# shaw's jird or bushy tailed jird?



## Ratties_6 (Aug 3, 2009)

hi im researching jirds at the moment and i was wondering is there a difference between shaw's jirds and bushy tailed jirds?? Also any information about the keeping of either of these animals like cage size, feeding, whether they make good pets or not etc.

thanks x


----------



## punkymatty (May 16, 2008)

Hiya, I used to keep two shaws jirds many years ago in a 5 foot glass tank filled half way up with shavings and cardboard that they would chew up and build burrows in, they don't urinate very much so only had to clean them out about every three or four months. They were a little skitty but on the whole pretty good to handle and never got bitten. I used to feed them on a mixture of hamster mix and allways have fresh veg in tank and they would rarley ever drink water although i made sure it was allways available. Have never kept bushy tailed jirds so can't help on telling them apart not sure if i have ever seen a bushy tail. Anyway hope this is of some help i would say they make good pets for someone with a fair amount of rodent keeping experience.


----------



## LyddicleaveBurrow (Aug 11, 2008)

Hi,

Both Shaw's Jirds and Bushy Tailed Jirds make excellent pets.

Shaw's Jirds can develop very strong bonds with their owners (like fancy rats), but Bushy-tailed Jirds are not really sit and cuddle beasties. They tend to regard their human as a tree. Bushy-tailed Jirds do become very tame, but are too busy to sit still for long. Shaw's Jirds, particularly the males, will happily sit with their owners for hours, or have a race around the room and come back to their owner for some fuss. Bushy-tailed Jirds will just go and explore. They can become very tame, but don't develop the same bonds with their owner as Shaw's Jirds.

Shaw's Jirds are best kept singly in the case of females, or singly or in pairs in the case of males. Females can get very territorial, and although it is possible to get a pair of females that will live together peacefully, they can often fight as they reach maturity.

Bushy-tailed Jirds are very social animals and can be kept in single-sex groups and colonies. For breeding I personally have found that Bushy-tailed Jirds are best kept in pairs and that it is often best to remove the male when the female is about to have a litter. 

Bushy-tailed Jirds need more protien in their diet than most jirds (I give a bit of softbill bird food, hemp seed and mealworms as part of their diet to boost their protien intake). 

Both types of jird need as large an enclosure as you can provide. Bushy-tailed Jirds are excellent climbers as well as burrowers so love branches in their homes (up to 2-3ft tall). Both types of jirds love to burrow and so a deep substrate is ideal, as are toys like cardboard tubes and bendy log rolls.

I hope that this helps.

Heather.


----------

