Very skittish lone gerbil, would friends help?

[pookiewan]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here and I hope someone can advise.
We bought Freddie from a pet shop 5 months ago. We fully intended to buy two to keep each other company, but he was alone in his cage, already 3 or 4 months old and my daughter fell in love with him. We don't know if he was alone because of fighting/bullying or simply because all of his brothers and sisters had been sold before him.
He is very skittish and has never let us pick him up (despite being super gentle and patient). It's ok, we love him anyway, we can hand feed him treats and stroke him when he's distracted. He's very funny, alert and active.
My question....finally......is this! We are just about to get two little pups (very young, 5 -6 weeks, from a lovely, experienced breeder) to introduce to him. This is for two reasons. One, we hope that it will make him even happier and two, hopefully it will mean that my daughter, who adores Freddie, will be able to have a pet that she can handle, rather than just hugging the shoebox when we transport Freddie from cage to bath for cleaning his tank!
My worry is that because he is so skittish, perhaps he will be afraid of the new gerbils and will become unhappy??
Does anyone have experience of this? We are obviously hoping that having the little gerbils around will actually make Freddie more chilled and be a positive for everyone!
Thanks so much, any advice is welcome : ))

[crittercrazy]

I would definitely say that lone gerbils are more skittish, and introducing the two pups would help. I have had more then one gerbil that, while alone, wouldn't let me hold them and were very nervous, only to calm down and be very friendly once they had a friend.
Also, since I'm assuming Freddie is your first gerbil, I'm just going to ask, did you try to tame him, or did you start trying to hold him right away? I'm just wondering because when I got my first gerbil I tried to hold her before fully taming her and learned that that doesn't work so well! And if you are getting two pups they'll need to be tamed as well.
Oh and as far as him being scared of the new gerbils, since he is an adult and they are pups I'm guessing he will actually sort of "adopt" them. That's why introducing pups to adults is easier, because the adult is already dominant and there is no need to establish his dominance. As long as you use the split cage I think it will work out fine.

[pookiewan]

Thank you, crittercrazy, for your great reply : )) Yes, Freddy is our first gerbil and we did try to tame him (to the best of our ability!!) before even attempting to pick him up. We put our fists inside his tank to let him get used to our smell, slowly started hand feeding treats, allowed him to walk onto our open hands without moving them......etc. To be honest, we haven't moved beyond these stages and have never really tried to pick him up because as soon as we move, he's off and there's no way we could even hope to catch him, he's way too fast!!!!
I'm very hopeful reading your comments about your lone gerbils and how they calmed down a bit with company. The lady we're getting the pups from has asked us to bring Freddy with us so she can oversee the introduction. Hopefully she can also give us some tips on continuing the taming process with the pups. We just want to do the best we can.
We're going to buy a smaller tank for the initial intro so we can take it with us to the breeder, I'll make sure I've constructed a split for it before we go!
Fingers crossed!!

[pookiewan]

So, we introduced two little pups to Freddy yesterday and all seems to be going well : )) No split cage necessary (even though I had one all prepared!) and all three are happily burrowing about in Freddy's big 3' x 1' tank. They sleep together all cuddled up, it's the cutest thing I have ever seen. Fingers crossed it continues like this. Freddy and the slightly bigger of the two pups (named Stoffel) do play fight quite a bit, but no squeaking and no running away from each other. The littlest, (Fluffy Jerry) is the peacemaker and the other two are very gentle with him.

I do have one more question though. We've filled the tank with about 6" of wood shavings, bedding material and toilet rolls. The tunnels they have dug have at least 4-5" above them. What would happen if the tunnel collapsed on top of one of the little ones?? Would they be able to get out? I totally panicked earlier on as they were nowhere to be seen....they did emerge, but it made me wonder.

Am I being silly?

[lizb]

I worried about the same thing, pookiewan!But... I worry about a lot...

[crittercrazy]

Glad to hear the intro went well!!
No need to worry- even young gerbils (as long as they're over six weeks that is) should be able to get out easily. In fact, my gerbils often times dig down to the bottom of the substrate and go all over the cage, completely covered by the bedding. And I have also seen tunnels collapse on my gerbils. They've never been bother by it and emerge easily.

[pookiewan]

Lol, yes, I probably worry too much! They are having an amazing time though so it's all good and I'm so happy to know they should be ok. Freddy has always loved digging his passages, disappearing at one end of the tank and appearing at the other. Now it's as if he's got renewed passion for it as he has someone to do it for!
Ps the little ones jump straight on to our hands and love being handled. Freddy is still a bit jumpy, but I think we're getting there. He watches with interest when we pick up the babies.......and the lovely breeder we got them from picked up Freddy no probs and he seemed really calm. She did have to initially get him by the base of his tail (it was essential as we had to double check he was a boy) but then he was really happy on her hand. I've been too scared of hurting him to attempt to do that and I'd rather wait until he volunteers his affection.....unless absolutely necessary!

[reesesturtles]

I would use a glass jar to pick up my gerbils at first. They would crawl into the jar, then I would take them out and they would crawl from the jar onto me or my hand. I started out with just short times handling (less than 5 minutes), then gradually increased the time letting them explore safely. Once back in the cage I would reward them with treats or hay.

That could help with your little guys.

[lizb]

Reesesturtles, how do you prevent escapes when doing that?

[reesesturtles]

You mean while I am handling them? I am on the sofa or bed with a blanket or towels. I use my hands as "guards" to keep them from getting too close to edges. Also I can use standing cardboard to wall us in if I am in a corner on the floor with the gerbils. In the beginning though, I would keep them on my lap for short periods. The more comfortable they became with me, the more they could explore the bed, sofa, or corner. I never had problems with any escaping this way. The escapes I have had happened because they chewed holes in their bin cages, usually from the top down...even the edge free bin cages because they would start at the top. Since then, I've been fairly strict about the bedding level in the bin cage, making sure it isn't high enough they could reach the top and get a tooth-hold.

[pookiewan]

UPDATE!!
For the first time ever, Freddy let me pick him up to have a cuddle. It was amazing, I just scooped him up like I do the other two and instead of jumping away as he usually does, he just sat there! He had no interest in running away and happily explored my hands and up my arms. In fact, he was calmer than the little ones. Only down side was he had a little nibble of my cashmere jumper.......which now has a hole. Oh well, it was worth it, I can't stop smiling : )))))))))))
So I guess my original question has been answered, yes, friends will calm a skittish, lone gerbil!

[lizb]

I'm so happy for you, Pookiewan. <3

[pyrotarukia]

wonderful news!