New gerbil owner - taming questions

[mothman]

Sorry for all the noob-gerbil-owner questions.... I did a ton of research pre-purchase, but now that we have them I'm finding I have doubts/questions.

Here's a couple more, re: taming.

Our two gerbils are very new, have only had them since Saturday, and for the first day and a bit we left them alone completely.

Since then we've started lowering our hands into the cage when they are active, to sniff us, etc. I've given them treats a couple times and they've taken them. They've also bitten me a number of times (ouch lol). The first time I left my hand there, and Pepper nibbled, nibbled, then bit hard... so now when they start nibbling my finger, I slowly move my hand away right away.

I know it will take time to tame them, particularly because they are from a pet store, and were brand new at that, so had very little exposure to people.

Our approach thus far has been to try to be around their tank frequently when they are active, talking to them, etc. We will place our hand in a few times a day, usually for only a short time, sometimes they sniff, sometimes they ignore, a couple times they've walked across our hand, and as mentioned, sometimes they sniff then bite a finger.

I've given treats by hand a couple times (raisin, carrot), but only a couple times as I'm hesitant about over-treating them (both for nutrition reasons and so they don't always expect a treat)

My questions are:

- are we doing it 'right'?

-should I use treat rewards more frequently?  Their food is a pellet food, so doesn't have any tasty morsels (eg sunflowers) that i can use as treats.

- how long can we expect it to take until they are somewhat tamed, and ok being picked up by hand? Understanding every animal is different, are we talking days? Weeks?

- should we wait for them to be more tame before we try to bring them out into a tub or playpen? Or should we use that out-of-tank time as part of the taming process? (would have to move them via a jar or tube, as opposed to carry by hand, at this point)

Thanks for any advice, and again, sorry for all the questions!

[crittercrazy]

Sounds like you're doing a pretty good job!
Do your gerbils always take the raisins and carrots when you offer? I've never had a gerbil that would eat either of those things so I'm just kind of surprised.
Anyway, more to the point, when you say "bite", what do you mean? Does it just hurt, or does it also break the skin?
Nibbling is when a gerbil "tastes" you to figure out who you are/recognize you. Biting would be breaking the skin and nipping would just hurt but not draw blood.
Nibbling doesn't usually hurt, or at least not much. I wouldn't worry about them doing that.
However, when they bite or nip you, blow on their faces and firmly say "No" so they learn not to do it. If that doesn't discourage them you can kind of "flick" (very very gently! Its not really flicking, just sort of nudging) them with your fingers. And make sure you don't remove your hand when they bite/nip, that will teach them to do it more since they get what they want from it.

As far as treats, I wouldn't suggest getting giving too many carrots and raisins, but if you could get some sunflower and pumpkin seeds then I usually am kind of generous with those. (Not TOO generous obviously)

Since your gerbils are from a pet store, I would say it'll take a couple of weeks or more before they are fully tamed.

Personally I think its fine to let them out in a tub or playpen before they're tamed.

If you'd like, here is a Youtube video I made on taming.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=36UyN_Iv0yE

Hope that helps!

[pyrotarukia]

Hi again lol using out of tank time is a great way to help tame them as they can come to you instead of you going to them in the tank. Sitting with them and letting them climb on you is a good way to build trust as you can imagine being so small and being picked up by a giant where you feel your life is in their hands can be quite a stressful thing. When you get them out of the tank to move them to the safe play area it's always good to use something like a sand bath to carry them from one place to another they will get used to you moving them and knowing it's going somewhere fun but at the same time still feel safe as though they have their feet on the ground as such. Otherwise it's just the patient game but it sounds like what you're doing is pretty much what I would do for the first week as well

[mothman]

Crittercrazy, to answer your questions:

Re: the raisins and carrots, I have only offered each gerbil one raisin and one small slice of carrot each (raisin yesterday, carrot today), and both gerbils happily took both offerings, in fact they sort of fought over them. lol (one would finish their piece first, and then try to snatch the remaining bit from the other one).

I will look for some sunflower / pumpkin seeds to use as treats, I just used raisin and carrot so far as we had them on-hand. I am assuming the seeds should be raw? And should the sunflower seeds be in their shell, or already shelled? And how many of those seeds is too many? As they will be additive to their regular diet, I don't want to overfeed them with seeds. (I do think I will try to transition them to a mixed food instead of the pellet food they have now, and then I could use seeds from their own food mix).

