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Scientific Name: |
GERBILLUS PERPALLIDUS |
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The pallid gerbil is a medium size gerbil with a pale orangish/yellow back colour. The belly colour is white, there is not a clear line between the back and belly colour.The hairs on the back have dark tips and a grey basis. Towards the sides, fewer hairs have dark tips and a grey basis.
The under side of the tail is white, as are the feet. The nails are clear.
There is a ring of white hairs around the big, round, black eyes.
The long tail is sparsely haired and has no clear tuft.
The ears are not pigmented and bare.
The head and body length of an adult pallid gerbil is about 107 mm, the tail is about 137 mm, they weigh about 36 grams.
The overall shape is smaller and slimmer, more pointed than the Mongolian gerbil.
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The pallid gerbils live in the coastal dunes of the Western Mediterranean Coastal Desert in north western Egypt.
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The habitat of the Pallid gerbils are the coastal dunes of white, nummilitic sand, sandy areas but also near lake shore areas of mud and salty sand.
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Pallid gerbils are not hard to breed, comparable to the Mongolian gerbil with an average litter size of 5 pups.
Although Pallid gerbils become sexually mature somewhat later than Mongolians and the gestation period seems a little bit shorter.
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Maintenance and behaviour in captivity:
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Best is to keep Pallid gerbils in a tank, rather than a cage. They love to dig, so provide a thick layer of bedding material. They really need to sand bathe, otherwise their fur will get greasy. You can keep them on sand, or on some other bedding material and provide a sand bowl, a mix of 2/3 bird sand and 1/3 of chinchilla dust works fine.
Because their fur is rather thin, they can't be kept in cold rooms, they need a room temperature of at least 18 degrees.
Pallid gerbils are very social animals that need to be kept with a mate. The will get bored and depressed when kept alone. They can very well been kept in groups, but in a mixed-sex group, the amount of males should be less than the amount of females.
Give the animals a nesting box, and some climbing objects like branches and stones.
You can feed your Pallid gerbils the same food as other gerbils; a good seed mix or a pelleted block. They do appreciate insects like meal worms and crickets, but instead you can also feed them dry cat food occasionally. They hardly ever eat fruit or vegetables. But they do need fresh water.
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