Q: *Hello,* *I have 2 female gerbils under 6 months. They arent mean but need more handling. My ex left them after a break up and I just have to many pets to take care of them. I live near Pittsburgh PA if you know of anyone ? Thanks*
A: We're kind of far away to be of help, so you may want to contact a rodent rescue closer to you. Go to http://www.petfinder.com/ and search for "Small Animal" in your state. Typically a huge list of animals will come up. All you need to do is click on the names of the shelters and rescues caring for these animals to get contact information, and you already know that they take in rodents. :) It's a fabulous resource!
Best of luck to you and your pets. I hope this helps you find a safe, knowledgeable, and permanent home. Also, please visit our website and take a look at our adoption application for ideas for questions you will want to ask potential adopters who contact you. It's really important to screen anyone interested very carefully. Sadly there are a lot of people out there who think rodents are completely disposable, and they will feed them to reptiles, use them in practical jokes where they will be injured or simply tossed outside to die afterwards, or even worse, torture them for fun. One guy we encountered was buying mice at pet stores to throw them out the window of a moving vehicle to watch them bounce because he thought it was funny. Scary.
Remember, pet stores are there to make a profit, not to help animals, so please, do not give your pets to a store under any circumstances. It is often a fate worse than death to be sold to just anyone who has a couple of dollars, and pet stores don't typically give vet care or quarantine surrendered animals to prevent rampant disease, so things can go bad very easily. They may also dump animals together in mixed sex and/or overcrowded groups that can result in bloody fights or even death. I've seen badly injured animals and blood smeared cages at pet stores resulting from this practice. If you become this desperate, take them to your local animal shelter instead. If your area has a privately run shelter, all the better. Even though they may be put down, it's better than dying in horror in a snake's cage (snakes should be fed frozen rodents, never live, according to herpetologists.)
One last note. Make a point not to give away your pets' cage to the adopter. This is a good policy for several reasons. For one, making the effort to purchase their own cage and have everything set up and ready at home before the adoption shows a certain level of commitment that taking some free stuff doesn't. Also, this helps prevent having people answer your ad to get a free cage to keep or sell to make money, tossing your gerbils away. It's best if you keep the cage (passing along a toy or bed the gerbils are familiar with for their new cage) and either donate it to your local shelter or rescue, or sell it later. Free pets are just too easy to take on a whim without thinking about future costs of vet care, food, toys, and other needs. When the pet becomes inconvenient or costly, they'll likely end up dumped.
Again, thanks for working to find them an appropriate home. They deserve it!
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