Esme

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Date of Birth  2020 Sex  Female Colour  White To live with older children?  Yes

Currently under medical review.

Esme is a very sweet gerbil who is looking for a loving home.

She has no health issues but was treated for mites when she came to us as she had some hair loss on her face.

She is very inquisitive and will always come out to say hello. She loves to chew and her favourite toy is a toilet roll tube!

Rehoming fees: All costs below are a minimum requested donation. This is to help cover our costs.
Rats - £15.00
Chinchillas - £35.00
Degus - £20.00
Gerbils - £8-10
Hamsters - £5.00

Rats:

Ideal cage pictured for ref.

• Indoors in a cage - min. size of 78L x 51W x 137H centimetres. For example. Yaheetech 2-Story Rat Cage 137cm Pet Cage with Rolling Stand Pet with Removable Platform Ramp, Black. 
• Rats need a large cage to live in with multiple levels made of metal or kiln dried pine.
• Rats are avid chewers so cannot be housed in a plastic or wooden cage or they will quickly eat their way out - wire/metal cages are the most suitable.
• Rats are very temperature sensitive and need to avoid hot rooms/conditions or can develop heat stroke. They themselves don't smell, but the toilet area in the cage can have an odour if not regularly changed - you can use litter trays to make cleaning easier.
• Rats need hides/huts for sleeping.
• Provide a solid surface exercise wheel, for example a metal TicTac whee1,16'
  

• Rats love to make a bed so will need paper based bedding, for example Softacard, Finacard or Bedmax
  or plain unscented toilet/kitchen roll.

• Rats enjoy time out of their cage but it must be supervised to prevent any accidents such as
  chewing cables. They love climbing so hammocks, ropes and other items in their cage are ideal to prevent them getting bored.

Chinchillas:

• To be large and secure - such as a secure room or large metal mesh cage, with mesh floors as well as alternative flooring such as solid wood. Chinchillas can damage their feet when spending long periods standing on wire mesh.  
• Exercise space - chinchillas are very active and agile and need lots of exercise space. Make sure they have plenty of horizontal and vertical space to run and jump.
• Branches and solid platforms at different levels to rest and jump on. Make sure there are no uninterrupted heights greater than 60cm to stop them from hurting themselves.
• Toys - chinchillas like gnawing and chewing, so give them wooden, rope, cardboard and pumice toys to chew. Avoid plastic toys.
• A dust bath - give your chinchillas a shallow tray filled with clean fine sand or 'chinchilla dust' to bathe in every day - this keeps their fur in good condition. Remove or sieve clean after use to stop it from getting soiled. 
• Nest boxes and hiding places - give your chinchillas constant access to hay-filled nest boxes to rest and sleep in. Provide hiding places so they can get some time to themselves or escape if they're feeling scared.  
• Bedding - chinchillas need enough bedding to keep warm, and it should be safe if they eat it, such as good quality, dust-free hay. Don't give chinchillas nesting materials that separate into thin strands, such as cotton wool or similar 'fluffy' bedding products, as they can get tangled up in them and they aren't suitable for eating.

Degus:

• Indoors only

• The minimum recommended cage size for degus is 100cm x 60crn x 60cm for two degus

• Degus need plenty of stimulation to keep them happy and healthy so there should be plenty of space to exercise. It’s best to keep them in wire cages with lots of levels and ramps so they can climb and burrow to their heart's content.

• Degus need hides, huts and hammocks for sleeping.

Gerbils:

• Enough space - Gerbils are best housed in a special gerbilarium, which should be large enough to offer them space to shelter, dig and exercise, with solid glass walls and a secure wire-mesh top:
  − The gerbilarium floor should be solid to allow for bedding material to be provided (to absorb the relatively small quantities of urine they produce and to allow for digging).

• Nesting and bedding materials - gerbils naturally build nests. Giving them a mix of rough-grained woodchips and hay will provide structure to their burrows and give them something to gnaw too. Don't give them nesting materials that separate into thin strands, such as cotton wool or similar 'fluffy' bedding products, as they can become tangled in them and can't eat them.

• A rough-surfaced object, such as a stone, to help wear down their claws and give further structure to their burrows. These also provide suitable places for scent-marking. Gerbils' claws need to be worn down through regular digging or walking on rough surfaces, or they may grow too long.

Hamsters:

• Indoors in a cage - min. size of 100 x 50 cm.

• Hamsters need a wide but not too tall (to prevent injuries from falling) plastic and wire cage

• to live in. Examples that are the perfect size and layout are the PawHut Wooden, Living World Green Moving Home Eco Habitat which are available online.

• Hamsters need hides,huts,hammocks for sleeping but ensure they don't have small gaps that they could get their feet trapped in - cardboard items are a cheap option.