Personally , if you have a large tank (40galkin or bigger ) with plenty of enrichment for them ( cardboard and toys , sprays , scatter feeding and social interaction with each-other and a wheel ) I don’t feel as out of tank time is necessary. My two boys found it very stressful to be in a playpen even when I put their toys in the playpen that smelt like them . It also caused them to fight likely due to the scent changes and not recognising eachother . A proper tank setup should be enough in my opinion as it should be enriching enough anyway as it’s where they would spent the majority of their time even if they were given out of tank time :)

Thank you for your videos, I find them sooo useful

I think it is important to let them choose whether they want to go outside. My two can go outside and go back themselves and one of them does it, the other is not interested. I do not feed him outside ( declaning danger) and he has enough hides there. So I think you are right, we should respekt their personality. By the way, they live in a tank 120 x60x80 cm ( about 100 gallon plus topper I guess).

I definitely agree with out of tank time not being essential, but it can provide them an extra source of enrichment by giving them more space to run and explore if they want to. And I completely agree with not forcing them out, whenever I have forced mine out of their enclosure for free roam times they have gotten very stressed and ran around frantically trying to find a way home, so what I've done is set up their playpen in front of their enclosure with a tunnel connecting them, this way they can come in and out as much as they want (and sometimes that's 10+ times per day 😂), when I do it this way they never try to escape and just have a little run, a chew and an explore, I also fill their playpen with boxes and tunnels that they can hide in for security ☺️ I couldn't agree more with your recommendation not to force them out, I'm always encouraging people to give their gebils the choice - though I did find a tunnel as access helped Timon, she wouldn't come out at all when it was just a ramp, for months, but as soon as I turned the ramp into a tunnel she came straight out, and now she's out 3x as much as Pumbaa 😅

It seems there is no set of rules or even guidelines for gerbil or hamster care. You really need to pay attention and try to relate to your pets. I've had my four gerbils for four weeks now and unfortunately, I got impatient and even annoyed that I got more than a bit nipped and they were so skittish so I went INTO all their bedding and snatched two of them up, one at a time and, when I had each, I couldn't think of anything more to do than give them a nice smooch on the back of the head. They seemed remarkably calm once I'd picked them up. But, I think they became more skittish so I've taken to leaving a beach towel over their 75 gallon tank. Also got them three wooden hides like the ones you have (two small and one medium) and I didn't even have to cut additional holes. When I saw a twonie-sized hold in one that seemed empty inside, I moved it over their food stash in another corner and yesterday, once I let them do their thing, saw the dark one doing something halfway into that chewed hole. I just need to leave them be. I'm also getting the 11-inch Niteangel wheel (should be here any day, since it's in Washington state and I'm in BC), which should help a lot. I want to see all of them on that thing at once, if possible. It would drive me nuts not being able to run, all trapped in a 75 gallon tank. I'll let them out eventually. I wish they trusted me more. But I can hear them right now chewing up the miniature peat pots I put out. They've also got hay and a big sand bath, which they poop and pee in. And Higgins Sunburst for food. And a glass water bottle which sounds like a quiet machine gun, the metal ball moves so rapidly. Thing is, I went into their tank a week ago and found NOTHING in the bedding to remove, by sight or smell. I think I saw some poo, but I couldn't tell if it was nuts from the seed mix or not. I hate going in there because I know I'm messing it up, but I'm also wary of being complacent because I'm pretty sure my hamster died in April because I wasn't changing the bedding often enough after she stopped using the sand bath on the platform to do her business. They better fall in love with me. I deserve it ;-)