Using your descriptions for the biting behavior, they have both "nibbled" and "nipped". The typical behaviour (when they have done it) is to nibble a couple times (very gentle, and I don't mind), and if I leave my hand there, they then grabbed on with more force and tug a bit, almost like they think it's food. It's never broken the skin, the worst incident created a red mark, but did not break the skin. It hurt though, they've used some force. When that's happened, I've moved my hand a bit away from them, still nearby though, and they saunter over and try to do it again.

I fully expect them to eventually stop this as they are very young, just interested in the best way to make it stop sooner rather than later. lol I can't really blow on them, as they are out of "blow range" deep in their tank, but I could try gently nudging them away.


Somewhere along the way I already came across your Youtube vid, I've been using that as my guideline. lol

Pyro, you must be sick of seeing all my threads >_<

Thanks for all your input. I think for he time being, to move them out-of-tank, I'd use either a small box with a bit of their substrate tossed in, or I also have a small solid-bottomed cage that I bought to be used for transport if need be, that I could carry them with.

I think I'm just a bit gun shy about them trying to eat my fingers in the tub. Haha. Might have to keep my hands in my pockets.

[crittercrazy]

Raw, and shelled, yes. I don't know that there is an exact amount that is right or wrong, but on average I guess I give each of my gerbils 2 sunny seeds and a pumpkin seed. That depends though- I used more when I was taming them. (The way to a gerbils heart is through their stomach! )

Hmm. . . do you wash your hands before handling them? None of my gerbils nip, but sometimes they have smelled food on my hands when I forget to wash them and mistake my fingers for tasty morsels.
I would try the nudging thing and hopefully they'll stop soon.

Ha ha that's funny, what a coincidence.

[mothman]

Yes I do wash before handling them. And it's hit or miss if they nip. I just got home and one of them was up and about and I put my hand in (with a couple pieces of their food on my hand), and he came up, sniffed a bit, checked out the food (didn't take it), put his front paws on my hand and chilled for a few seconds, then casually wandered off, then dug back down into their tunnel and is hiding again. lol

They do like to hide in their substrate.  They are out of sight the majority of time... they'll be hidden for an hour, come up for 10 or 15 minutes, back under for half an hour, up for 5, under for an hour, etc, etc.  They sleep in there and thus far have chosen not to use their wooden house.  I've assumed that is 'normal' for new, young, gerbils still getting used to their new home.

Oh, and those seed numbers, that's daily?

[crittercrazy]

Hiding in substrate is certainly normal for a new pair of gerbils. Not sleeping in their wooden house is normal as well, but not just because they are new. My gerbils never sleep in the provided houses, they prefer making their own nests and burrows.

Yeah, that's daily. They have a food mix with lots and lots of pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and as it is they only get about half the amount that they would if I left the treats in their food.
Oh,  and I forgot to mention until now that though I only give them about three seeds, my brothers and mom all handle them and dish out treats too,  so they probably get more like 3-4 sunny seeds a day and a couple of pumpkin seeds.

Just out of curiosity, what are your gerbils' names?

[mothman]

Good info crittercrazy, thanks! I definitely plan on transitioning to a mixed food, so I can do as you do with the seed treats while not worrying about over-feeding them.

Our guys' names are Pepper and Joey. Initially it was Pepper and Sneaky Pete, which I liked better, lol, but my daughter insisted that Joey was better, and it seems to be sticking.

On the topic of taming, tonight was an interesting night with both progress and a couple oops moments.

It started off with me putting a sand bath in for their first encounter with that. Joey entered first and proceeded to eat some of it, then tried to dig into it. Pepper followed later and did the same thing. Neither seemed to know what is was for, but oh well.

Joey then re-entered the sand bowl and I took the opportunity to lift him, with the bowl, a few times, and he was cool with that.

Pepper then came around so I put my hand down for him, he tried to bite a bit, I nudged him back a couple times as was suggested, and then he climbed on my hand. I was able to lift him up and down a bit, at which point he stood up tall and tried to climb up my sleeve. Fearing he'd escape before I was ready, lol, I put him back down, and he calmly climbed off my hand. We then repeated the same thing. So that was awesome.

My older daughter then briefly held her hand in, and Pepper again started to nibble, and she (as instructed by me) gently nudged him back, and he stopped and sniffed her and put his front paws on her hand, which she thought was great.

