In Estress???

[sweetie]

Lately, My little ones are trying to claw through the dividers in to the other houses. My males are on one side and my females on the other. Also Bubba is thumping alot which he has done rarely since I got him home June 22nd. Sweetie is also squeaking but not because of fights. Could the females be in estress or heat? The behavior is a different from the norm.

[j]

Yeah, I told you that would happen a while ago in another thread.

They're older now, so you're going to have problems. I did. I can't even have the males and female tanks next to eachother anymore. Males were fighting a lot. Boxing, mounting eachother. Was crazy.

Seperate the cages before they kill eachother over who gets to mate (even though they can't get to eachother..smell is enough to cause problems)

[queenofthenile]

Yeah, you will need to remove the tube. Essentially you have 4 gerbils split-caged right now, because they can smell each other through the divider. Anytime you split cage more than 2 gerbils, expect fighting.

I just added a second story using wire cages to 3 of my tanks. Two of the tanks were about a foot apart and the males in each tank were chewing the bars to try get at each other across the gap . Now the cages have to be far enough apart that they can't smell each other, otherwise fighting will break out.

[sweetie]

Thanks. I still have not experienced aggression from any of them. I will separate them to be safe. How far apart do they need to be? I know dogs can smell the females scent even if she is in a house and they are outside.

I wanted to keep them close so that "when" (changed from "if") I breed them they will not fight when I place boys with girls.

Should I just pair them up now? They are still young and if it is best to wait until they are 9 months to a year, I have 5-8 more months to go!!! I realize waiting is best case scenario but what have you all done when matching a pair. I have heard in order to get a female to mate with a male then it is best to pair them up before 12 weeks. I have also heard the it is best to wait until the female is older but the introduction will be harder. HELP!!

[queenofthenile]

I've had no problems with male-female intros even when the gerbs are older. I know that Crazycritter has been able to introduce 4 male-female pairs and each split-cage took less than a week. My Asha (9 months) and her Thorne (1 yr??) took only a day to introduce and they were mating the very next day. I wouldn't worry about trying to introduce them at a later date. it may be a bit harder than it would be now, but still not very difficult.

[sweetie]

Thanks for the info. I would be more comfortable waiting!!!!
I have not seen any aggression or scratching at blockers. I cleaned out the cages Friday and set them up differently. The males are sleeping together and grooming each other and the females are doing the same only in a different place now. They used to sleep in a circle now they sleep in the main part below the stairs. I really don't think it will be too difficult to do intros later. They all seem to be very friendly. Thier environment (location) won't change either since they will be in the livingroom of our house. Great topic of conversation and then I ask people who visit if they want some!!!! I give them info on the gerbils and then let them watch the gerbils play outside thier houses. I feel like a gerbils advocate and educator

[queenofthenile]

They don't have to be scratching at the divider to indicate that they are uncomfortable. When I attempted to split-cage Logan with Jasper and Aspen on the other side, I heard them squeaking. I only tried the split for one day to see if it was possible (it wasn't). Although Jasper seemed pretty nonchalant about Logan on the other side (no scratching at the divider), he would chase his mate Aspen back into the house everytime he peeked his head out. Basically, gerbils can show aggression in ways that aren't as obvious. Squeaking usually isn't a good sign. Two of my pairs have declanned a few days after I heard squeaking in their tank. Just watch your guys carefully to see if they are fighting.

[sweetie]

Poor little guy. What a bully! I am watching them closely!! I see that Bubba is the more dominant of the two males but still they sleep together and take turns grooming each other.
Sweetie and Blackie are the same only it is not so obvious who is the more dominant. Sweetie often comes up to Blackie and grooms her mouth and nose (which in dogs indicates submissiveness). Other than that they also sleep and groom each other. There are little slap fights when they are out of the cages but none on the inside.

The dividers I am speaking of are in the tubes so that the girls and the boys can't get to each other and mate (waiting seems the best plan of action), I did not use the split cage method when I introduced Cowboy and Sweetie to Bubba and Blackie.
I instead, put Bubba and Blackie in a roll around ball and let Sweetie and Cowboy out in the playground enclosure and let them sniff each other through the ball. I then cleaned out the cages and put them together again with new bedding to ensure there were no residual smells. I then let all 4 out to interact with supervision. They got along great. Of course they where only about 10-12 weeks at the time. I then put the males in one house and the females in the other. I wanted to keep them together in proximity so that if they ever do "escape" or interact, they do not fight the "invader". So far, there has been no squeaking which indicated aggreassive behavior or fisticuffs . I will now be much more attentive to the subtle aggression. I thought it that gerbil aggression was confined to squeaking and ball fighting. I will now watch much more closely.

[queenofthenile]

Yeah, it's just best to be safe. I always warn everyone about the squeaking because I've learned that you shouldn't ignore it. A few days before my 4 boys declanned there was a lot of squeaking and mounting. Then Jasper got bit on the nose and they had to be seperated . I'm very lucky nothing worse happened when I was sleeping.

[sweetie]

Makes you feel like the kids on Nightmare on Elm Street. "Never fall asleep".

[Ritzie/Admin]

The female will only mate when she is in estrus, a certain stage in her fertility cycle. The (dominant) female will come into season every 4 to 6 days. ;D