Homes needed urgently for jirds, Family of jirds urgently need rescued

Jirds are closely related to gerbils; their natural habitats are in the Middle East and Mongolia. Last December a pair took up residence on our bird-table in Newtownards. At first we thought they were rats and they are rodents. We eventually identified them and found out that they live in tunnels (they appear to have dug a network of tunnels under the hedge row but there is no evidence of any harm to the hedging) and are adept at climbing trees. They can be litter-trained and can be good pets. They will almost certainly have been acquired in a pet-shop and have either escaped or been thrown out.

The problem is that they have bred and there are now a least 6 and these 6 will also breed. The birds no longer come into our garden or the neighbours' as the jirds eat all their food despite us giving them their own gerbil food. The main problem is that the neighbours are complaining as they are now foraging in the adjoining gardens and as they look rat-like this is also causing some upset so we have been asked to get rid of them. We can't keep them as pets indoors as we have 3 cats and a dog who don't take kindly to them and would kill them. At present they can't get at them as they have the trees and their burrow for protection. They are actually very cute and will let us get quite close to them. We realise that we have to get rid of them either by re-homing them or, it this fails, having them put down. We think they will be easy to catch as they are semi-tame and we could dump them a few fields away and let them take their chances but they would probably not survive as they would not find food in the wild that would sustain them as they are not a native species. Can anyone help? There are a lot of web-sites about jirds if you want to find out more about them and they seem to be quite popular pets on the mainland. They can be kept in the same time of housing as gerbils. If anyone was prepared to take a pair (they are happiest in pairs) we would help with cost of neutering. If you are in a position to help or have any advice please get in touch.

Presleysgranny

Would it be possible for you to catch them and neuter them yourselves, that way they wont breed?

You could try phoning Belfast Zoo and ask their advice?

Im sure there will be other folk along later who have more constructive advice - Im a "canine" person :wub:

Helen

Somewhere like Belfast Zoo might actually take them... so might be worth contacting them.

Other than that, I would suggest catching them and then advertising them, subject to a small donation to charity and a homecheck.

As you can't keep them, would anyone on this site be able to foster them?
I might be able to offer the loan of a bird cage which would house a couple of them temporarily if needed.

I'm not easily in a position to foster, as have my hands full at the moment with the foster pup but if nothing comes up let me know.

I will cross post about them on a Southern Ireland rescue site in case anyone there can help: http://petsireland.invisionzone.com/index....showtopic=73138

I would urge you to please not dump these somewhere in the wild. Not only are you putting them at risk you would also be upsetting the ecosystem for native wildlife by introducing a foreign species.

Perhaps someone on here would know of a person with humane traps their food could be placed in to round them all up. I wouldn't have a clue where to start with rehoming small furries, but will ask around tonight to see if anyone I know has info.

I would worry if the neighbours are getting fed up with them it's a matter of time till one of them lay poison down for the poor things.

I have found someone in the South who is willing to take them all and has experience with Jirds.

Could you PM me your contact details please so I can pass them on?
If you need help with transport for them, let us know and we will see what we can do.

Thank you all for your prompt replies.

In fairness to our neighbours they are being very patient and would not do the little creatures any harm such as laying poison as they know we have cats, whom they are fond of, but they are not happy at the jirds moving into their hedgerow and possibly getting into their garage or house.

When I said we could dump them elsewhere, I was quoting some people's advice to us but we would not do that because they would probably not survive and also because of the danger to native species.

I will keep you informed of developments. If you want to see how interesting and cute they are, google 'jirds' and you will get quite a lot of info. We also have photos of ours and if my IT consultant son helps me I might be able to put them on this site.

Presleysgranny.

Ps. Presley is my other son's big lig of a dog who we look after during working hours - he came from the dog pound in Castleblayney over 3 years ago. We didn't think we were 'dog people' till Presley came along.