Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sillychinchilly]

Okidokie. My neighbor bought her son a gerbil. He doesn't take care of it, and she just got promoted and won't have time now, so she asked if I wanted him. THE ANSWER IS YES!! But, I wanted to ask... Should I quarantine him before I put him in the same room as pixel? Obviously they're never going to be in the same cage or out at the same time, but I know things can be transmitted by air, and I wondered if diseases gerbils can carry can be transfered to Chins??

[chinclub]

I don't know for sure but since they are both rodents I guess it would be possible.  I think the main thing you need to watch for is to wash your hands between holding the gerbil and the chinchilla.  Otherwise as long as their cages are not side by side I don't think you will have a problem.

[Jo Ann]

      Being is the same room is one thing ... using the same play area, without cleaning it throughly between each of them every time one comes out to play, is something else.     One dropping of poop with Guardia can spread it from one animal to another.

     Washing your hands between holding them is good, but what about the clothes you have on ... your clothing could spread some things as easily as your hands can.   

     Gerbils are usually pretty healthy, so are chins, but if one gets sick, regardless of what it is, I would not be surprised if they did not both get sick.

     CA Chins, a chinchilla research center, is finding out (as we all are) that chinchillas can get/contract/pick-up most any disease or illness from anyone or any animal.  What we once thought they could not get, with all the new exposures to so much more, as pets, they have found out, a chin can usually catch it. 

     Any new animal should have a vet check and a reasonable quarantine time, just for safety's sake.  How much time?  Depends on what you are comfortable with.  With some illnesses, a chin will show signs of it in less than 24 hours (feline distemper - spread by contact ), then there is at least one thing I know of (stomach warts often found in goats - is viral and air born), that may not show up for 9 weeks to 9 months.  Both could kill an entire herd.

     You really don't know ... you have to make those decisions ... but keep in mind ... it's like having a child that is allergic to bees ... would you deny that child the pleasures of the out-of-doors for the rest of it's life for fear a bee would sting them?  Or would you allow them to play (but not in the flower garden) and keep meds near by for them?

   It's just one of those things you each have to decide for yourself.   

   Jo Ann

[Asikovsek]

I have my hamsters in the same room as my chins....I have them in tanks so everything stays in their cages. If it is a previously owned rodent ask the old owners what was the extent of the gerbil's play if it really wasnt exposed to any other animals I really dont think you have anything to worry about....