Now it's male de-clanning

[rnltred]

Hi all,
Well, it must be something in the air, or I don't know what. We had another de-clanning this afternoon only this time it was males none were Argente, so much for that theory. Anyway 4 that have lived together since the 2004 NE AGS show all of a sudden started in. By the time I noticed one guy had a bite wound on the upper part of his rump. There was a fair amount of blood but the bite looks like only one puncture. We separated him from the other 3 and applied Duraclens (we got from the vet the last time to the wound. He's eating and pretty much just sitting now. We took out all his furniture except food and water. He will see the vet on Monday, of course it happened after they closed for the weekend. One post I read on the subject of females declanning asked if they were near tanks with males. The boys and girls are about 5feet apart. Is this too close? Could this be a cause for males to fight as well? How close is too close?
Keith & Luana

[whitmoregirl]

Well my male tank is in the middle of my females, and I've not noticed any changes in the clans (other than what is normal)
Have you recently gotten the girls?
Sometimes gerbils just "disagree" and decide that their leader or a subbordinate (sp?) should leave the group - and because they're in a tank, the "chasing away" often turns deadly.

[ashgerbil]

yeah, my boys (older ones) are less than a foot away from my girls and they havn't changes at all (other than Ash dying his cheek orange to impress the girlies! ;D lol! don't worry, he was just rusting a bit on his cheek ;D)
no but seriously, whit's right it was probably over dominance and in the wild, they'd chase the under-dog off, but they're kinda trapped in a cage. so there's nowhere to run
and they just end up fighting even more

[rnltred]

OK, well we didn't think that they were too close or anything like that but wanted to be sure. NO new anybody since the NE AGS show in 2004. It's unfortunate for the "odd man out" Gerbil that this happens. Thankfully I was there to snatch him out of the tank before it became more serious. He's eating & drinking but not happy by himself. We'll most likely get him a male pup for a cagemate when he's recovered from the bite. The only change that had been made (3weeks ago) was giving them a wooden house. Could it be a fight over this "new" territory?
Keith & Luana

[whitmoregirl]

Possibly - I gave a duna of girls a jam jar a while back and later that night it was all for one - fighting broke out and I even got bitten trying to stop them! (I still have the mark as well o.0)
Then again if it was three weeks ago it should've already been claimed... unless the poor bitten gerbil decided to try to take it for himself and got beaten up.

[ashgerbil]

yes, Felix (one of my new boys) has an obsession with this flower pot inside his and Rufus's (his brother) tank. if Rufus is spotted inside it, Felix is on him like a shot and they start squabbling as the photos below show...


it's nothing serious of course, just them sorting out dominance. hopefully they'll learn to share it one day!
but your gerbies could have had a similar thing, except they got really angry over it!