Split Cage Advice and thoughts?

[umod101]

  I have a 2yr old healthy male (Nemo) who has unfortunately been through the split cage ordeal 2 different times in his short life (working on the 3rd now) his first cage mate Spot passed away during a cage mishap in October 2014 and his second cage mate of 7 months just passed from a heart disorder from what our Vet believes.  


We ended up stumbling across a younger healthy looking male from the pet store while shopping for dog supplies “Leonard” who was in a cage all by himself looked very healthy and is super tame and friendly. They had no clue on age but If id have to guess id say he’s right around 2-3 months old, he’s a little guy. We went through the split for 2 weeks, saw good signs sleeping in each others nest, grooming thru the mesh, everything looked good so we gave the intro a try.


Everything seemed fine for the first 10 mins they were sniffing and wondering around and it seemed like the younger was happy to be submissive but out of nowhere the adult (Nemo) bit the little guy on the butt. Leonard ran to his nest to hide, there was no chase, death roll, or blood/bite mark that I could find but I decided to split them up again to be on the safe side. With in the first hour after the butt incident they had both built their nests right next to each other and are grooming through the mesh like nothing happened. So I’m a bit confused and am wondering if I split them up to soon and the “nip” was more of an “I’m the dominant male” type of thing.


I’m still thinking I may wait a few more weeks to try this again but wanted to see if anyone had seen this type of behavior before? Side note: first time post but I have been using this site for reference for the past year, thank you for all the informative posts.

[crittercrazy]

Are you sure it was a bite? Sniffing under the tail is pretty normal, especially for gerbils that are getting to know each other. Sometimes it looks like they're nibbling, not just sniffing, and often times the other gerbil does run away.
So its quite possible that the behavior was normal. I would give it a couple of days and put them together again, this time not separating if you see that behavior. When I introduce, I usually don't separate them unless there is a lot of squabbling, blood is drawn, or, obviously, they get in a ball fight.
Good luck! And welcome to the forum, by the way.

[betty]

Yeah, there is often some semi-squabbles as they just double check who the boss is going to be - you often see a lot of grooming too for the same reason.

There is no harm in being cautious - and if they love each other already then you putting them back in the split won't change that.

I have however, had the ball fight with my two seemingly 'in love' oldies after around an hour of love together. I didn't think they had it in them!

[umod101]

hey all. Thanks for the great advice! I ended up taking it very slow introducing them during split swaps for a bit at a time, and tonight i pulled the divider. Bit of bouncing around, the younger one seeming annoying the older who just wanted to go to bed and 3 hours later everyone has been groomed and are both passed out on each other. yay! SO total time right around 2 months (most likely could have been sooner but i was being paranoid)

[betty]

Great news, and nothing wrong with taking your time. Sometimes the timing isn't right for me to complete a split one week, so I just do it the next. Or there is a squabble so I add on a week or two.

However you did it - it worked for you and your gerbils and that's what matters.