Introducing oldish females

[lizzy]

Hi quick question.

I have two female gerbs on their own; Juliet and Sassy. I bought them when they were on by themselves about 18 months ago. Juliet I managed to pair up with another female not long after I got her who unfortunately died last summer. Sassy has always been by herself even though I tried introducing her to another female (who has died as well) and it didn't work.

I have a split cage and was wandering of the chances of introducing these two. At first I totally dismissed the idea because I thought there was no way it would work but now I am wandering. Is there anyone else who has successfully introduced gerbils who are over a year old? Do you reckon it is worth trying or would it just stress them out?

[thumpity]

I adopted a "retirement" group of gerbils. I didn't try with the females, but with 4 of the males, who had been grouped 2 and 2, and are all over the age of 2.5, I decided to try split caging. It took almost 3 weeks, but they are now happily living together. Patience (and remembering to switch them!) is what did the trick.
I don't know if this is a common experience, but you could always try and keep a close watch and be prepared to have two tanks if it doesn't work.
-Kaye

[AndreaS15]

I've heard of split caging like this to take up to 6 months... so you never know.

[whitmoregirl]

To be honest, and I hope I'm not being too negative here, but it sounds like this splitting will be just a waste of time.
You've already said that one female has had a failed split cage attempt, and I have a feeling that any splitting done between them will end in blood. Adding on that, females are harder to join together, especially after a year or two of age I seem to remember.
You could always do a permanant split so that although they cannot reach or attack one another, they still have company.
Although saying that there have been some successes (eg Doomgerbil's latest) but there is always a risk.