Long term split cage?

[Shanawaz]

Hi guys,

There has been a sharp fall in the demand for gerbils as pets in my area and I have quite a handful of pups that I have yet to rehome. I have already separated and retired my current breeding pairs into same sex clans in their own tanks. So I'm not worrying about more pups to rehome.

However, I still have some gerbils that I intend to breed in the future (probably after rehoming all the pups I am not keeping, which could take a few months). So I was thinking of having those gerbils in a long term split tank.

For example:
Tank A would have Male A and Female A on opposite sides of the split divider.
And Tank B would be for Male B and Female B in the same arrangement.

The typical split, of course. But I was wondering if it would be ok to leave them in the split for a long term period of at least 6 months or more? And then removing it to allow them to breed and be together.

I mean it would definitely save me some space to have them split up in this manner.

Any advice or thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated

[fysha]

Interesting question and something I would be interesting in hearing an answer for too. I will have a similar situation coming up.

[betty]

I think if you could split a larger tank - say a 3ft tank - then this set up wouldn't be too bad for 6 months - especially if they had plenty of things in their half and you changed it about regularly.

I had to do this myself for a while due to space issues, and I only had larger tanks - they seemed fine and had plenty to do - and 1.5ft wide and deep didn't seem that small for all their gerbilling about. I did have one female though who got VERY receptive every so often, and I felt a bit guilty with her imploring looks at him through the bars...

I would imagine if you split a 2ft tank (or smaller), it might look a little bit more cramped once they had a house and some tunnels etc - but not the end of the world short term I suppose. Not perfect - but then I once had to live in a tiny flat for a year - and I survived!

[fysha]

Thanks Betty. My tank is big enough, 45 gallon long.

[Shanawaz]

Thanks for your input, Betty!

Yes, I was thinking of using the 3ft tanks. I have two extra ones with me now that I want to use for this.

I would imagine feeling the same should I witness my females doing that!