Ever heard of Duprasi?

Chickerdoodle13

The truth is out there...
12 Years
Mar 5, 2007
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Phoenix, AZ
I used to have one of these years ago and never knew what it was. I just did a little research and FINALLY found out the name of what "Gizmo" was. We bought him from a pet store and were originally told it was a cross between a hamster and gerbil, which was completely wrong.

Anyways, I would love to have another one someday, but I have no idea where I could get one. We paid about $10 for my first one and actually had to buy a permit for another $10 to own an "exotic". He was probably one of the better pets I had as a youngster. I remember he would just sit in my hand on his back and I could hold him like that for hours. He wasn't squirmy like my hamster at all and NEVER tried to bite.

Anyone else ever hear of these? A google search will bring up pictures.
 
I have never heard of them until you posted this here. I did a search and they look really neat! I also found out that they are also known as the "fat tailed gerbil". I hope you find another one someday.
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Kiri and Kira

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/duprasi/

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Kira escaped and came down sick shortly after. We aren't sure why but she died within a few days. Kiri was left alone and refused to eat. She just sat on the brick near the wheel for a week. I had no way to get another duprasi and she was at risk of starving to death. So I took one of my sister's male dwarf hamster and put them in a divided cage. Immediatley Kiri became active and starting tearing at the divider. It didn't seem agressive... just excited... At that point the hamster managed to get through the divider adn we dropped a cup over him while scooping kiri up just in case. When I put kiri back in her cage she emptied her food bowl and slept in her nest. The next day she was moping on the brick again. So I went to the petstore and got 2 little dwarf hamsters. Kay and Kita started living in a divided cage next to Kiri.

One day Kita climbed the divider, dropped into Kiri's side of the cage, took food from her dish, and climbed back with Kiri just watching. I decided to try removing the divider. Kiri, Kita, and Kay lived together for 3years. Kiri treated them as her pets. She disciplined them by nipping their little tails. Protected them from a cat attack. They all would sleep in a pile together.


Duprasi are really quite intelligent and slightly territorial. There are alot of tricks to setting up a cage for a group of them. Sometimes you need lots of nests and sometimes you can only put in one sleeping spot or they will each claim one and spend all day fighting each other for getting near their nest. They are very fun, cute little pets. They do have a tendency to bite though. They need careful handling at first until they become more tame.
 
Akane..how did kira escape???...poor thing!!...
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Chickerdoodle...i have never seen one of those before!..very interesting...so what exactly are they?..gerbil?..whatever they are..they're cute!!...i dont think they have them in my area..
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..i'll be looking for them though!..thanks for the post..i'd have never heard of them otherwise...Wendy
 
Did I mention they are intelligent? They are also very industrious diggers. They absolutely love to build tunnels and nests. They cant' climb or jump well and their bulky bodies are surprisingly uncoordinated. I had to get an enclosed wheel because they kept shooting themselves out of a standard wheel. They are wonderful little architects though and attempted to build their own castle out of piles of bedding and using their food dishes and other toys as reinforcement. They manged in one night to rearrange everything to one corner of the cage into a tower of little caverns. They must have run out of room and in an effort to keep building up they stood on the food dish and pushed the top of the cage open. Which led to their escape. They were easily recovered, found next to their cage and scooped back up, but in the meantime they must have gotten into something they shouldn't have.

They are a gerbil species:
http://www.egerbil.com/duprasi.html

the National Gerbil Society lists lots of species on their page
http://www.gerbils.co.uk/
you'll be amazed all the interesting little critters there are out there to keep as pets. I tried to get some jirds once.

Here is their duprasi page
http://www.gerbils.co.uk/gerbils/duprasi.htm
 
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