Fat-tailed Gerbil

Overview

• The fat-tailed gerbil, often called the duprasi, is a small rodent from the rocky northern edge of the Sahara in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
• Its defining trait is the short, club-shaped tail that stores fat like a camel's hump, topped with an unusually dense, plush coat that feels more like a hamster's than a gerbil's.
• At around 4 inches (10 cm) of body and 40-60 grams it is compact, round and famously fond of sleeping flat on its back.

• It is a very different animal from the Mongolian gerbil elsewhere in this guide.
• Where Mongolians are frantic, intensely social diggers that need to live in pairs or groups, the duprasi is slow, calm and crepuscular, and it does not need a companion to be content.
• Keeping one animal in one tank is a perfectly good, welfare-sound setup rather than a compromise, though duprasi are not strictly antisocial: a compatible same-sex pair or small group raised together can also work.
• It also lives noticeably longer than a Mongolian, typically 5-7 years against 3-4.

• Care itself is beginner-level, but sourcing is not trivial.
• Duprasi are uncommon in shops and usually come from small hobby breeders, and like all gerbils they are illegal to keep in California and Hawaii.

Housing

• House a single fat-tailed gerbil in a glass tank or gnaw-proof enclosure of at least 20 gallons long, which is 30 by 12 inches (76 by 30 cm) of floor space, and a lone animal can happily take more.
• Provide 4-6 inches (10-15 cm) of paper-based bedding or aspen mixed with a little hay, because duprasi still dig and excavate even though they burrow less obsessively than Mongolian gerbils.
• Avoid plastic tubes and plastic-panel cages, since rodent teeth go straight through them.

• If you keep a compatible same-sex pair, resist the urge to simply scale the tank up.
• Duprasi pairs tend to settle better in a moderately sized enclosure, roughly two feet long, because too much floor space lets one animal claim and defend a territory and bully its cage mate.
• Fill it with several hides and two of everything so neither gerbil can be cornered.

• A sand bath is not optional for this species.
• That dense satin coat turns greasy and clumped without regular access to fine, dust-free bathing sand, so keep a heavy dish of it available and swap the sand out as it gets soiled.
• Add wooden chews, cork or ceramic hides and a solid-surface wheel of 8 inches (20 cm) or more, never a wire one.

• Keep the room at 68-77 F (20-25 C), dry and out of direct sun.
• This is a true desert animal, and damp rooms, misting or humidity much above 50 percent will cause coat and respiratory problems.

Diet

• Wild duprasi are mainly insect hunters, and captive ones should eat more animal protein than other pet gerbils.
• Feed a base of quality gerbil or hamster mix, scattered in the substrate for foraging, plus live or dried insects such as mealworms, crickets or dubia roaches two to four times a week.
• Small amounts of vegetable and a little hay round out the diet.

• Obesity is the number one feeding failure in this species, because a sedentary duprasi will happily convert sunflower seeds into body fat.
• Ration fatty seeds strictly and let the tail be your gauge, since a smoothly plump tail signals good condition while a thin, wrinkled tail means the animal is underweight and a vet check is due.

• Offer fresh water from a bottle at all times.
• Like other desert rodents they drink little, but the supply must never lapse.

Health

• Fat-tailed gerbils are hardy, and most problems in captivity are keeper-made.
• Obesity from overfeeding seeds is the most common issue, followed by greasy, matted coats in animals kept without a sand bath.
• Respiratory trouble usually traces back to dusty bedding, ammonia from infrequent cleaning or a humid room.

• Check the tail weekly as a body-condition score, and check the ever-growing incisors occasionally, keeping wood available to wear them down.
• Bite wounds to the tail and rump nearly always come from an incompatible pairing rather than from illness, so a chewed tail and persistent squeaking are your cue to separate cage mates before injuries turn serious.

• Find an exotics-experienced vet before you buy, because ordinary small-animal clinics may never have seen this species.
• Seek help promptly for lethargy, a rapidly thinning tail, laboured breathing or any lump.

Temperament

• This is one of the calmest, most handleable rodents in the pet trade.
• Duprasi move slowly, rarely bite, tolerate being scooped up in cupped hands and are well known for simply falling asleep on their keeper.
• Never grab or restrain the fat-storing tail itself, and always lift from under the body.

• Expect a lot of sleeping.
• They are crepuscular, most active around dawn and dusk, and spend much of the day flopped over in undignified positions, so anyone wanting a busy daytime entertainer should look at the Mongolian gerbil instead.

• You do not need to keep them in pairs, and a single duprasi is genuinely happy alone, since unlike the Mongolian gerbil this species has no need for a cage mate.
• If you do want more than one, keep a same-sex pair or small group, ideally littermates introduced young and in a not-too-large enclosure, and watch closely for a damaged tail and constant squeaking, which are the first signs a pairing is failing and the animals should be separated before injuries get serious.