Is it normal for two male gerbils to "mate"

[mom05]

I have spent the last week doing a split tank introduction between two young male gerbils, Doug and Hercules. I took out the divider today and right away Doug started trying to mount Hercules. At first I tried to stop them but then I thought as long as they didn't actually start to fight then maybe I should let them be. They seem to be getting along, but maybe too well. Hercules does not seem to mind Doug's advances. Will this behavior stop? Are they just establishing who is dominant? Or might Hercules, who was supposed to be a boy really a girl?

[asher]

It's mostly just a dominance thing, it shouldnt be a problem I dont think, though be watchful just in case.

[betty]

Have you actually checked their sexes on here? Mating on split intro is usually only seen in male/female splits, I have never seen it in males myself on introduction (however, I see it all the time in males living together).

Stick some pictures of their genitals online here to be sure - although could already be to late to stop a pregnancy if one IS female...

Females in heat will normally face off the male then turn away from them (maybe scuttling off to a high perch) before the humping; males will normally just be sitting still or feeding even before the humping starts...

[mom05]

I couldn't figure out how to post pictures on the forum and the pictures I took were really bad anyway. Hercules was getting a little annoyed with us while we were trying. But I looked at a bunch of websites and YouTube videos and I'm pretty confident that Hercules is infact male. However the behavior they were displaying is much like accual male/female mating. Is that possible? I found one YouTube video where a guy showed his two male gerbils doing to same thing. He had them for three years and no pups. I am happy to say that Doug and Hercules are living peacefully together. You would thing they have always been together, and hopefully I won't be asking what to do with pups in about a month.