HELP! Gerbils humping each other!! Where they misgendered?

[rexcalibur]

I just noticed my younger gerbil is now humping the other one.  THE OTHER ONE IS RAISING IT'S ASS UP IN THE AIR AS THIS IS HAPPENING!  

Is this normal behavior??  I'm now worrying they were misgendered and one may end up pregnant!  

[Shooting Star]

Did you think they were males or females? That's female behavior, so you've got at least one female. It's not unusual for a pair of females to mount each other when they're in heat. You just have to figure out whether the one doing the humping is male or female.

[rexcalibur]

No, I thought I had two males! I don't feel like it's gerbil humping between two males because I can actually see the smaller gerbils pecker coming out when he's dry humping the other one, and it's been going on ALL freakin day. He keeps causing the other one and straddling it from behind while the other raises its butt up. At first I thought it was resisting but it doesn't look like it's fighting back. It's just taking it, running a few inches away and then he goes for it again.

This is devastating me. I had no idea I had a female, if it IS a female. The worst part of this is, I'm in the military and am leaving Texas in two months because they're stationing me somewhere else. I had a person I know who I was going to give these gerbils to but now that they may be having sex and making babies, all my plans are ruined. Not sure what I"m going to do from here.

Hold me…

[rexcalibur]

Petsmart told me they ONLY sell male gerbils, so why is the supposed "male" allowing the other one to hump them?

Is it possible the gerbils are both boys and just horny? I would rather that be the case.

[Shooting Star]

Uh oh. Sorry, but that's mating behavior. Female lifts hindquarters, male mounts, male dismounts, female runs a little bit away, then "presents" again.

[rexcalibur]

I really don't know what to do at this point. If she's pregnant, they're going to mate again as soon as she gives birth from what I read. If I remove the male, they'll be all alone and I've read the male is needed to help take care of the pups.

I could try taking them to a vet and have them sexed or spayed/nuetered but I'd be hard pressed to find a vet that can perform this on rodents. Any advice is welcome.

[Shooting Star]

It's best if mom has dad or an older pup to help her, but it's not *absolutely* necessary. In your case, I'd go ahead and split them. There's a (small) chance that the mating session you saw didn't result in conception, in which case they'd be mating again in about the days.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using proboards

[rexcalibur]

I feel bad for splitting them though if I do that… and I'd still need to know if there was conception.

Most of the shelters here will not take in gerbils or any animal under 2 lbs. I'm not really sure what to do from here and I don't want to resort to putting up a craigslist ad. Will be hard pressed to find someone willing to take in gerbils that are mating…

[ninestone]

You could consider split-caging them. (In the same tank but with a wire mesh down the middle.) This would keep them from mating, but they'd still have each other for company, and probably would even sleep together against the split. You could use a fairly large-square wire mesh for the split. They could still groom each other some through it, but not mate. Just an idea. Might be better than completely splitting them up or getting rid of them.

[woodsmoke]

Well i would confirm gender and post a picture here so you can know whats going on, though using a cage split until you have will be sensible.

[3LilGerbils]

My 3 are 100% girls but cherry sometimes does this to the other two!!