Knolls Gerbils

by Judith H. Block  “Knolls Gerbils”

    I’m Judith (aka “Hey, Jude” to Don of Wilderness Gerbils!). My husband, Stuart, and I own Knolls Gerbils of Riverdale, in NYC. Stuart first heard of gerbils in 1966, when he was going for his Post Doctoral at the Worcester Foundation at Clarke Univ. in Mass. One of the scientists had brought them to the Foundation as curiosities (not to be experimented with), and some of the scientists took them home as pets. Unbelieveably (giggles!), Stuart was not one of them! A few years later, some gerbils were kept as pets in the biology lab, in the college where Stuart taught. We met in 1970 and married in 1971. We both adore animals (neither of us would marry someone who didn’t!) and wanted a pet in our very pet-restricted co-op. Stuart mentioned gerbils. I had never heard of them. We bought our first gerbils, two agouti females, in Macy’s (they had a pet department, then) in NYC. We we were hooked!

We adore gerbils because they are intelligent, funny, artistic (as an artist, I appreciate their architectural talent in building tunnels and structures out of shredded paper), friendly, comparatively easy to care for, and a total joy to be around! We have had many gerbils through the years. Once, what the pet store said was two females, turned out not to be the case, and we had gerbil babies. What an amazing experience to watch gerbils being born! And what fantastic parents gerbils are! I remember, it was so funny! Vladimir kept looking down at his own groin area as Rosa gave birth, wondering why no babies were coming out of him. (They were named after the Godard film that was playing at the time.) Then he started running around, all excited, the typical expectant father! It was hilarious! After the pups were born, Vladimir tried to take one and nurse it himself! Rosa put him straight very fast! After he calmed down, he would watch the pups while Rosa exercised or ate. He was terrific! It was so exciting for us to watch the pups grow up!

You get so attached to gerbils! They are just so adorable, and miraculous, and charming! And you never get used to gerbil illnesses and deaths. The hurt never lessens. We wish they lived longer-that’s the hard part. Gerbils are heartbreakers.

Today, Knolls Gerbils consists of three sweeties: Fairfield, a lilac, is a little over two. His partner, Compo, died last year. Fairfield is our “special needs” gerbil. He has a deformed paw, which, when he was small, made him an amazing wheel acrobat- he would run very fast to get momentum, then grab onto a wheel spoke and go around and around about three or four times. He just loved doing this! He is a big lug, now, and still runs the wheel, but much slower, of course, and with no flipping. We must take him to the vet every month to get his now, very deformed paw, cleaned out, and his nails clipped. A while ago, his top left tooth fell out and never grew back, so he must get the bottom left tooth clipped, too. Either I or the vet do this. Fairfield has such good character! He and Compo never got along- they tolerated and ignored each other. But when Compo became ill, and until he died, Fairfield would take care of him, keeping him warm by sleeping and resting next to him (they had previously always stayed apart). He is a gentle, loving sweety! Fairfield gets a special diet- he can only chew certain nuts and seeds, of a particular thickness, and also shares the foods we eat (we eat mostly vegetarian and organic, as much as possible).

Thanks to Karen Biehl of the AGS, we have three more additions to Knolls Gerbils! Karen, Gary, and I went “gerbiling”, i.e. visiting petstores in NYC, in mid Oct. Then, we went to Karen’s apartment, where, among her hamster and gerbils, she had two adorable baby male, spotted agoutis, and their father, Pan. The babies were to be a birthday present for a friend of hers. I fell in love! I called Stuart (he had warned me (giggles!) not to bring home any new gerbils, but, he sort of knew I would!), and then we went to the pet store and bought the two clowns I named Bacchus and Dionysius! We couldn’t tell them apart! Just recently, Stuart and I saw that Dionysius has become a bit larger than Bacchus (Bacchus is the champion wheel runner, and Dionysius was the champion eater of the family, until we put another wheel into the cage (the wheel sharing just didn’t work!). Now they both run and flip like crazy and just adore their wheels. They are so funny- If one takes a piece of raw kale before I can feed the other, both grab furiously onto the kale piece and together, run around the cage with it in their mouths! They really enjoy each other’s company, when they are not fighting over food! We just watch them and laugh!

About two weeks after we bought the boys, Karen informed me someone had bought Pan’s remaining baby, the little girl. This left the mom alone in the pet store cage. On Nov. 1st, 2002, I went to the petstore and bought Phoebe, mother of Bacchus and Dionysius (in real life, not mythology!). She is so special! We never had such a friendly animal! She lets me pet her and touch her all over, while she chews her cardboard tunnels. (We are sort of shy with animals, afraid of hurting them- that’s why I don’t have gerbils climbing up my arm and resting on my shoulder, as some other gerbil owners do.) Phoebe has the softest, thickest fur I have ever felt in a gerbil. She is a real beauty, both physically and character-wise. She plays, and chews, and eats(!) and seems to be having a great time. I didn’t know whether or not to get her a little cagemate (female), -we were willing to do so- we want Phoebe to have a wonderful life! I contacted an animal communicator. She told me Phoebe said she enjoys being alone and doesn’t want to share her cage- that she is very happy and knows she is deeply loved. And she wants me to sing to her! (I wonder if she regrets that request, now- Let’s just say I have the good sense NOT to try out for American Idol!). Phoebe does stand up and look at me when I sing, though. And she hasn’t tried to bite me! Her favorite song is “You Are My Sunshine”.

All our gerbils bring us so much happiness and sunshine! We are blessed to be able to share our lives with them.