Post by TJ's Rodent Ranch on Aug 15, 2023 21:27:40 GMT -8
Hi there!
First I just want to mention, that as I'm sure a lot of cat & gerbil owners can sympathize, I'm always keeping an eye on the cats when handling the gerbils. I always lock the room I'm in, and make sure everyone knows the gerbils are out. I promise I'm always very watchful with my gerbils, since keeping predator and prey in the same house can end very badly. I'm never negligent with them, and always make sure everyone is safe. There wasn't really anything I could do to prevent this, and, for anyone who is getting worried, just know that this is a happy story
So... starting with this. I have nine gerbils and six cats (and one dog but that's not important to this story, lol)
I do want to mention, that four of these said six cats are five week old kittens, and they can't leave the room that they're in. This room, happens to be my room, and the room where all the gerbils are, so my cats can't leave the room my gerbils are in.
So, every now and then I like to do a big makeover on my gerbils cages and enrich their environment with more toys and levels, and whatnot. So I was doing this tonight with one of my smaller cages, and all four kittens were swarming around the cage, wanting to know what lay beyond such mysterious glass walls. I kept them away as best I could, but there was no where I could put the kittens to keep them away, so I just had to watch the tank and make sure that I shooed the kittens away as they came at me. It wasn't very possible for them to get in the tank, but I figured, as always, better safe than sorry so I was making sure that none got in even though I was pretty positive none of them could.
I grabbed a bunch of PT rolls, and a cereal box to put on them, and piled a bunch of bedding. I gave them a bigger wheel (if anyone's wondering, the gerbil I made the thread 'an uncooperative, fat man' is in this tank, and he LOVES the new, bigger wheel! Still uses it as his snack/nap spot, though, lol
and more bedding to dig in, along with a treat and a few toys. I was organizing this stuff, making it so the cereal box acted as a second level in the tank, and made a network of underground tunnels. (They LOVE the new setup!) I then added a new house, and the makeover was done! Just as I was putting the other stuff away, I saw out of the corner of my eye, a flash of fur. Now, I want to mention that even though these kittens are so young, I'm positive they wouldn't know what to do if there was a defenseless gerbil in front of their nose, I still think that no cats in the gerbil tank should probably be a solid rule... with perhaps only one exception, since I can't change the past.
This flash of fur was the outgoing female kitten, Orchid. She must have known I was packing everything up and closing the tank, because she seemed to believe this was a now or never situation, and gave it her all. After perhaps twenty minutes to half an hour of investigating, climbing, climbing over me, jumping down from shelves and seeing if there was a strategic way inside, she decided the only way in was a leap of faith, that I would not be fast enough to stop.
And she was absolutely right.
She landed in the center of the tank with a splash of bedding and the severe disruption of my cereal box/TP roll structure.
She also landed on top of one of the two gerbils in the tank, Tunnely Jr. she had gripped in deep and once inside the tank was reluctant to leave, so after my slow brain processed what had happened, in total it took about ten seconds for her to be out of the tank, receiving a brush down from bedding and a scolding for being foolish/a problem.
But before I was able to remove her, Tunnely Jr. (the one that's not fat) had managed to crawl out from underneath her while Tunnely Joe had disappeared in a pile of bedding. After the initial panic had gone, Tunnely Jr. seemed to think that this strange fluffy meteorite was worth more investigation, and crawled on top of Orchid, sniffing her over. He then peed on her back, thinking maybe this was a new item in his tank he needed to mark as his own. He clearly wasn't afraid, so this was definitely a different kind of pee, not a fear pee.
He was standing on her back, hopping around slowly while thinking this strange situation over, when I brushed him off and managed to get her out of the tank. He watched as I picked her up, and even stood up to look after her. If this had been either one of my older cats (champion mousers) I don't think either Tunnely Joe or Tunnely Jr. would have lived, and I think either one would have been so fast they would have eaten both during the leap and they would be happily purring with a full stomach upon landing in the tank, so I thank God that it was only Orchid! Lol.
Both of them are perfectly fine, though she might be a little shaken from her talking to, if she can in fact understand English.
There are two things I take away from this...
1: I don't think Orchid will be that great of a mouser.
2: From now on, NO CATS IN THE GERBIL TANKS!
