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Charming Dipodils

Charming Dipodils are a species of true Gerbil, their latin name is - Gerbillus amoenus

They do not grow to be very large, and are certainly a 'dwarf Gerbil' their body length in total is around 8cm and the tail is a little longer than the body. They have very large back feet, like that of the mongolian Gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) and short front legs, their tail is very long and has sparse hair and a small tuft. The tail does not appear to be as furred as that of the Mongolian Gerbil, but there are short hairs on it.

The Charming Dipodil is much more wary of people touching its tail than a mongolian Gerbil, which doesn't appear to care about people holding or pulling on their tail even if they are able to shed it.

The colour of the Charming Dipodil is a true wild agouti colour, the back, head and body are a warm brownish red colour, with a white belly that has a very clear line of demarkation. They have very large round black eyes which protrude a fair distance from their head, their ears are quite large considering their head size and they have grey tips to the ears, the ears have very short hairs on them... On websites I have visited they always say the ears are bare... But with my camera you can clearly see that they have hairs on their ears.

The place of origin for the Charming Dipodil is Egypt and Lybia, with it also possibly spreading to Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. In the wild they have been found to be living in all types of places, from clay sand to areas with fallen leaves and loose sand.

Charming Dipodils are reported to be fairly difficult to breed in captivity, with 2 to 3 pups being born mainly in the spring, I am not sure if the breeder I obtained my Dipodils from finds them difficult to breed or more difficult to sell onto other people.

The Charming Dipodil was introduced to the UK in September of 2002, and is currently the smallest species being kept here at the moment. They are relatively easy to tame, but their best qualities are to watch them, they are very active and exciting to watch - they definately have to have a wheel! Without one I imagine they would be very depressed. Nothing is more fun to watch than two or more Dipodils all attempting to run in a wheel at the same time!

Dipodils are generally active at night, they will start running in their wheels anywhere around 6-9pm and will carry on doing so for most of the night. I have seen them up during the day on numerous occasions, foraging for a little food, having a quick sand bath and then cleaning themselves more thoroughly before going back to sleep again - I find they do this every couple of hours or so for 20-30minutes.

In their tank it is very important to provide:

A wheel

A sandbath

The reason for the sand bath is that Dipodils are very prone to becoming greasy and quickly, so it is best to always provide sand for them as they will bathe in it everyday, perhaps a couple of times a day. The wheel, as mentioned before is very important to a Dipodil and their life will mainly consist of running in it.

I also provide a parrot toy for my Dipodils to climb on, which they do seem to enjoy doing and they do also seem to be quite good at it as they use their long tails to help them balanced and cling to the hanging material. I have found that they don't appear to be big diggers, so they don't need much bedding. In the wild they are reported to live in 25cm tunnels, but I still find them not to be all that interested in digging.

 

Looking at the hair on the ear of the Charming Dipodil

 

Looking at the hair on the tail of the Charming Dipodil, with small tuft at the end.

 

 

 

Comparing the size of the Charming Dipodil to a 1 pence piece

 

 

 

Personally I have found Dipodils to be very interesting to watch, I do not handle them much as they are not as friendly as a mongolian, but they can actually be tamed quite well. In ways I think they are quite similar to our Roborovski Hamster, they are more for watching than being handled. I think they much prefer to be running in a wheel, and I think I prefer to watch them running in their wheel ;)

As not many Dipodils are kept in captivity, not much is known about their behaviour. We are unsure how they react to things, although you would expect them to be the same as mongolians, I think they are quite different. They have quite an odd squeak... well it's more like a hissing sound, I am not entirely sure when they use it yet... We have had some problems with our two females fighting... Well I am not sure if it is fighting, due to not knowing a great deal about how they behave.

From what we can see, one female appears to flip out over seemingly nothing sometimes. If the other female comes close the other will flip out, jump around and jump away. The other female doesn't appear to show any signs of aggression, no fluffing of the fur, no squeaking or anything. With a mongolian gerbil, I would expect them to fluff up, squeak and one to disallow the other to eat/drink etc. Straight after any fighting we will see them both running in the wheel together!

This is why everything is so odd!

However the last time they fought one did end up with an injury, we're hoping that she caught it... But I think that is being hopeful. Once again though, they were running in the wheel together within a couple of minutes, no bullying and now they are sleeping on top of eachother. I can't work these little fellas out! They are being kept in a small carrier, as each time we have put them in there and never had any problems. I was thinking that perhaps it was a space issue... But I know that the breeder we got them from keeps them in 30inch tanks, that is a lot larger than our tank, so that can't be the problem.

Anyone got any ideas??

