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Post by katiecat on Aug 19, 2014 14:47:59 GMT -8
Hi I've had my gerbils for1.5-2 months and every day I hand feed them in the hopes of taming them but they have made little to no progress I lifted dewy of the ground about 3 or 4 inches for about 5 seconds but that's it I don't want to pick them up to transfer them to the bath tub (I did move them once when I had a critter trail (which I don't use anymore) but I moved the whole cage to the tub but they wouldn't take treats from me, all they cared about was getting out) because I'm not sure if they will trust me at all if I pick them up am I doing something wrong or am I just impatient thanks kittycat also if I put this in the wrong place you can move it  |
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Post by gerbillover9612 on Aug 19, 2014 15:24:05 GMT -8
Hmm, I think what you're doing is very good atm. What i did was put them in a see through tub like a big tub and just sit with them and put my hand in and let them sniff me. I also made sure everytime i picked them up, i did it very carefully, from the front and scooping them up like a cup. Lastly i put my hand in the cage and held the treats so they had to kind of walk of my hand to get it. Hugo is very tame now but sooty isn't so much. But thats just him aha hope this helps xxx |
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Post by crittercrazy on Aug 19, 2014 15:30:31 GMT -8
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Post by katiecat on Aug 19, 2014 16:29:26 GMT -8
Thx for the responses I'm defenetly gonna try some of these methods I'll tell you how it goes |
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Post by Nightingale on Aug 20, 2014 10:53:19 GMT -8
crittercrazy - I read the pages and they recommend blowing on a gerbil's face to discourage undesirable behaviour. But doesn't that carry the risk of causing the gerbil to have a seizure (or rather, the stress from the action causes the seizure)? I read that that's how they induce seizures in gerbils in laboratory settings...
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Post by gerbillover9612 on Aug 20, 2014 11:56:59 GMT -8
crittercrazy - I read the pages and they recommend blowing on a gerbil's face to discourage undesirable behaviour. But doesn't that carry the risk of causing the gerbil to have a seizure (or rather, the stress from the action causes the seizure)? I read that that's how they induce seizures in gerbils in laboratory settings... Yes please never blow on a small animals face. Like you said it can trigger seizures. Its awful what they do in lab  xx |
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Post by Nightingale on Aug 20, 2014 13:27:34 GMT -8
Yeah, it's awful. Tbh I wouldn't want to blow on them anyway. It just seems rather an unpleasant thing to do even without seizure risk. I prefer positive reinforcement and adapting to what the gerbil wants... If they need you to take taming slow, then that's the best thing to do imo. |
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Post by katiecat on Aug 20, 2014 15:43:46 GMT -8
Don't worry I wasn't going to do that step anyway it looks uncomfortable for the little guys
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Post by gerbillover9612 on Aug 21, 2014 3:12:59 GMT -8
Yeah, it's awful. Tbh I wouldn't want to blow on them anyway. It just seems rather an unpleasant thing to do even without seizure risk. I prefer positive reinforcement and adapting to what the gerbil wants... If they need you to take taming slow, then that's the best thing to do imo. Yeah exactly, sooty isn't a fan on being held but he likes being stroked so I tend to pick him up only when I need to so I don't stress him out I think blowing on their face is more likely that the taming would go bad than good xx |
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