I then tried the same with Joey, and he climbed on my hand momentarily as well, so again, great.

That's when my oops came in... I figured with the good vibes, I'd try moving Joey with a cardboard tube into the topper for him to see and climb down. So I did that, got him up pretty smoothly, and then he proceeded wander around looking entirely afraid of where he was. He was clearly scared in the new area, crawling with his belly low to the ground. We left him for a minute or so, during which time he sniffed around the edges, bit at the floor a bit (wire mesh is covered with cardboard over most of it, but some wire is exposed along the edges). He approached the exit a few times and looked around, but either didn't know that was the way down, or was afraid to venture down the ladder. (or, I'm wondering if the hole is too small, I've seen premade toppers with larger openings, mine is about 4" by 4", which I thought was plenty big enough)

I tried temporarily holding a solid ladder in place there (the 'permanent' ladder is more like a real ladder, with rungs made of skinny willow branches every 1/2 inch or so), but he still wouldn't go down.

As he started looking a little more frantic, I tried to get him to crawl back in the tube to move him down, but he refused. Eventually I just had to kind of corner him (gently as I could) and scoop him up with my hand, and then put him back down below.

So, in some ways it was a bit cool, as I was able to pick him up for the first time, he was clearly nervous about being held, but didn't bite or scramble too much.

Then I rewarded him with a tiny piece of apple, and while holding it down for him, Pepper snuck up and bit me. LOL I had to laugh at that, it was like Pepper was scolding me.

I gave Joey his apple piece, then tried Pepper once more and got him to calmly climb onto my hand yet again, so rewarded him with his own tiny piece of apple.

After all of this, both Pepper and Joey had one of the more energetic bits of activity we've seen from them yet, they moved some tubes around, made a new tunnel area, were wandering around for quite a while.


Anyhoo, long post.... gosh. lol Feels good to have made a little progress tonight though. I won't try moving them up to the topper again, that didn't go so well. I'll wait for them to go up, and will probably try to find a better ladder. For now I've added a wooden bird ladder over top of the other ladder, but I don't know if that'll be any better.


Here's a picture of Pepper, post-adventure, peaking out at us from their underground nesting area.

[Jazzable]

That sounds like great progress!

For nipping: you could try wearing gloves while you handle them at first. Mine nipped me a bit when I first got them, and I ended up worried about handling them so I started to wear gardening gloves when I put my hands in the cage. They still tried to bite but a) I didn't freak out and make them jump by flinching loads, and b) I imagine the rubber tasted disgusting! So they soon lost interest in biting and I was then able to gradually switch to bare hands without being worried about nipping. Nowadays they only bite very occasionally, if I scare them by picking them up too fast, or if my hands smell a lot like food. But it sounds like your method will work as well. They'll learn your hands aren't food and that nothing interesting happens when they nip.

About the topper and ladder - I think the ladder probably isn't actually inaccessible to them (gerbs are pretty good jumpers and climbers). But they probably haven't figured out that they can climb it yet. Maybe you could try holding out a treat for them and them hold it just out of their reach so they have to step up the ladder to get it. Then try repeating that a few times, getting them to climb a bit higher each time. The good thing about that is that they will know where they came from, so they will know they can always escape back to safety if they want to. That should stop them being as freaked out as Joey was when you put him in the topper.

Also: that photo of Pepper is adorable!

[mothman]

Again, good advice, thanks! This forum is awesome!

For now I'm not concerned about wearing gloves. I'm not afraid or nervous of the bites, and I don't flinch when they get me. Will consider it though, if not for me, then maybe for my daughter when the time comes for her to get more involved.

[mothman]

Had great progress tonight with Pepper.

I'd bought a bag of Tropical Carnival food, as I want to either transition over to that, or possibly mix it with the Oxbow I originally had, and I used a few of the seeds from the mix to get both gerbils to eat from both my, and my daughters, hands, and that went well, especially with Pepper who as of right now is appearing to be the braver of the two (Joey will take the treat, but is hesitant to actually climb onto our hand).

Both boys ate some food, then Joey crawled back underground again, Pepper stayed out and started to pick through for all the tastiest morsels of the food.

I let him eat for a while and then tried the jar thing to see if he'd climb in, and he did right away. So I asked my wife if she wanted to try the tub with him, and she did. I'd anticipated it so I already had the tub prepared with a towel down, and we quickly grabbed a few boxes, tubes, etc, and tossed them in with my wife, then set Pepper in with her.

