Possibly Depressed Solo Male Gerbil

[kristinenote]

I have 3 gerbils. Silver is alone in a 10 gallon tank with a cage topper. His former cagemates, Ittybitty and Copper, liver happily together in a 20gal long w/tank topper. I had to separate Silver from the other two after he attacked the other two pretty badly, drawing lots of blood.

The three had lived happily together for a long time, and I adopted them together, so as far as I know they were together their entire lives. I don't know why Silver suddenly attacked the other two.

Silver loves human attention but the last two weeks I've been super busy with a lot of work. So today I gave him tons of attention, a sand bath, fresh hay, some paper towels, and a cardboard roll. Oh and a cheese flavored yoggie! He was so happy. But when I first went to his cage, he was just sitting in his weel, his fur mused, his eyes kind of dull... But after a few minutes of playing with him his eyes became alive, alert, and bright. His fur smoothed out after rolling around in the chin-sand.

Unfortunately I can't be with him 24 hours a day. I left for two shakes to grab a water, and when I came back he had gone back to just laying there listlessly. I really think he's very lonely.

Can I have some opinions on introducing a young pup to an older gerbil?

My cons would be
-If fail intro: have 3 cages of gerbils, plus have to get another young pup
-Silver might pass away first leaving the young one alone for a long time (Silver's already over a year old)

[johanne]

I think you've covered it all pretty well. The odds on a male to male pup intro failing are pretty low so you're probably safe. And having gerbils for many years. Not so bad

[nzcage]

My loner has been doing this lately. He's been fine alone the whole time we've had him (he's been ill the whole time, so an intro was out of the question), but since his last tank change he's lost his wee spark. He has a little arch of wood, and he's just lying himself in there with his head poking out like a wee dog in a kennel

I've done a lone male to 2 male pups into before, and that went swimmingly. Looking for another lone male now to pair with Twitch (rather than pups) and I'm expecting it to be a bit trickier.

As for the passing away first thing, technically yeah it's a worry. But I've known gerbils who lived to 4, and gerbils who lived to 2 so I guess you never know!

[kristinenote]

UPDATE!

I adopted a black eyed Colourpoint Nutmeg (male) today. Split cage method introductions: Begin!!!

Silver seems very curious, not aggressive at all. He just liked sniffing through the bars.

The baby - Smoke - was defensive at first, jumped, but didn't bite, and then after a mili-second started to sniff back.

I feel very optimistic about the introductions! He's half the size of Silver, his coloring isn't perfect, but you can tell he's growing into his markings of a Siamese-Cat-Like. Silver is a Lilac Agouti. I looked at the colour index xD]

EDIT: Just switched their positions on either side of the bars. All's going well!

What does concern me is that Smoke, the baby, has pee-yellow stains on his fur, stomach and below. He was chewing on the bars at first and I picked him up (he's pretty tame! ) and checked his mouth, and he does have very small teeth. I guess babys' teeth grow slower than adults?

EDIT2: Day 3, and Smoke was grooming Silver through the bars. All's going really well! I'm really surprised on how Silver is being so nice/submissive about all of this. I let them each have a sand bath, and I think it was Smoke's first sand bath ever, because he looked a bit confused at first but then he got the hang of it and seemed to really enjoy it.

[kristinenote]

On Day 4 I introduced them in neutral territory (old super-pet cage) with gardening gloves on and a large solo plastic cup ready to scoop one up if a fight broke out. They got along great!

Now on Day 5, today, they are sleeping in their little nest they built together, and doing great.
I'm really pleasantly surprised that it went well, after the fall out with my first clan. This forum really helped with all the great tips on how to introduce!
edit, pic