|
Post by t1gg3er on Jan 5, 2016 11:44:30 GMT -8
I'd wait until you have a good 2-3 hours to sit & watch them from a little bit of a distance & see what happens. If the older one has had enough I'm sure she'll let the youngster know. But don't worry about her ignoring the younger one. Once they curl up & sleep together then you can be reasonably sure they'll be ok.
|
|
|
Post by theia on Jan 5, 2016 11:45:36 GMT -8
We kind of had that with our girls, about 2 hours after putting them together one got sleepy and tried curling up in a corner, but the other one kept going over and waking her up. Eventually they both got tired and tried sleeping in opposite corners and about 4 or so hours in (I think) they eventually curled up together.
|
|
|
Post by fluffy501 on Jan 6, 2016 12:21:55 GMT -8
We kind of had that with our girls, about 2 hours after putting them together one got sleepy and tried curling up in a corner, but the other one kept going over and waking her up. Eventually they both got tired and tried sleeping in opposite corners and about 4 or so hours in (I think) they eventually curled up together. And did it work in the end on a permanent basis? I am wondering how long the older one will live, do sibling gerbils usually live the same age or can it vary? Posted by t1gg3er With the ignoring, does that mean she doesn't like the young one being there? I can't really tell if she is annoyed by it or not
|
|
|
Post by theia on Jan 6, 2016 13:16:25 GMT -8
Yes, they are very happily living together and have been together going on almost 7 months now.
I haven't owned enough gerbils to be able to say for definate about siblings passing away of old age around the same time as each other, but I'd imagine it's more common than there being big stretches of time between them. However, someone who has owned a lot of gerbils might correct me on that.
If she was annoyed by the younger one you'd be more likely to see her pushing the younger one away and/or chasing her, ignoring suggests she doesn't mind and hopefully that would grow into a loving bond.
|
|
|
Post by fluffy501 on Jan 7, 2016 11:38:01 GMT -8
She has since been pushing the other away in annoyance so I don't know what went wrong. I might just have to keep them separately.
|
|
|
Post by theia on Jan 7, 2016 15:16:24 GMT -8
Pushing isn't necessarily bad, it's likely they will need to do a bit of pushing/boxing to establish pecking order. It's only really bad if they start to roll into a ball/properly fight (biting and drawing blood), which you should be able to keep to a minimum by being ready with thick gloves and a pot just in case.
Our girls did plenty of pushing each other away and presenting their rumps to each other at first, they still box sometimes (particularly if one is in heat and gets on the nerves of the other by chasing/humping her too much). Which is an idea, maybe one of yours is in heat? Ours are in heat every few days, you can usually tell as they kind of move the skin/fur on their lower back/rump every now and then (it's kind of weird looking and hard to describe, but something they only seem to do when in heat), they will scent mark more (a kind of 'i'm ready for babies' marking rather than a territorial marking, and might thump too (though in a different pattern to a fear/danger thump, which can be hard to tell the difference).
But of course, overall it's up to you what you feel happiest doing with them and what you think will be best for them.
|
|
|
Post by fluffy501 on Jan 11, 2016 8:15:25 GMT -8
I just put the older one in with the young one and they did the ball fighting thing I don't know what I did wrong, maybe I should have left them together longer the first time when all that happened was the older one avoiding the other. It seems to be the young one that is triggering the fights. I feel like I've done badly and it seemed like it was working at first Yet the older one seems better, more energy, more encouraged with the presence of another gerbil so I'm confused
|
|
|
Post by theia on Jan 11, 2016 9:07:51 GMT -8
If they seem happy enough in a split and they have enough space/you have a bigger tank that you could split (i.e. a 20gallon tank so they have 10 gallons of space each), then maybe just leave them in a permanent split for now? That way they still have some company and you can give them back their huts/toys etc. without you or either of them having to fear getting hurt.
It's impossible to know if it would have worked that first time so don't beat yourself up about it.
|
|
|
Post by rs on Jan 18, 2016 5:15:09 GMT -8
How is is going? Your last post is almost two weeks ago! I just saw this thread, and would really like to know how thing are!
|
|
|
Post by fluffy501 on Jan 19, 2016 14:06:40 GMT -8
Oh hi
I have kind of given up :/ After they briefly did the ball fighting I felt bad for them (especially the older one) so I haven't really tried since. I've put them in with each other very briefly a couple of times to see the reaction and when the younger is in the older one's cage, the old one seems to hide or avoid it. And with the older one in the youngers cage, the older one seems quite nervous and wanted to get out. They now don't seem relaxed with each other
Don't know if its the right thing to do but I've given up for now. I might try again but the fighting put me off :/
What do you think?
|
|
|
Post by rs on Jan 19, 2016 16:38:07 GMT -8
Me, I'd just leave them separated in their own cages/tanks. The younger one may just be too energetic for the older one. We had all of our tanks near each other in one room, except for one who wasn't from the same family group; we kept her in a different part of the room, just at first. With them all in one area, they were able to know that other gerbils were around--they could hear and see each other-- but they had their own territories.
|
|
|
Post by fluffy501 on Jan 19, 2016 16:50:37 GMT -8
Yeah thats what I was thinking of doing. They are already next to each other (the tanks), not that they really seem to notice
|
|
|
Post by fluffy501 on Jan 31, 2016 9:57:53 GMT -8
Well it turns out all I had to do to make the older one happy is just to let it run around freely in the room again like I used to. She got so much enthusiasm back from that, its pretty amazing and good news for me is she isn't as fast as she was so is easier to catch
The young one however seems a bit bored being on it's own and they don't notice each other much
|
|
|
Post by fluffy501 on Mar 20, 2016 17:02:02 GMT -8
The older one is still on its own and seems fine and happy, loves being free out of the cage but sleeps quite a lot and is a bit big but I don't think I'm feeding that much, must be from no digging - update incase anyone is interested
|
|