@colleenc - Welcome to Steemit! Thanks for becoming part of the decentralization solution.
I had gerbils for many years and spent thousands taking care of them, had a good Veterinary Hospital nearby (Ithaca, NY Cornell Animal Hospital) for exotics. Unfortunately the gerbil gene pool seems to be in decay. When I first started raising them January 1974, they were almost all golden agouti's and lived at least 4-5 years. As of last year the longest I've been able to get a gerbil to live (not certain because most of my recent adoptions were rescues with unknown age) is about 3 years.
I’ve never worked with gerbils. That’s neat you worked with them. How long do they love for?
Typically 1-3 years now with all the color contamination.