He seemed to really like it (other than having peed in the jar lol) and ran around climbing through/over the objects we'd put in there. It also revealed to me that his climbing skills need some work as he was slipping a fair amount on some cardboard and couldn't handle the wood bird ladder at all (slipped right off, and it was almost horizontal). He crawled around and under my wife's legs, then climbed up onto her crossed legs, into her hands to be placed down on the floor of the tub, and did that quite a few times. Tried to climb up her pant legs a couple times too, and once tried to climb up on her arm, but she quickly moved and set him down as she was nervous of him jumping out of the tub. 

This was great timing to, as my wife was feeling kind of blue tonight and this experience perked her up.

I didn't want to over-extend his first time out too much so we only had him in there for about 5 minutes, at which time I placed the jar down in front of him, and he again climbed right in. He clearly didn't really like being in there, trying to climb out as I moved him back to the cage, but it was nice that he went in quickly both before and after the play time.

Once back in his tank, we rewarded him with one more sunflower seed, and he proceeded to be very energetic for several minutes, digging a pit (we realized he was looking for a piece of food that had fallen there), dug a new tunnel, climbed around on a new toy I'd placed in (willow branch ball), stood up along the tank wall several times almost as if to say let's do that again! Then after 10 minutes or so of that, he found the underground lair that Joey was napping in, and dove in to join him.  (it's very cute to hear their quiet squeaks when they cuddle in together)

So, yeah, good stuff! Hopefully next time we'll be able to get Joey and try it with him.

I also need to get my act together and build the cardboard playpen I'm planning, as the tub doesn't leave much room with a person sitting in it.

[Jazzable]

Sounds adorable and very successful! I also love the quiet squeaks when they're trying to get comfortable in their nest.

Its quite possible that Joey will 'catch up' with Pepper in taming and end up just as inquisitive. But it's also possible that he will always be a bit more shy and nervous, and that's alright. One of my trio has always been more skittish than the others. He did make a lot of progress with taming but has always been 'behind' the others. Usually when I let them out of their tank (I give them a ladder to climb in and out freely), he spends the least time outside and is the first to go back home.

[mothman]

Yeah, Joey is definitely more reclusive. Where Pepper is frequently out and about, Joey only comes out of their nest occasionally. I also feel like he is even more reclusive since my failed attempt to introduce him to the topper, but that may just be in my mind.

Speaking of the topper, I changed the ladder (to one of those bendy wood "log" ones, well actually 2 strapped together to make it long enough), and enlarged the access hole to the topper very slightly, and last night my wife saw Pepper go up there. Again this morning Pepper wandered up there and explored quite a bit.

So hopefully Joey will quickly learn from Pepper and we can move the food/water up there soon. (The boys are getting a little ridiculous with burying their food bowl and digging under their water making it unreachable.

[pyrotarukia]

Love how well pepper did in the bath! Be careful of them climbing up your trouser legs it really tickles lol

[mothman]

Haha, good warning.

And yes, Pepper is making rapid progress. I can get him into my hand to be lifted around the cage with no problem now. I could lift him out of the cage if I chose, but haven't done that yet as I don't trust him enough yet to know he won't scramble and escape. He explores his home in it's entirety now, including all levels f the topper. He's even used the topper jar as his potty, which is awesome!

Joey continues to be very reclusive and seemingly timid, only coming out of their hidden nest for short amounts of time (like, 2-3 minutes), maybe grab a bit of food or a sip of water, a little walk around the bottom level of the tank (he doesn't even seem to want to go up to the low shelf in the tank), then back underground. He is out of sight the vast majority of the time, at least while we are awake. He's less active, and eats less too I think (Pepper has figured out already to eat most of the Tropical Carnival, leaving the Oxbow for Joey)

My wife was up with our youngest daughter early in the morning and noted that both Pepper and Joey were quite active for a while at that time, but generally, when we are up and about, Joey seems to prefer to be huddled in the nest rather than out and about. When he is out, he will take a treat from my hand (though Pepper is more assertive about that, so I have to wait til Pepper is in the topper so he doesn't steal Joey's treat). So, I'm hoping that by continuing that, a couple hand treats every day when we can, Joey will come around.

I'm kicking myself for manually putting him in the topper earlier, as it seems to have spooked him.