This is an old picture of my very first gerbils I got in 1987.
They were two males, one was agouti and one black.

I also kept two single females (black and agouti), which I unfortunately never managed to introduce to each other. I even tried a split cage (though I never heard about this possibility those days), but it didn't work at all. Maybe, because I didn't change the sides twice a day or maybe because both females were adults when I got them.

I couldn't get an old fish tank (and couldn't pay a new one, because they used to be quite expensive) and decided to build a gerbilarium with acrylic glass and wooden connections on my own.
It was really great (and much larger and more comfortable than any cage you could get those days!) and fortunately didn't get gnawed at all.

I don't use it any more, because the plastic got scratched through the years and doesn't look that nice any more =-(.

This is what the gerbilarium used to look like (just a section of it):
It is the same large root I still got for Max and Myrah today. And the same bowl I used for my guinea pig a long, long time ago and for my ratties these days ;o)

Of course the wooden house had to be removed one day (after it had been gnawed away...).

Today I mainly use wooden nest boxes for budgerigars, because they got a bottom and a top that can easily be opened to check the nest, if necessary.

There is another old (and partially damaged) picture of the gerbilarium on the right. Its size was about 70x40x40 cm and it had a wire-mesh top as well as a wire-mesh section in the back (for air-circulation).