Many people find tissue paper or toilet paper excellent for gerbils, and as far as I know there are no potentially serious side-effects. A well-received ‘treat’ for your gerbil is a toilet tube with a few sheets of toilet paper still attached. See how quickly your gerbil will demolish it into tiny pieces!

This is also an excellent way of keeping your gerbil fit and may help to encourage him to be active during the day rather than at night. There is a school of thought that if digested, the glue on toilet paper tubes may harm gerbils but certainly, the many gerbils I have kept have never shown any ill-effects after chewing these. Newspaper is not imperative as an aquarium liner, but it certainly helps to absorb moisture and scent.