NEW GERBS, need some help

[ouijaouija]

Hi, I got my gerbs, 3 females, 8 weeks they have whitish bellies and brownish tops, and white patch on their heads and back. Got them from a persons ouse, saw the parents and everything, better then a pet shop?

A few questions as they are worrying me.

1) I woke up this morning and they were thumping pretty loud and hard. So does this mean they were scared or excited?

2) I have read about this 'digging in the corner thing', and that you should give them a lot of bedding for them to burrow in to prevent this. Well I've givent them tonnes of cardboard and about6 inches of woodshavings but thye keep scratching the two back corners of the tank, which is very loud.

3) I saw two of them have a little fight, but it all calmed down now. One was lightly biting the other one for a bit then they started really going for each other. Is this normal?

4) Also, my house is very cold, as england is cold. I'm worried about them, can they cope with the temperature? Tanks are made of glass so they are cold, amd because of the cold, they don't seem to want to come out of their burrow.

5)IS it okay to move the tank around the house, or do they need to kinda stay in the same place? I kept it in my closet room in my bedroom but it is very cold so I've moved it into my main bedroom where it will be a little warmer. I'd keep it there if i could except their cardboard antics keep me awake!

Maybe they are very stressed or something?

Aoart from that they have nibbled my hand, one made me bleed very very slightly, but apart from that they wil sniff my hand and stuff no problems.

I am very worried about my little gerbs, any replies would be apprecated.

[emma890]

1 - mine ussually do that when there bored,
2 - mine dig a lot but because there in a cage I give them a lot of cardboard boxes to play with
3 - I don't think it's normal, but i'm not sure
4 - here in poland it's still snowing, and my gerbils are right by a window, but as yours are in a tank i wouldn't put them by a window. Do they stay in there burow almost all the time, my gerbils sleep in the day and wake up and make a lot of noise during the night.
sorry to hear about your hand, maybe if you give them some treats they might get more friendly

[ouijaouija]

the past owners had all three in a very small cage, thats why they wanted them adopted, they didn't have any space. My tank is probably twice the size of the cage they used to have, its got three levels and is 18 gallons.

thanks for the rpely, i will post some pics soon

they are all snuggled up together in the back, i worry about the cold.

[mice]

Congrats! Hope you're enjoying your new babies. In response to your questions:

1. They may have been thumping because they're scared, remember they're still young and in entirely new surroundings, they'll probably take a couple of days to settle down.

2. Hmm...My boys will still do this from time to time, I've found that putting a whole box e.g. a cereal box and filling it up with bedding seems to stop them, have you tried that with your little girls?

3. They're still quite young so I wouldn't expect to see any signs of declanning. Could they have been grooming each other? It's normal for youngsters to play fight and box as they may be trying to establish a hierarchy within the group. I'd keep an eye on the situation, especially as they get older as girls are more likely to declan than boys.

4. I wouldn't worry too much; gerbils are surprisingly resilient to temperature. Just make sure they've got plenty of bedding to keep themselves warm.

5. See how it goes, they may well calm down in a few days and won't keep you awake. I don't really know how moving the tank about might affect them, I imagine it would be alright as long as you're not planning to move them every five minutes .

Oh and we need to see pics! ;D

[doomgerbiluk]

the thunmping could be alarm or nervousness
The corner digging is a bad habit they'll probably always have, If you put a jar in they may dog in that which will reduce the moise but no the habit!!
At 8 weeks play fights are normal but usually not serious BUT I have had an 8 week old pup kill a sibling so use yoru common sense.
Moving the tnak won't hurt them, but may unsettle them a little.
As for cold, loads and loads of white tissue for them to make cosy nests with will help.

Biting (as opposed to nibbling) is not good, try blowing on their faces when they bite and saying NO firmly, Make sure your hands aren't 'tasty' from food etc.

[ouijaouija]

hi, thanks for the replies. I put some pics in the tank thread, but here they are!

my water bottl ehas to go in diagonal because the darn tank isn't tall enough due to the ledges. I was worried that because it was diagonal the water wouldn't come out properly, but i think it is okay.. I drew a line at the water level and this morning the water is below it.

I just woke up and one of them started thumping when they saw me! Must've scared them.







better ones on the way

[caz]

Put the bottle on the front side of the tank!
I know it doesn't look that nice, but it will be upright and they can get to it easily. You may have to move the shavings in the morning but they work OK. I had the same one a while back, but changed to a small mouse sized one - only 2 gerbils to water!
Caroline

[RitzieAnn]

Yeah.. I like the shortie waterbottles better also! I love my 4oz bottles. the 8oz ones are tall, and harder to place because of it! I also have a crooked waterbottle or 2. Some of mine work best that way. It's the vacuum seal that you want, so it doesn't matter too much if it's straight upright or not.

[ouijaouija]

well im still worried about the bottle being diagonal, you can see it in the picture, i keep testing it and only very little water comes out, if none it seems.

ive written another level on the wather one so tomorrow ill be able to see if they drink, because i never see them drink from it.

Apart form that they seem really active, otherwise i will do what caz says and put it upright on the front of the tank

Apart from that they will happily take food and crawl on my hand if i keep it still, move it and they go away, they also don't like being picked up

[ouijaouija]

ive moved the bottle here now will they be able to drink ffrom it?

[lizzy]

I've had trouble with those type of bottles myself.

Also, many gerbils will "stereotypically" dig like you have described if they were born and raised in a tank where they had no/couldn't burrow. There was a webpage which described this in more detail but I can't find it now...

[Vaire]

Check out www.gerbils.co.uk/gerbils/burrow.htm !

"Anyone who keeps Mongolian gerbils knows the problem: the gerbils constantly dig in the corners of their cage. This is not just normal digging behaviour - because of its characteristics it can be described as so-called stereotyped digging. [...]
In his first experiment, he kept gerbil families in standard laboratory cages of different size. Digging behaviour was not affected by cage size - all gerbils in all cages developed stereotypies. [...]
The result of his further experiments is quite simple: if gerbils grow up in an environment with a "burrow" they won't develop stereotyped digging behaviour. The essential fact is that the "burrow" must have a tunnel with a chamber connected to it. When the gerbils were only given a shelter without a tunnel, stereotyped digging occurred."

[christine]

I don't know if you are still worried about this but my gerbils thump for two reasons:
1)They are mating (highly doubt yours are)
2) They want attention and the more attention I give them the less they thump but when I start ignoring them they thump again

Also I would try moving the tank and see how it goes. If they seem stressed and won't calm down after a few hours then I wouldn't do it.

[pooky]

temperature wise, ive been told between 15 degrees celcius (59 degrees farinhite i think, though you would want to confirm it) and 25 degrees celcius (77 degrees farinhite, again you would want to confirm, im not so good with conversions, even with the internet haha) is good (15 degrees celcius being only with lots of tolit paper etc to snuggle and keep warm).

as for the fighting (this is a quote from a completly diferant thread... not sure how to do that corectly but hopefully this is good enough):

"I'm guessing that your two gerbils are females and that they have reached the 4-9 month mark. Sometimes, when females reach sexual maturity, they fight for dominance. I've had both of my female pairs do this. My gerbils are particularly ornery, though."
-Queenofthenile, November 5, 2004
this is from a post i started because my gerbs were fighting pretty badly (actually the reason i found this forum in the firstplace). heres the link (incase anything on it might help): gerbilforum.proboards21.com/index.cgi?board=behaviour&action=display&thread=1099618062

hope this all helps ,
pooky