 4.5% fat, 10-15% fiber

Vitakraft VitaSmart Complete Nutrition Hamster Food

First five ingredients: soybean hulls, wheat, flaked corn, oats, dehulled soybean meal

16% protein, 3% fat, 10% fiber

Things You Should AVOID:

Any seed mixes that have corn in the first five ingredients

Any seed mixes that have an excess of fatty seeds (eg. sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, soybeans, etc.)

Any seed mixes that have ingredients like lentils, any kind of legumes, and potatoes

Any kind of Kaytee brand food (contains a lot of corn and questionable seeds)

Carefresh Complete Menu, Grreat Choice, and All Living Things Hamster & Gerbil Food (contains a lot of corn)

What My Hamster Eats on a Weekly Basis:

24/7 supply of my homemade seed mix

A serving (about one tablespoon) of fresh veggies three times a week

A serving (about half of a tablespoon) of a protein supplement three times a week (eg. hardboiled eggs, scrambled eggs, nonfat yogurt, nonfat cottage cheese, etc.)

A serving (about half of a tablespoon) of fresh fruit once a week

Small amounts of daily treats that include bits of cashew, puffed rice, Oxbow pellets, small pinches of veggies, etc.

My Homemade Seed Mix:

This seed mix is guaranteed 18% protein, 5% fat, and 9% fiber.

70 grams of nutritional yeast flakes

35 grams of steel cut oats

18 grams of rolled oats

76 grams of quinoa

12 grams of shelled (unsalted) sunflower seeds

88 grams of wild rice

41 grams of white rice

35 grams of farro

53 grams of puffed rice

12 grams of (unsalted, raw) cashews

76 grams of millet

18 grams of amaranth

35 grams of Vitakraft Vitasmart

18 grams of Oxbow

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Gerbils are amazing, low-cost small pets who are extremely social and interactive. They do great with people of all ages and will entertain you for hours with their antics!

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Hamster Checklist

A helpful little checklist for anyone who is looking to bring home a new hamster!  I always recommend adopting hamsters from your local rescues.  Buying hamsters from pet stores promotes hamster mills.  Also make sure that your Syrian hamster is always housed ALONE.  Dwarf hamsters can live in pairs but Syrian hamsters should always be separated.

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Gerbil Diet & Nutrition

I recently made a gerbil diet and nutrition video that you can watch here, but I wanted to summarize the info here on my blog and also talk about my homemade seed mix.

Gerbils NEED 15-18% protein (more for pregnant females and babies), 6-8% fat, and 8-10% fiber in their diet.  They also need a lot of VARIETY - pellet foods can be great but gerbils need more in their daily diet.  I highly recommend that you make your own personal seed mix to ensure that your gerbil is getting all that they need in their diet.  I also highly recommend using a couple of different commercial brand foods to provide a healthy variety.

Commercial Gerbil Foods I Recommend:

Oxbow Essentials Healthy Handfuls Hamster & Gerbil Food

First five ingredients: oxbow timothy meal, pearled barley, oat groats, flax meal, canola meal

17% protein, 4.5% fat, 11% fiber

Vitakraft VitaSmart Complete Nutrition Rat, Mouse, & Gerbil Food

First five ingredients: soybean hulls, flaked corn, ground wheat, wheat, flaked soybeans

17% protein, 5% fat, 10% fiber

Gerri Gerbil Food

First five ingredients: wheat, corn, flaked corn, soya flakes, oats

17% protein, 6% fat, 5% fiber

Things You Should AVOID:

Any seed mixes that have corn in the first five ingredients

Any seed mixes that have an excess of fatty seeds (eg. sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, soybeans, etc.)

Any seed mixes that have ingredients like lentils, any kind of legumes, and potatoes

Any kind of Kaytee brand food (contains a lot of corn and questionable seeds)

Carefresh Complete Menu, Grreat Choice, and All Living Things Hamster & Gerbil Food (contains a lot of corn)

What My Gerbils Eat on a Weekly Basis:

24/7 supply of my homemade seed mix

A serving (about one tablespoon) of fresh veggies three times a week

A serving (just a small handful) of fresh timothy hay three-four times a week

A serving (about one tablespoon) of fresh fruit once a week

Small amounts of daily treats that include bits of cashew, puffed rice, Oxbow pellets, small pinches of veggies, etc.

My Homemade Seed Mix:

I used the following mix for my two boys for six months and they did great on it.  I recently changed my mix to include more protein since they were losing a bit of weight and they are fast-approaching the two-year mark.  Elderly gerbils (gerbils 2+ years old) should have higher protein in their diet.  This seed mix is guaranteed 15% protein, 7% fat, and 9% fiber.

