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Post by asher on Jun 13, 2015 20:07:10 GMT -8
I was just wondering, what to people normally prefer for picking out gerbils? For all my gerbils I've had, I've always gone with female, except for one male who was gendered wrong at the pet store. I normally picked female gerbils due to that's what my local pet store had, as well as I thought they smelled a bit less. Although I know females are more likely to declan, my gerbils never declanned and I even was able to introduce my 3 girls quite easily (Petunia chewed through my split cage mesh after a few days and I found them sleeping together!). So I was just wondering, what do you normally prefer for your sex of your gerbil?
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Post by betty on Jun 14, 2015 0:20:56 GMT -8
Everyone is different here I would imagine.
I am really glad that your female experience was so good as it restores some of my faith in females. I have had quite a lot of trouble with females, and I certainly wouldn't even attempt to split 3 together myself.
None of my males have ever declanned, but I took my 2 best boys around my sister's one time and she uber freaked out with the size and feel of their man conkers. And I have never noticed that the males smell more as none of my gerbils really smell to my nose.
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Post by Thelodar on Jun 14, 2015 3:32:43 GMT -8
I really haven't noticed a difference. The three I have now are my first males, I have had 5 females prior. None have been aggressive towards me. I don't think my boys are particularly smelly, yes if I stick me head over their tank and sniff I smell rodent, I'm just not sure that would be different with girls. I don't remember though, it's been a while. None of my girls declanned (only going off of two pairs) but my boys did. That said my boys were in a trio and my girls were all in pairs so that might have had more to do with it than their sex. I do think I had a harder time catching my girls to pick them up, like my boys are more interested in me, but that may have more to do with how much I've handled them and how I've trained them to jump on my hand for treats. I was much younger when I had my girls and didn't do as much with them so they were less tame.
But yes, some people are really freaked out by testicles and won't hold boys because they don't want to be touched by them, so some people choose females to avoid that.
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Post by asher on Jun 14, 2015 7:44:03 GMT -8
I've seen a lot of debate around gerbil smell. Some people I know say the females are worse, others say the males. I don't ever notice a smell unless it's tank cleaning day.
I was very surprised by the 3 girls being able to stay together, I only was going to keep split tanking them if I saw no signs or aggression and the only 'aggression' I saw was Petunia scratching (and eventually chewing through without me knowing) at the mesh I had. It might be because Petunia is older and slowing down and the two sisters were only 8-10 weeks, so neither of them were territorial as they could be. I also just changed Petunia's tank about a week earlier, an that could've made her a little less territorial.
One of them is a little aggressive towards handling and she will bite your hand continuously if you don't pet her down after a few minutes, but I am not sure if that's a female gerbil thing, or possibly just her personality, since my other two rarely bite me unless they are curious on what I was and needed a quick taste lol.
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Post by crittercrazy on Jun 14, 2015 10:33:54 GMT -8
Personally I prefer females, but it there is no right or wrong. Both make great pets. For the most part, I've had females (I have nine right now) but also seven males in the past. I never noticed a difference in smell. . . or even in temperament, really. I've heard several times that female gerbils are "less friendly" and "more territorial". I would have to disagree. . . never had a female declan, always had super easy introductions, always had friendly, lovable personalities. So it all depends on your preference! Every body has a different opinion or different experiences, so in the end there's not a whole lot to base the decision off of other than your own opinion.
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Post by the_gerbilpetsworld on Jun 21, 2015 1:15:53 GMT -8
I researched this topic before I got my gerbils and like Betty said, everyone has their preferences, however I researched this and it said that females tend to play fight/fight more than males do but females tend to smell more than males so there are swings and roundabouts either way, it depends what you are looking for though. However I have kept both sex now having two gerbils previous who were male and I honestly can't really tell the difference. I have two females now and there isn't much different between the two genders. So go for what takes your fancy Hope I helped PetMad15 x
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Post by rilence on Jun 21, 2015 1:32:58 GMT -8
I always love to keep male pets whenever possible, but decided to try females out this time.
My Milo really loves to climb on me, and Mieko loves picking up their organic Pumpkin seeds from my palm. My 2 boys are less attention seeking compared to them though, though I still prefers males but these 2 girls are really sweet.
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nobleandpure
Member
have two gerbils and might be getting a third soon
Posts: 110
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Post by nobleandpure on Jul 9, 2015 7:02:49 GMT -8
i do not know what you want in a gerbil but i would say males. females are more territoreal and are more likely to fight. males on the other hand are more willing to share space.
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Post by crittercrazy on Jul 9, 2015 10:26:08 GMT -8
I've read that females fight more too, but as I said earlier, I have to say I don't think that's necessarily true. I wouldn't base the decision off of that. I know some people on here have bad luck with females, but I've heard of the same thing with males. And my personal experience is that there is almost no noticeable difference. All my females get along great and were easy to introduce. But so were all my males. As everyone has been saying, it really just depends on your personal preference.
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Post by vexorg on Jul 10, 2015 19:27:16 GMT -8
I dont think it matters, male and females will fit just as much if they want to.
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Post by kristinenote on Jul 11, 2015 5:23:41 GMT -8
I originally started with 3 males in a 20 gallon long tank with a cage topper. They declanned after ~4-6 months together, and I had gotten them together, nearly fully grown.
My friend took in two that had shut out the third, and I kept the third. The third, Silver, and I bonded very well, and then I introduced him to a pup. I was surprised that after reading about the hassle of introductions they got along within >2 weeks.
Now, the pup I introduced to Silver (who has now passed) is an adult, and I am introducing him to another pup. And currently that's going very well.
I've never had females and have no intention of trying to keep them because my boys never smelled, and except for one de-clan, they've never fought. I don't have many years of experience with gerbils (~3yrs) but I think I have had pretty good luck with the males so far.
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Post by CritterMomma on Jul 13, 2015 20:55:33 GMT -8
I have had many gerbils throughout the years and haven't seen much of a difference. I have had both males and females declan. With the females we found one dead and the other one had apparently killed her. There had been so signs of trouble and my son just found the one dead. With the males they made such a ruckus that we hear them, went in the room and managed to separate them without major injury. We never put them back together, they each lived our their days alone. The females were young but the males were both 3 years old and had been together their whole lives. I have two girls now and they get along great but they are still pretty young--under 6 months.
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Post by betty on Jul 13, 2015 23:29:47 GMT -8
In my experience so far, the only females who ever stay together for ever with no massive squabbling are sibling sisters. I have had an awful lot of gerbils over the years and all other female combos have failed at some point. Which is a shame. Even all of my mother and daughter pairs have failed when the daughter reached about 6 months.
However, all my father and son combos have lasted to the end, and that's pairs, trios and quads, but a tank full of unrelated males I had way back lasted less than 2 years.
I suppose when you only have one or two clans of gerbils at a time, you don't see these things so obviously, your gerbils will either fight or not - and that's that for 3 years. Unless of course my multiple tanks in some way are changing the young females behaviour?
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Post by vexorg on Jul 14, 2015 0:00:00 GMT -8
We had many sets of boys, only one set have split due to a mega fight between two of them
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