Some people may use worms or chickens to help with composting and reducing waste.

We use gerbils.

Lester and Earl are getting really efficient at chewing up thin cardboard boxes and turning them into a nice easy to compost paper product that is very green and makes lovely compost!

It’s quite amazing to see how fast they go through the stuff. I put in 7 boxes on Wednesday and today, on Saturday they have totally reduced 3 of them. 4 left to go!

Earl, the black one, he’s very busy, but very unfocused. He works on this corner and that corner and digs a while in the fluff and then tries to move this box here and that box there and then goes back to chewing. He’s funny to watch, tons of energy, but very little focus on his effort. Still, he does manage to get things done.

Lester, on the other hand, the grey one, he’s focused and will sit and chew for hours on one area, slowly and carefully… stopping every few moments to look it over and then chew some more. He doesn’t care to move fluff, in fact, I don’t see him as much as he hides away and just stays his course… working dilligently. He can chew up a whole paper tube in like 10 minutes!

They are great little pets, don’t need litter or much at all. No toys, etc., just thin carboard boxes and a paper towel or tissue or two. (They love to shred those and make the cutest little snuggly nests for nap time.) They don’t even eat much, a bag of gerbil food will last a good long time. I give them a handful of the stuff every couple days. They bury most of it, and delight in digging around and finding a good seed or little hard chewy thing and running back to their nest to sit and eat it. Being desert critters, I only have to fill their water bottle once a week or so. Easy-peasy little pets. I give them each a peanut in a shell a week and they live for those bonus times. Pretty neat little desk buddies.