How can you get your Gerbils to use their exercise balls?

Like humans, gerbils have different levels of desire to exercise. Some will love their wheels/balls, some will care less about them. Just as some people are couch potatoes and not likely to get up to change a channel on the TV, some gerbils will look at that wheel as just a decoration in their home.

The best way to encourage your gerbil to use the wheel/ball is to provide it, but also to help them use it. Put the gerbil in it. Gently show him how it works. This works even better with the ball than the wheel. I prefer the balls that have the little stands with them. I can put a gerbil in the ball, and the ball on the stand. The gerbil has no way to get out, and any motion he makes will make the ball turn. He will soon catch on to how to make it move. If I give him position encouragement (with my voice) when he moves it, and then a positive encouragement when he is done with the session (like a pumpkin or sunflower seed), he will soon learn to do that behavior to get the reward.

Start out with short sessions - maybe 30 seconds or a minute, and work up to longer periods, and soon your gerbil will be ready to challenge my blue ribbon winner at the next sanctioned AGS (American Gerbil Society) show (see www.agsgerbils.org for more gerbil information).

When I put my gerbil KE$HA in her ball I motivate her with a seed which she LOVES and she just sits there or tries to nudge it with her head. Maybe it's because this is her second day here but she already seems used to everything else. PLZ HELP