After our precious Cheddar passed away we had decided not to get anymore gerbils.  Because we love to interact with our little family members we weren't sure if we could keep up with another pair of young gerbils.  Baby gerbils are incredibly fast and sitting on the floor with them is not as enjoyable as it was 10 years ago :-).

We had put Cheddar's old cage in the loft, just in case, which turned out to be a very fortunate move after a trip to the pet store to get a bunny cage, we came home with Berry.  The pet superstore we visited ran their own rehoming scheme and when we saw the cute little black gerbil curled up all by himself we just could not resist.  Berry was six months old and his previous parents had just dumped him in a cardboard box outside the pet store, and he was looking for a new family.

As Berry had not been handled very much, if at all, he was very jumpy and we have had to take to our time with him.  With a lot of patience, tender loving care, and sunflowers Berry has calmed down a lot from the jumpy little chap he was when he first joined our family.  He is still not very happy to be handled, but he is a lot more confident around us and when he is out of his cage.

Of course the most important thing for us is that Berry is now really happy and confident in and out of his home, which we are very pleased about.