Help! My Boys are trying to declan!

[homeworkcrazy]

I currently have 4 males. About a good 3-4 months ago i introduced a black baby male into my adult male clan (Amigo was the baby). They got along fine up until a few weeks ago when Amigo started being really onery and getting in the adults' faces and biting them. He's also gotten to the point where he is biting me! I spent lots of time with him when he was a baby but now all of a sudden in the past few weeks he has just gotten really mean. I removed him from the cage for fear that the others will gang up and kill him.

But now my other males are kind of "fling-chasing" each other around the cage. There are no high-pitched squeaking noises that symbolize pain so is it just my boys trying to establish the pecking order?

My brother mentioned that it may have something to do with me bringing home a pair of rats and now they are currently in the same room together. So maybe they smell the rats? Just as a side note: Amigo got mean before the rats showed up. But the 3 males left in the cage just started doing the chasing today after i removed Amigo and the rats came here.

[NedIsNotOnFire]

In most cases where a male will become hostile toward his friends is if they have a scent gland tumour I have only read this about the forum, but it's the best advise i can give you Try to have a look at his scent gland for any pink wart like lumps, or even any pink spots, they can be really small. It's going to be trouble because he is moody, but you will have to turn him over and look at his tummy :/ Before anything happens you should try to split the boys using wire mesh, so they can still see each other, but nobody gets hurt. Sorry if its really bad news, and if there is no sign of a tumour i really don't know what to suggest Good luck! x

Information on tumours if you need it: www.egerbil.com/neoplasia.html

How to do a split cage: www.egerbil.com/splittank.html

[homeworkcrazy]

the young one was the one being aggressive... i turned him over and looked and he appears fine... nippy... but fine... the other three are getting along fine now after i removed the young aggressive one...

[johanne]

If you need to split up 4 gerbils you should try to have 2 pairs. You might need to experiment with who to put with the young one but one of them should work and then you'll have peace. Four males generally declan eventually anyway and should end up as 2 groups of 2.