Housing:
All of our gerbils are in tanks ( glass aquarium ) with fitted screen lids. Being that gerbils just about never try to escape or really never have any desire to escape so none of tanks have the locks or clips for them. ( If you have children or have a fear of your gerbils escaping then it's a good idea to own a tank & lid locking set up or buy some tank clips. ) We only keep a pair ( same sex ) in a 10 gallon tank but you can keep a max of 3 gerbils in this size tank but usually 3 makes things a little cramped. Also a 20 gallon long tank we usually only hold 4 - 5 gerbils. 4 if male or 5 if female as the females are usually smaller than the males. We never over crowd the tanks as a way to prevent fights.
Note: If you are using a runged cage for your gerbil then you may run in to them chewing the bottom of it as well as throwing all their bedding out of their cage. From personal experience gerbils are best in the glass tanks because they are other very bothersome pets if left in in a runged cage.
Bedding:
We use a card board based bedding such as Critter Care or Case Fresh. The cardboard bedding is not dusty and you'll never get an oder or smell to your gerbils. This kind of bedding is also good in the sense of getting that good fluffy bed or nest for your gerbils because they chew it up (being they LOVE to chew card board) and it'll become fluffy and soft for them to sleep in, unlike the wook chips that'll crack or slinter.
Food & Water:
Gerbils are vegetarians. They eat greens and such. Though they've a long list or do's and don'ts on their diet, all of our gerbils eat the bagged rodent food, " KAYTEE Forti-Diet " as well as gerbil/rodent snacks. Also a little of the unsweetened chreiro cearial or plain bread is a great treat. Also I found that they go crazy for the fresh steamed green beans. ( Remember to never give your gerbils candy, soda, or other sugary or very salty things as this can often make them sick.)
Change your water regualry as you don't want it to stagnant,. We change ours every 3 days in the winter and every other day (2) in the summer. Gerbils drink their water from a rodent hanging waterbottle, they lick the ball at the end of the bottle to release the water. If you don't have a waterbottle, you may use a small cup or bowl for a little bit while you get a bottle set up for them. Just remember that the same way your gerbil burries it's food dish it'll to the same to it's water, thus resulting in sopping wet bedding and undrinkable water. Note: Gerbils will chew their water bottles so keep in mind that you should always metal bottle cover to secure it in the tank and to potect the bottle from their chewing. If you are using a runged cage then you really don't need to worry about this problem.
Toys & Play :
The greatest type of play for a gerbil is with another gerbil so please keep in mind when choosing a gerbil as a pet to get them in pairs or threes because they love being with company. We strongly believe in the social heart of the gerbils and there by never leave a gerbil completely a lone in a tank.
Toys - Gerbils love to chew so some of the greatest ways to keep them happy is to given some toilet paper tubes, cardboard boxes (like cake boxes, food boxes, etc. ) and of course some little dog bones to naw on or some hard plastic cat toy. They make such a large verriety of rodent toys now, but keep in mind that most of them are made of plastic and with gerbils that chew every thing the toys you buy might not last for any great length of time.
Running Wheele - not all gerbils will run on the exercise wheele. It's best to put a wheel in with younge gerbils so they get use to it and really learn how to use it; old ones though, I've found that they're not so good st trying it out, but rather willl do their best at chewing it. Most of our tanks have a running wheele in it so weater a gerbil wants to run or just chew on it, at least they'll have that optikon to do so. =]