Whoa. I have replies to make.

Jodi: I was kind of thinking that's what you meant about the shredded paper, but figured I'd ask anyway. Believe me, I also have a ton of those homework papers. A lot of them I can't bear to part with...as they are SO CUTE...especially from my kindergartener. That's an issue I MUST deal with. The papers that I do get rid of they become grocery list paper.

Cali: Playground sand. Know which one ya mean. Have gotten it for my kids sandbox here and there. It's really nice and soft. That sounds funny, when you are describing sand. Personally, I hate it for the outside sandbox. Because of the texture does it ever stick to their clothing. HOLY CRAP. For the kids anyway, I like the more granular stuff. For gerbils..most excellent. I'm thinking because they couldn't burrow around in it, when it came time to clean the cage it would be really easy to do so, as you wouldn't have any surprises hidden down below...it would basically be on the surface. I'm thinking this is right. Right?? In my searching around on the net I read somewhere ( 1 article) that said when they try to burrow in the sand they damage their noses and faces to the point of bleeding in their determination to dig a burrow. By the sounds of your message you don't have that problem...basically on account of you giving them all that cardboard to munch/shred on. Correct?? Using the water bottle for a jumping board. Smart!! Too smart!! The cover I do know about, tho. It would be a bit of a problem buying one tho, as the tank that I have is 55 gallons. Yah. Huge. I've never seen tank covers made that large. Could be wrong tho. I was thinking to get my carpenter type dad to make me a screen cover. Probably would be cheaper than buying one anyway. A screen cover for a 10 gallon tank is $15. Imagine what a cover for a 55 gallon would be...if they made them. WHOA!!!

We went to the pet store yesterday, just to take a peek, and they had 3 really cute ones. A rust one, a light grey one..never seen that color before, and a black and white one..again, never saw that color before either. I've always seen the regular colored ones...meaning that dark brown color...agouti I think it's called?? This pet store handles their pets quite a bit so these girls were friendly, but really nervous. When you put your hand down they would sit on your hand and try to run up your arm, then dash away. Are they always that nervous, or when you get them home, after a while, do they begin to calm down and you can actually hold them in your hand for a certain length of time. You see, that's something that my littler kids want..something to hold onto and stroke. While we were sitting there touching them my 5 year old says.."mommy my nose is itchy" aaahhhh. I'm kind of hoping it was from the shavings they were in (aspen) that was causing the problem. Did they ever stink tho. From what you say, that's not the norm, unless you neglect to clean the tank in a while. The tank they were in was FULL of turds, so I'm assuming they had lots of pee buried beneath their ton of shavings...hence the eye burning smell. That's one of the reasons I'm really concerned with a rodents smell. The piggie (Daisy) we used to have stunk up the house so bad it was unbelievable. For me yah the smell was yucky, but it wasn't something that would ruin my day. The problem is " the husband" This is a guy who HATES all animals. Seriously. I've never known anyone like that. That's not normal. Even when her tank was just cleaned he would complain. She resided in the 55 gallon tank, which was thoroughly cleaned/washed every 2-3 days. Seriously, if you have really stinky pets in a house with 4 kids, I'm sorry, but that's just not kosher. And with the husband I have it just makes things difficult.

Wolfsoul: The pine and cedar I most definately know about, thanx. What I didn't know is about the barbs on the cedar. My goodness. That is interesting. I should mention that to the ppl I see hefting those cedar bags in the store. Hemp shavings?? Have never seen those. The downsides of carefresh I found out about thru reading on this site. The comment you made about aspen...maybe that's why the 3 gerbils I saw in the store smelled so bad...on the other hand it could also be that they don't clean as much as they should. Your friend sounds like she got the shock of her life. Eeeeewwwww. Bet she was totally grossed out. Meanwhile she was probably cleaning and afterwards going..'why does it still smell funny" Hopefully her gerbils didn't get sickly from their tunnel. That was gross. One of my daughters just got a rabbit a little while ago and she brought it over here the other day. Talk about cute. It was a Rex. The fur is almost chinchilla like. A black one, too. It was in the house for maybe 20 minutes and it must have pooed all over the carpet 50X. Obviously, husband was not impressed and preferred to stay out of room. Didn't even want to touch it. The younger kids would much prefer a bunny, but a bunny would be more time consuming. Yes, I know all pets are time consuming, but with a couple of gerbils, if the kids wanted to go for a bike ride or to a friends house I'm thinking the gerbils wouldn't care. With a bunny, you need to give it a lot of attention on a daily basis. There would really be no such thing as "I don't feel like playing with bunny today...I want to go here or there" Do you see what I'm getting at. Actually, no pet would be the best thing at my house, to tell you the truth. That's why I'm looking for something that even if the kids ignore it once in a while, the pet wouldn't be, like, scarred for life. You know what I mean?

IRescue452: You really have to take it down a notch and read some other posts by the person before you jump to conclusions. In my case, I'm in a quandry as to what type of pet to get...one that will not cause allergic reactions, one that doesn't stink to high heaven as a general rule, can it do without shavings (another allergy trigger at my house) will it be ok if it's ignored once in a while (fresh food/water/bedding not included here) and last but not least, can I get it by my husband with a minimum of fighting. We all would like rats, really, but my husband is so scared of them that's not an option...unless I'm REALLY nice to him and I can change his mind Personally, I don't handle sideways comments very well, as I don't give them to other people, unless they really and truly deserve them. The husband constantly gives the kids/me snide remarks/sarcasm/insults and just plain ignorant/stupid remarks on a daily basis. He figures he's funny and knows everything about everything I think not.

Oh Cali. I forgot to ask. What is the smell level with the sand, how much do you put in your tank, and how often do you clean?

Whoa this is a novel. Thanx for all the great info.