Saying all this though, they are very nice! No really, they are. They're very cute and when they clean they will stand on one foot and clean the other, it's the cutest thing ever. I would advise them to people, but if you are looking for a cuddly pet, they're a definate no no.

November 2004

The two Dipodils were seperated soon after I wrote the above information. It would seem that they did not get along and after an attempt to reintroduce them straight after, they fought straight away and so they now both live seperately.

I am adding in some photos of them that I took ages ago but feel they should be added because of a lack of photos of these gerbils on the internet and so anyone looking for information on them can get a good number of them from here.

 

February 2005

I have recently been trying to work more with Miette, as Dipodils still aren't all that tame - in a few years time I would expect them to be more friendly as a species, but right now I feel they are still too skittish. Seraphina is very wild, I don't understand it, as she was the more friendly of the two before they fought and now she will barely let you near her, as soon as you take the lid off her tank she hides away, I think she will just always be like that and I don't know how I will tame her down - it would take a very long time if I do manage it.

So I have been working with Miette, who has always been ok, she will walk around her tank and sniff your fingers and not be too worried about your hand being in there. So we already had quite a good starting point, and over the last few days or so I have been taking her wheel out and sitting with my hand in the tank for 15 minutes to half an hour to give her time to get used to me. It has been working very well, and within two days she was already walking on my hand, taking sunflower seeds from me and climbing up my arm - I did keep the mesh over the tank though in order to stop her climbing out as, I'm still a little wary of her and don't want to be playing chase the dipodil just yet - perhaps in a few weeks or so, I will trust her enough and she'll be relaxed enough too for me to allow her time on my shoulders etc.

They certainly are charming little rodents, and I'm loving the fact that she does still trust me enough. Once I let her onto my shoulders, I'll add some photos here, but for now I'll add some photos of Miette cleaning herself in her wheel.

 

 

 

 

 

February 11th

Well, it's now been around 3 days since I wrote about trying to tame Miette. Progress is still happening, and I took away the wire mesh which was stopping Miette jumping out, and I was prepared to allow her to climb up my arm, well every time she just went to the elbow and climbed back into her tank! Phew, no hide-and-seek games just yet! Since then, for the past two nights I have left the mesh to allow her the choice to come out and yet she still hasn't come all the way up my arm. She is however, still taking sunflower seeds from my hand, but now she is actually also sitting on my hand to eat them... So that's good news - at least it is if she were a mongolian Gerbil. The problem is, that they have different behaviours to the mongolians and so it can make it a little more difficult to know exactly what's happening. So I am assuming though, whether it be any animal, eating from your hand must be a good sign of trust.

February 12th

Not an update on how the taming is going, but just some photographs of Seraphina, most photos I post are of Miette as Sera is too difficult to get close to and we don't often see her... See what I mean about her being really untame now??

Anyway, I managed to snap some the other day whilst she was going for a little run.

A quick meal before starting the nightly run.

 

Playing peek-a-boo, hiding from me if I so much as moved.

 

February 24th

Ok, well progress is good, and over the last few days/times I've put my hand in the tank Miette has been climbing all the way up my arm onto my shoulders. Well tonight, almost as soon as I put my hand in she was climbing up trying to get to her beloved wheel... So I allowed her out 4 times before I decided to go clean her wheel and then allow her to begin running again. I don't want her coming out and then jumping off me and going for a run around the bed - that's too nerve wracking although I just usually put her wheel infront of her and she'll jump in allowing me to capture her again ;)

So now I just need some photos of her sat on my shoulder... very cute, this tiny little Dipodil face looking at you with massive eyes, she even sniffed at my earring (The gerbils do the same, but also try to chew at it... I wonder why?? Only problem is, they're some my brother bought me for my 21st and are white gold *tsk*)

I tried to begin the attempt to tame Seraphina over the last few nights. Although I am taking it much slower. Basically I am just having her tank on the bed, so that she can get used to being closer to us than she normally is. Well she's normally only a metre away from the bed on a shelf, but still. Sooo they are my first tiny baby steps to trying to tame Seraphina, I also took some photos of her whilst on the bed, although I haven't taken the lid to her tank off yet. I think it might take a while before I do that.

February 27th

I attempted to take some photos last night of Miette running around on my shoulder and arm - not an easy task I can assure you... Camera in one hand, Dipodil on opposite arm running around and me trying to focus and direct the camera so it actually catches the dip in the photo! Hahaha needless to say most were blurred or just half a dip whoops!

Next time I'll get Pete to help me, if I can actually drag him away from the computer being his usual unhelpful self *rolls eyes*

Miette messing around digging.

Miette on my hand.

Climbing up my arm.

Checking out the camera and casing the joint to see her best escape route.

Sat on my shoulder - blurred... Sorry.