The amount of times over the years I have heard the cry of ‘my gerbil’s nails are too long!’ is amazing.

Yes, gerbils have long nails. But, they are long for a purpose! Yes, they might scratch your skin, catch in your clothes, and hurt your soft, girly hands (see left!), but without these claws, your gerbil would barely be a gerbil at all.

Have a look at their name, ‘meriones unguiculatus‘. Do you know what it effectively means?

‘clawed warrior’

If you think your gerbils nails are getting a little too long, just give them some terracotta in their tank, or take them out to play on a harder surface; even making or buying some toys with bird gravel on will help wear them down to a manageable level. Usually though, even with a large amount of substrate, the burrowing your gerbils will do will help wear their nails down to a reasonable length.

You can tell when your gerbil’s nails are getting too long at a glance. If you do a daily quick health check, eyes, ears, nose, teeth, etc, you will quickly spot the nails when they are becoming too long, or in need of some wearing.

Only if their claws are preventing them from digging and eating normally should you really get them clipped in my opinion. Clipping, both for teeth and nails, usually causes un-necessary stress when there are preventatives like those I’ve just listed that the gerbil can basically use to do their nails and teeth for them!

You can compare your gerbil’s claws to these photos..

Even at a glance, you can instantly tell whose nails are too long, and whose are at a good length.

I find the best way to tell is, do the toes have to twist or bend to accommodate the nails? (see fourth photo). If your gerbil’s nails have a nice, natural curve like photos 1, 3 &5, they are at a good length, so don’t mess!