Sorry I know this was a long post, and I hope you enjoyed it even though it was a commitment to read it!
First I just want to mention, that as I'm sure a lot of cat & gerbil owners can sympathize, I'm always keeping an eye on the cats when handling the gerbils. I always lock the room I'm in, and make sure everyone knows the gerbils are out. I promise I'm always very watchful with my gerbils, since keeping predator and prey in the same house can end very badly. I'm never negligent with them, and always make sure everyone is safe. There wasn't really anything I could do to prevent this, and, for anyone who is getting worried, just know that this is a happy story
So... starting with this. I have nine gerbils and six cats (and one dog but that's not important to this story, lol)
I do want to mention, that four of these said six cats are five week old kittens, and they can't leave the room that they're in. This room, happens to be my room, and the room where all the gerbils are, so my cats can't leave the room my gerbils are in.
So, every now and then I like to do a big makeover on my gerbils cages and enrich their environment with more toys and levels, and whatnot. So I was doing this tonight with one of my smaller cages, and all four kittens were swarming around the cage, wanting to know what lay beyond such mysterious glass walls. I kept them away as best I could, but there was no where I could put the kittens to keep them away, so I just had to watch the tank and make sure that I shooed the kittens away as they came at me. It wasn't very possible for them to get in the tank, but I figured, as always, better safe than sorry so I was making sure that none got in even though I was pretty positive none of them could.
I grabbed a bunch of PT rolls, and a cereal box to put on them, and piled a bunch of bedding. I gave them a bigger wheel (if anyone's wondering, the gerbil I made the thread 'an uncooperative, fat man' is in this tank, and he LOVES the new, bigger wheel! Still uses it as his snack/nap spot, though, lol
and more bedding to dig in, along with a treat and a few toys. I was organizing this stuff, making it so the cereal box acted as a second level in the tank, and made a network of underground tunnels. (They LOVE the new setup!) I then added a new house, and the makeover was done! Just as I was putting the other stuff away, I saw out of the corner of my eye, a flash of fur. Now, I want to mention that even though these kittens are so young, I'm positive they wouldn't know what to do if there was a defenseless gerbil in front of their nose, I still think that no cats in the gerbil tank should probably be a solid rule... with perhaps only one exception, since I can't change the past. This flash of fur was the outgoing female kitten, Orchid. She must have known I was packing everything up and closing the tank, because she seemed to believe this was a now or never situation, and gave it her all. After perhaps twenty minutes to half an hour of investigating, climbing, climbing over me, jumping down from shelves and seeing if there was a strategic way inside, she decided the only way in was a leap of faith, that I would not be fast enough to stop.
And she was absolutely right.
She landed in the center of the tank with a splash of bedding and the severe disruption of my cereal box/TP roll structure.
She also landed on top of one of the two gerbils in the tank, Tunnely Jr. she had gripped in deep and once inside the tank was reluctant to leave, so after my slow brain processed what had happened, in total it took about ten seconds for her to be out of the tank, receiving a brush down from bedding and a scolding for being foolish/a problem.
But before I was able to remove her, Tunnely Jr. (the one that's not fat) had managed to crawl out from underneath her while Tunnely Joe had disappeared in a pile of bedding. After the initial panic had gone, Tunnely Jr. seemed to think that this strange fluffy meteorite was worth more investigation, and crawled on top of Orchid, sniffing her over. He then peed on her back, thinking maybe this was a new item in his tank he needed to mark as his own. He clearly wasn't afraid, so this was definitely a different kind of pee, not a fear pee.
He was standing on her back, hopping around slowly while thinking this strange situation over, when I brushed him off and managed to get her out of the tank. He watched as I picked her up, and even stood up to look after her. If this had been either one of my older cats (champion mousers) I don't think either Tunnely Joe or Tunnely Jr. would have lived, and I think either one would have been so fast they would have eaten both during the leap and they would be happily purring with a full stomach upon landing in the tank, so I thank God that it was only Orchid! Lol.
Both of them are perfectly fine, though she might be a little shaken from her talking to, if she can in fact understand English.
There are two things I take away from this...
1: I don't think Orchid will be that great of a mouser.
2: From now on, NO CATS IN THE GERBIL TANKS!
Sorry I know this was a long post, and I hope you enjoyed it even though it was a commitment to read it!
