Moving water

[mothman]

This may be a really dumb, paranoid, question lol, but I've recently moved my water bottle from in the tank to the topper.  I've seen one gerbil drink from it, but have yet to witness the other one drinking.  That one (Joey) is a bit of a funny guy in that he's not comfortable with climbing, and doesn't seem to be as interested in really exploring the topper, unlike his brother who is all over the place.

Joey found his food in the topper quickly, within a few hours of moving the bowl there, but I'm paranoid that he won't locate the water bottle.  It's been up in the topper for 3 days.  I assume that Joey would be showing signs of distress by now if he wasn't drinking...

I know water is being taken, as the water level drops (not a lot in a day, but some), but no way of knowing if it was one, or both, gerbils.

So yeah... am I just being a dumb, paranoid, gerbil dad?  lol

[lizb]

I would assume his distress would be evident by now, too. But... I say that as an outsider. I too would be worried. Is Joey licking the glass? If not, he should be all right.

[eleda]

I agree with Liz. I also think if he needed water badly hed go out and find some rather than just going thirsty. But, if you have any sort of camera you could try setting it to film the tank when you're not around. I wouldn't be surprised if he's just drinking at night while youre asleep

[mothman]

I've never seen him lick the glass, no.

I've tried a few times, when he is up in the topper, to tap the water bottle spout, use my finger to splash a few drops of water on the cage by it, put my finger out to Joey and he licks it a bit (in my mind, thinking these things will make sure he knows there is water there), but so far he's never responded with any apparent interest.

My logical mind tells me that's because he isn't thirsty, which means he is drinking the water when we don't see him.

Interesting idea to try filming the tank over night... will have to think on that, I have a good camera, but don't know how long the battery would last with constant recording, or how much video the memory card could hold.

It might be a fun thing to look into though, even just to see what the boys are up to while we sleep.

[crittercrazy]

If you want to/can try the video camera thing, you certainly can, but I personally wouldn't worry about him. I rarely see my gerbils drink water- I have six gerbils and on average maybe see one of them drinking a day. Its just because they do it when I'm not around, plus don't drink very much anyway.

[mothman]

Thanks.

[mothman]

Well my paranoia can stop now, as last night I (gently) rousted our two boys out of their bedding (they hadn't come up all day ), and while playing with them in their cage, Joey drank from the water bottle, so yay. lol

[lizb]

I'm glad to hear it, Mothman. How's Pepper's training going besides for day long naps? Anymore backslide?

[mothman]

He's pretty much not made any changes. He's still more nervous than he was initially. In the first few days of getting them, Pepper would willingly sit on my hand and let me lift him (within the cage), and within a couple days of that, he was willingly climbing through the open topper door onto my hands, up my arms, etc. He was TOO brave for my liking as I didn't trust him to not scamper/jump/fall.

Now he will come to my hand, check it out, sometimes sit on it for a moment. Out of the topper he will climb onto my hand, but won't venture further, and then pretty quickly goes back into the topper (I keep my hand right by the door).

He also used to eat while sitting in the bowl (both gerbils did), but now when they eat, they typically will grab some food and then move to a 'secure' area to eat (usually under a shelf in the topper, near their potty jar).

So, it's fine, we are still able to interact with them, hand feed them treats, etc. We'll continue to do as much as we can with them both, hopefully they will get more trusting. Neither one bites at all, whereas initially they did nip us occasionally. Even with my 6 year old, who doesn't interact with them a whole lot, the gerbils are fine with taking treats from her, walking on her hand, etc.

[mothman]

Pepper is still the more energetic of the two, by far, so that hasn't changed. Pepper is out an about probably twice as much as Joey.