There are several methods of housing gerbils and they will be discussed in this section.

1. Glass aquariums: This is, in my opinion, the best way to house a gerbil. With a good screen lid that locks well, it is almost impossible for a gerbil to escape from an aquarium. As a rule of thumb, you need a minimum of 5 gallons of space per gerbil. This means that a minimum for a pair of gerbils is a ten gallon (US) aquarium. For 3 gerbils, you'll need a 15 gallon, for 4 gerbils, a 20 gallon and so on.

2. Wire cages: One of the biggest disadvantages of using a wire cage to house a gerbil is that gerbils are big chewers. They tend to compulsively chew the bars of the cage, rubbing their noses against it. This causes loss of hair on their noses and can get to the point of getting a bloody nose. Another disadvantage of wire cages is that gerbils love to dig, and in a wire cage, you can't provide enough bedding for them to dig a lot, plus they'll make a mess of bedding around the cage. If you decided to get a wire cage, make sure that it's designed for rodents and not for birds. A wire cage designed for rodents will have a plastic cover around the bottom to allow placing bedding. An advantage that has this type of cage is that they provide a lot of air circulation, preventing the accumulation of ammonia and other toxins that can pose a threat to your pet's health.

3. Plastic commercial cages (Habbitrail, Crittertrail, ect.): These type of cages are very pretty, but, in my opinion, not suitable to house a gerbil. First, the space that they provide is too small for them. Second, being plastic, a gerbil can chew it's way out very easily. Third, they seem to be easy to open by your critter, allowing it to escape. I highly suggest that you don't use this type of housing for a gerbil.