Young cage mate died.

[Brittany Osmond 1993]

I'm the proud owner of two female gerbils. But this morning, sadly, the sister Arya died. She was killed by my cat tragically. she was only a year old and her sister Sansa wasn't injured in the attack. But now I'm faced with the terrible choice of either trying to let her live alone, or doing the split cage method.

Sansa is the dominant one by the way. Always doing things first and the first to bite (when I first got them she was quite protective) when I put my hand in the cage to let them smell me.

So in summary. Help. These are my first gerbils and I am not sure what to do here.

[betty]

Read up on the Split Cage Method on here or online, this should work for your single lady...

And keep that cat out!

[eleda]

i would agree that you should try a split cage - there's a lot of info on it in "Behavior and Introducing Gerbils"

[Brittany Osmond 1993]

Would I be able to introduce two pups? I don't want one gerbil to die again and leave the other alone. I'm so broken hearted. And yes. They were in a spare room but the cat managed to get inside without my notice.

[eleda]

the decision to introduce pups or not can be a tough one. you have to consider the age or your gerbil, how much space you have to offer them, etc. (if the cage was sized for 2 gerbils it will be too small for 3) Then there's the matter of finding a breeder nearby that has pups.

I've never introduced pups to an adult before, but this is what I've read. male gerbils are the caregivers while gerbil moms are more like the breadwinners. because of this, an older male will tend to naturally dote on pups and take them under his wing so to speak. with females, this is less the case so it is often thought that introducing pups to females is more difficult. there's lots of stuff about it on the forum though, so see what you can find out rather than taking my word for it. I could be remembering wrong

[betty]

I have introduced females of all ages together using the Split method. It doesn't matter whether they were the dominant one or not, as they make their new clan up on meeting.

Due to the nature of gerbils I would try to find a female of similar age to yours rather than a pup as the status quo will remain the same. Sometimes when a pup grows up to become an adult, the original adult is much older now and so it could try to 'take over' as boss causing a Declan.

[eleda]

ah, thanks for clearing that up betty!

[Brittany Osmond 1993]

Thanks all. I really appreciate the help!