A previous thread of mine managed to move rapidly from urine infection to hamsters to gerbils!  Anyway, the urine infection has been dealt with and the gerbils arrive on Saturday.

I'm going to keep them in a glass aquarium which was previously used for fish, surprise surprise!  The lid is made of plastic and quite loose and easily knocked off.  I'm looking for ideas on how to make it much more secure as both my son and the cat are excited by the prospect of small rodents.

One option I thought of might be to extend the lid downward, at the corners, so that it has to lifted off vertically from above and couldn't be dislodged by the cat.

Any other ideas most welcome....

Loose fitting lids and gerbils not a good idea.I've had gerbils and hamsters escape because the lid was loose.There may be a lids at the pet store that would fit the tank you have.They usually have clamps to keep them tight.Also  the gerbils need to chew on things so make sure they have chew sticks.In a cage they chew on the bars but in a tank they need something else.Enjoy!

I'm going to put a peat/sawdust mixture in the tank so they can get a tunnel network going and provide them with loads of interesting things to chew and shred.  I've had gerbils before and they're fascinating wee things, with great personalities.  I love 'em!

I'll measure the tank and check out local pet shops on-line to see what they have by way of super-security!

Our cat  can a pry plastic seal top lid off her food bin so I would strongly suggest the addition of a weight on top that can not be easily knocked off lest your gerbils gerbil food.

I would make a lid from fine wire mesh, big enough to fold over the top and extend at least six inches down all four sides of the tank. Attach four bars of wood or metal along each side and to each other at the corners. There should be no way the cat can remove that!

Do not use the plastic lid - fish get enough oxygen because of the bubble pump, and do not need much anyway. But gerbils have a very fast metabolism and need the fresh air.

They have wire mesh  covers that have metal brackets that hook onto the lip of the aquarium tank so they wont get knocked if . You need to pull the brackets out to get the lid off - dont think a cat would be able to figure it out but you never know

Snowball, spit him out, we do not eat family members.

Cats are smart, I think they could even figure out doorknobs.

"Wow!  Live prey!"  -Dr. Doolittle!

LOL

Thanks guys, for that!   Tigger's idea sounds great and along the lines I'd started going myself.  Should be pretty simple to put together and make it too difficult for either the cat or my son to get the lid off - even if they team up!

Liked your comments GuessWho, that was funny!

I had a friend whose cat could open the front door, which became pretty embarassing when they moved to a different house in the same street and the cat kept opening the door and wandering into the old house!  In the end the new people had to get a whole new door as the thing came as a unit!

My cats have figured out some crazy stuff too

Citronella oil...it won't hurt your gerbil and cat's hate the smell

That's a brilliant idea!  Even if the cat can't reach the gerbils, it'd probably freak them out to have her staring ravenously at them all the time.
Thanks.

your graphics are impressive (the pooping one was hysterical).  Do you create them or find them?

Thank you Janet!

The two you mentioned were my own creations, sometimes I find stuff that is already better than anything I could do, but I like to mess about with the art programmes on computers. I even designed my house using MS Paint in Windows 98, but I now have a MacBook which is far superior!

My boys say that I do so well with basic programmes I should try to get Photoshop; but they have almost filled my computer's memory with World of Warcraft!

I just remembered a trick that I used to keep kittens away from fish: I had the tank on a cupboard top woth a raised edge and filled the space between the edge and the tank with marbles so that they couldn't get a purchase if they jumped up.

Actually, as long as the gerbils cannot smell the cat (with citronella around they probably won't be able to) they won't get alarmed as long as the cat can only be seen through the sides and not the top of the tank. They do not like being 'swooped' on, so keep the tank away form any higher furniture that the cat might access!