what are the chances of.....

my friend being allergic to my gerbils, even though she has never had trouble with other small rodents, not even them? SHe practically hand-tamed them for me! I use the same bedding as I always have, but as soon as she got near them, she had a sneeze attack. It happened again as soon as she went to say hi to them.


Hayley (a very confused gerbil owner :wink

 

There are a couple of things to concider. It's possible for a person to develop an allergy to just about anything at any time, even if that thing never caused them a problem in the past.

It's also possible that your bedding may be different, even if you still use the same brand. The manufacturer may have gotten hold of some bad product, or they may have changed suppliers. They may have even changed their whole product in some way. Or there might be mites in some batches of bedding, and that's what's making your friend sneeze. Are your gerbils itchy, by any chance?

You could try switching bedding and see if that helps. Depending on what you currently use, try something totally different; corn cob instead of cedar chips, for example.

 

Yikes! Please NEVER use cedar shavings. Cedar and Pine are soft woods that contain phenols (aromatic oils) which are very toxic to the delicate systems of small animals. I agree that a bedding switch to see if it makes a difference is a good thing to try first. What kind of bedding do you use now? You can try something like Yesterday's News, Carefresh Ultra or Teklad white bedding, Aspen pellets, shredded paper or even rabbit food pellets. Beddings such as corncob can grow mold which could also be a factor in your friends allergic reaction since many people are sensitive to molds.

 

I use corncob mixed with sand. I change the bedding every two weeks - 1 1/2 weeks.

 

I use plain woodshavings for my gerbils tank and they are ok on that even there babies are doing well and baby gerbils can suffer from respiritry (sp) problems due to shavings and they are fine.

Most people are ok with plain woodshavings.
Humans can be allergic to gerbil hair this is usually when they are shedding some of there fur because it is so fine its hard to notice it also could be an allergy to dead skin cells as animals like human shed dead skin everyday.

Mike