75 grams of steel cut oats

60 grams of rolled oats

60 grams of quinoa

38 grams of shelled sunflower seeds

75 grams of kamut

75 grams of wild rice

30 grams of white rice

90 grams of farro

38 grams of puffed rice

30 grams of cashews

90 grams of Vitakraft Vitasmart

90 grams of Oxbow

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The ONLY Small Pet Supplies That You Should Buy From a Pet Store

Getting a new small pet can be a huge down payment - sometimes between $100-$500!!  But you don’t have to break the bank to bring a new little friend into your life.  This is a list of tips and tricks on how to save money and not buy into the misinformation that pet stores may try to sell you.

What You SHOULD Be Buying: 1.  Bedding: This stuff does get expensive, but if you buy in bulk you can usually save a couple dollars.  You can also find websites where you can buy in bulk online, which is even cheaper!  That being said, the ONLY bedding you should be buying is paper bedding (eg. Carefresh, Kaytee Clean & Cozy) or aspen shavings.  Make sure there aren’t any artificial scents or dyes added. 2.  Pellet Food: The most common pellet food you’ll find in pet stores will probably be Oxbow.  The Hamster and Gerbil variety is very nutritious for hamsters and gerbils - if you have a different species of pet, be sure to fully research the proper diet for your pet and read the ingredients list before buying a pellet mix.  However, this should not be the entirety of your pet’s diet - rodents of all species need more variety in their diet (aka: a seed mix). 3.  Seed Mix: Most seed mixes sold in stores are NOT nutritionally complete and some may even be outright unhealthy, but commercial seed mixes should still be part of your small pet’s diet.  When choosing a commercial seed mix, find one with high protein and low fat.  Make sure that corn, alfalfa hay, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds are NOT listed in the FIRST FIVE ingredients on the ingredients list. 4.  Exercise wheel: Don’t ever let pet store employees sell you those ridiculous tiny wheels that they market to mice and hamsters - they are absolutely dangerous to your pet’s health.  But you WILL need a wheel for pretty much every small pet (excluding guinea pigs).  The wheel should be big enough that your pet’s back and tail doesn’t arch and it should have a solid base where toes and tails can’t get caught (the only exception is for mice - some mice do better with grated wheels where they can grab onto the bars of the wheel).

Things You CAN Buy, But Don’t NEED: 1.  Litter: If you want to litter train your small pet you can buy litter if you want, but even if you do litter train your pet, you don’t necessarily need to buy “litter”.  Just make sure that your designated litter box is filled with something that is absorbent and masks odors.  DO NOT use clay litter (what most cat litters are made of) in your small pet’s cage - use some kind of paper or aspen instead. 2.  Chews: All small pets need lots of chews, but you don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money on them at the pet store.  Cardboard is great for small pets (as long as it doesn’t have any print on it), and it’s usually free.  You can collect most types of wood (make sure it’s safe for your species of pet first) from outdoors and sanitize it by baking or boiling it for free, natural chew toys!  Pet store chews are ridiculously overpriced - don’t waste your money if you don’t have to. 3.  Hay: Fist of all, NEVER feed ANY small pet alfalfa hay (except as an occasional treat).  However, your small pet might enjoy some timothy or meadow hay from time to time if you’d like to provide it.  If you have a pet like a guinea pig, degu, or rabbit that NEEDS 24 hour access to hay, you can buy hay in bulk online or find a farm near you that sells hay in bulk in order to save money.

What You SHOULD NOT Be Buying: 1.  Cages: Half of the cages sold in pet stores are absolutely unusable for small pets - either because they are too small, or they are made entirely out of plastic.  There are some larger cages that are sold for rabbits and guinea pigs that can be used for smaller pets like gerbils or hamsters.  However, these cages can be very pricey and there are many DIY cages that are easy to make for a fraction of the cost. 2.  Small Pet Treats: There are dried fruit treats made by Oxbow that are okay to use as occasional treats as long as the fruits are safe for your small pet.  Besides that, absolutely NO other treats that are sold in pet stores are in any way safe or healthy for any species of small pet.  They’re filled with corn, fatty seeds, sugar, and alfalfa hay - all of which are VERY BAD.  DO NOT waste money on this or jeopardize your pet’s health with colorful, cutesy treats.  Your small pet will absolutely love fresh vegetables and (occasional) fruits.  These are much cheaper and much healthier. 3.  Hamster Balls: There are mixed reviews on hamster balls, but I personally do not recommend them.  They’re not particularly well ventilated and the air slits that are there can easily trap paws and tails.  Generally these balls are also extremely small.  If you do decide that you want a hamster ball, make sure that it’s big enough that your pet’s back and tail are NOT bent while they run. 4.  Hamster Tubes: The only tubes that I’ve ever seen in a pet store are teeny tiny plastic tubes that only a mouse or dwarf hamster will fit through, plastic tubes that can be chewed on and ingested, or cardboard tubes that are filled with fluff.  All of these are extremely dangerous and way overpriced.  If you have small animals like mice or dwarf hamsters, feel free to buy the tiny plastic tubes - but there are many more extremely cheap alternatives.  Cardboard tubes are free, easy, and almost every small pet will find something to do with it.  More heavy duty tubes (like PVC pipes) can be bought from hardware stores, where you can get a lot more for a lot less money. 5.  Food Bowls: Ceramic food bowls in pet stores are sold for $5-$15.  You can find ceramic bowls exactly like this at the dollar store. 6.  Plastic Accessories: The small pet section of the pet store is literally filled with plastic.  Plastic ledges, plastic litter boxes, plastic dust baths, plastic food dishes, etc. etc. etc.  You may have a small pet who leaves plastic alone - but why take that risk?  You don’t want your pet eating plastic, and if they do start chewing at it, you’re throwing your money away on something that they can easily destroy.  Instead, use natural materials, ceramic, and glass whenever possible. 7.  “Fluff” Nesting Material: This stuff basically looks like torn up cotton balls and, while it may look soft and cuddly, it is absolutely dangerous for small pets.  Paws and tails can get twisted up in it and your pet may lose blood circulation to their limbs.  They can also ingest the stuff and very seriously injure their internal organs.  Don’t ever buy this!

