I bred them for a short while as a side project, gerbils are great. They drink very little, they pee very little, they smell very little. After a month in the same bedding mine would smell none-the-worse. I'm not a fan of their adult size though and prefer breeding rats as feeders - even if they are more work. I fed gerbils to many of my smaller snakes and don't recollect anybody refusing their following, non-gerbil, offering. Snakes can get used to a particular food type, whatever that may be is often the choice of the owner. Some snakes eat practically anything you throw their way, many require a bit of finesse to get them onto something unfamiliar to them.