how do you build something for a gerbil?

[durango dude]

My son has a pet gerbil - and asked e to build something for it for Christmas.

He originally said "just cut out some shapes - they'll eat it." Ummmm

Come on - what kind of woodworker would make something only to have it eaten?

So far - only idea I have is a little house ----- I made a 6x6 box ---- out of some birch plywood I had sitting around ---- cut doors and windows into it. I used a 1.5" forstner bit to drill doors into the wood - and 3/4" bits to make windows. I put the house together by cutting dados, and then fastening everything with wood screws (big enough not to be ingested).


Any other ideas?

I also got some rules:
- no stain (the gerbils like to chew on the wood)
- should likely avoid brad nails (some risk of ingestion, since they're small)
- should stick to non-toxic wood

[atgcpaul]

How about plexiglass and whatever adhesive is appropriate? Maybe the gerbil won't mind having peeping toms and it might be interesting to see what they do in there.

[dbhost]

I would think Cedar to keep pests away, and maybe dovetails to hold it together without glue? Just thinking out loud...

[TB Roye]

Be careful of wood in might be poisonous to him. Most commercial cages are plastic for ease of cleaning. Wood might soak up Urine and that would not be good and sealing it might be worse. Have had a lot of little critters over the years killed a few by using of feeding the wrong stuff.

Tom

[cwsmith]

Interesting question. I think I'd take a trip to a local pet store to get some idea of what Gerbils (sp?) might like.

Pine I think would be a pretty common wood, and therefore okay, as long as it's not treated. Likewise, shellac is a 'natural' finish, is it not? (Once the alcohol has dried out of it anyway.)

I agree, I'd stay away from small fasteners like brads, but so too any metal that may react to wood in a toxic way.

What is a Gerbils natural habitat? I confess that we've never had pets of this kind.

CWS

[tfischer]

Most glue is non toxic, at least when dried. I wouldn't worry about using wood glue to keep a project together.

I'd avoid fasteners as rodents do love to chew.

[JoeyGee]

What about the glue/resin/whatever holding the plywood together? Chewing through that stuff probably wouldn't be too healthy.

[durango dude]

did a little research -----

my plywood is baltic birch plywood - from the EU.

This makes sense, since I picked the wood up from an Ikea-type store that was getting rid of the pallets used to ship the furniture on. (the pallets are made of the same wood as the furniture).

From what I can find, MDF is certainly bad for critters - baltic birch is "not sure." Even baltic birch has glue ---- but the EU does not allow toxic glue.

Excellent idea re. dowels ---- I'm going to make a ladder from dowels.

Not sure what to do with the house ----- might send it and put a note on it.

[atgcpaul]

Just talked to my coworker who worked in a pet store, had gerbils growing up, and her patron saint is Francis of Assisi so I'm going to defer to her.

Gerbils will gnaw at everything given the chance--even plastic houses and tunnels. However, they will go after the softer stuff like wood first. She used aspen bedding as there are health concerns with cedar. She also mentioned as a treat giving them flavor infused balsa cubes.

She thinks pine will be OK for the construction. She had plastic houses in her enclosure and replaced them about every year because of the chewing.

I'm going to add that you can use bamboo skewers as dowels, too. Just find a drill bit the right size, drill through the corner at the mating joint, and glue and insert the skewer and cut off.

[capncarl]

Some of the small bird houses that you see for sale at the big box craft stores would be something good to copy. You could glue them up and fasten them with screws and remove the screws after the glue dries. That glue ain't going to hurt no rat.