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M15 used Gerbils to detect terrorists - WTF fun facts

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MEET TIM!

Tim’s parents were pet store gerbils - a couple bought two “female” gerbils and later had a litter of nine gerbil babies when one of those gerbils ended up being a male.  The couple sold seven of the babies but kept Tim and his brother Bo, but when the couple moved out of town, Bo and Tim ended up at the local humane society.  They were estimated to be about a year old when I adopted them on October 5 2015.  The shelter I adopted them from did not know much about small pet care and they were kept in a very small cage with very little (toxic) bedding, and no wheel.

I was torn between whether to name the gerbil brothers after my favorite musicians or my favorite comedians, so I decided to name them after my favorite musical comedians!  Tim is named after Tim Minchin.

When I first adopted Tim his nose was swollen and red from his terrible allergies that were not being taken care of at the shelter and he was very sick and listless.  However, he didn’t show symptoms of respiratory infection and after a while of staying with me on proper bedding and lower humidity, he turned into an entirely different gerbil.

He’s my sweet little boy who is easy to handle and always gives me lots of nose bumps (the gerbil version of a kiss).  He loves to sit on my knee and chatter in contentment.  He can sometimes be rough with Bo and he loves wrestling with his brother, but he is very gentle and tame with me.  Tim is such a sweetie and I’m so happy that I was able to rescue him from the bad living situation he was in and give him the happier, healthier life that he deserves.

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MEET BO!

Bo’s parents were pet store gerbils - a couple bought two “female” gerbils and later had a litter of nine gerbil babies when one of those gerbils ended up being a male.  The couple sold seven of the babies but kept Bo and his brother Tim, but when the couple moved out of town, Bo and Tim ended up at the local humane society.  They were estimated to be about a year old when I adopted them on October 5 2015.  The shelter I adopted them from did not know much about small pet care and they were kept in a very small cage with very little (toxic) bedding, and no wheel.

I was torn between whether to name the gerbil brothers after my favorite musicians or my favorite comedians, so I decided to name them after my favorite musical comedians!  Bo is named after Bo Burnham.

Bo doesn’t really like to be handled, but he’s more tolerant of being petted than his brother Tim.  He is a gigantic pig and he loves getting any kind of treat.  He’s a tremendous digger and will dig in cardboard tunnels and ceramic mugs for hours on end.  Tim is the dominant gerbil of the pair, but Bo is extremely curious and bold and will usually be the first one out to investigate something new.

He spends a lot of time sitting on my shoulder during free range time and trying to find a way to escape.  He has such a big personality and even though he can be quite a little brat, I love him to pieces and am so happy to have gotten to know him and his weird little quirks.

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MEET STELLA!

Stella is a long-haired Syrian hamster born in early April 2015.  I adopted her from a local exotic pet rescue on August 28 2015.  Her mother was rescued from a breeding mill along with hundreds of other hamsters and is likely the product of inbreeding and very poor genetics but she’s absolutely beautiful and certainly the little princess of the house.

She loves eating all kinds of fresh fruits and veggies as well as cashews.  Her favorite thing to do is chew on the bars of her cage and the plastic guards I put up to stop her.  She also loves running on her plastic 8 1/2 in wheel.

She has gorgeous red eyes and the cutest spotted ears.  She’s not afraid of anything and loves exploring and making lots of escape attempts.  I picked her out from her litter mates because while her sisters were shy and reserved, Stella came right out and began to explore me.  She’s my brave little adventurer and I am very happy to have her in my life.

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Welcome to Pocket-Sized Pals!

Hello everyone and welcome to the Pocket-Sized Pals blog!  Here I strive to provide lots of small pet care tips and tricks to give your small pet the best quality of life that it can have!  Be sure to check out my YouTube channel and Instagram account to learn more about pet care and meet my own little rascals.