Khel's new Additions--Yes, -again-

[khelkhet]

Yes, again AND yes, plural.

This was not planned, however I have come into possession of two more young gerbils. So soon after getting Ice, it kind of caught me off guard, however I do not regret my decision to take them.

1) Journey to the pet store for chinchilla sand, since it was unsuccessful, results in me entering Pets Unlimited in time to see them cleaning the gerbil cage. Inevitable result, Sandra stops to coo and stare all dreamy-eyed.

2) Lots more cooing and baby talk, etc.

3) One small gerbil are removed from the cage, and put into a bucket. I mean SMALL. Not counting the tail, about as long as my baby finger, maybe. A little shorter, really.

4) Cooing stops, blinking in confusion starts.

5) Sandra, being who she is, asks questions.

6) The baby's mama has fallen from the cage and died upon hitting the floor. They show her to Sandra, Sandra awww's all pathetic-like. "So what's going to happen to the baby? Has he been sold?" "No" is the answer, "She's too young, we're going to have to drown her."

7) Sandra offers to buy the baby, they say no but they will GIVE me the baby since it's probably going to die anyway.

8) So, tra la la, Sandra, 28 year old, goes around the store with baby gerbil in a little critter carrier, bawling her eyes out.

9) A gerbil in the cage being cleaned, jumps out of the cage and makes a break for it. Onto my SNEAKER. I scoop it up, and go to put it back, it climbs my arm. Ok, more crying. "She likes me, and knows I'm upset." Into the critter carrier it goes, and $12.99 later, I have two new gerbils. (Note that the wee little one was the ONLY one left alive from its litter...)

The arm-crawler is female. Not sure about the little baby because it is too fricken fast to catch, heh. BUT, this is where the problem comes in.

Ice, as some of you may recall, is my OTHER new addition, I got her on Saturday. She's alone in her tank, and, well, she's got two new room mates and an owner who is confused and still working on how she's going to get the two new ones introduced to Ice so they can all live together.

This is where you come in. I know there are forums and posts and so on, but at this point I'm more worried that I will make stupid mistakes despite those. Ice needs a roommate soon, someone said where she's so young she'll be readily accepting to newcomers. So, how, exactly, should I go about this? I changed Ice's shavings yesterday. Should I just sneak these two into her tank and say 'wow, how did THEY get there?!' if Ice asks questions? Should I wait, and try to find a way to splitcage?

The older of the two new ones is about the same size as Ice. The wee baby is half their size, easily. (I am also presently overwhelmed with CUTE factor due to the wee little one. I have seen the pics on here of peoples' babies...But seeing a REAL one, the cute-o-meter just goes off the charts...)

Help help :> If people wish, I can run my MSN and we can chat on there.

P.S. Included here is a picture. Can someone tell me what colors they are? And for that matter, is Ice simply called 'Grey'?

[khelkhet]

Ice's Diary, Stardate uh....Whatever.

My human decided it would be a good idea to bring me some roommates. I wasn't keen on the idea at first--they smelled funny--but next thing I know, she's moved me into the extra habitrail that she puts me in while she cleans my normal cage. Everything's good until there's suddenly these two other pipsqueaks coming at me.

After some butt sniffing and licking, I teamed up with the older newbie. We combined our mighty powers to scratch at the corner while this little twerp just watched.

I checked her out too--at least, the human says it's a her. Anyway, it's too small to do any work and it keeps trying to snuggle me.

We were there for a while--I don't know, maybe she was waiting for us to gnaw each others tails off or somethin'. Then in came the Spaghetti sauce can and one by one--them first, can you believe it?--we were put back in /my/ cage. Yes, I did say 'we'.

My cage didn't smell like my cage anymore, though, and my wheel was gone. To make more room, I guess.

I can reach a few small conclusions so far. The little runt is too small to do anything except sit on and hog the chinchilla sand bath. I hadda boot the little snot out of there a few times so I could flip around. the human even replaced my -sand-! I tried to make a bed and the little brat just walks on over my head. Ah well. At least I have someone to bully.

Argh! The otehr one is in my sandbox now. I've left an email for the human asking for a second box, we can't /all/ fit into a tuna can, although we seem to have highly amused her by attempting to all bathe at the same time.

So far, I've concentrated my efforts on stepping on the runt's head andtrying to escape this cage, and haven't hurt either of them yet. They act as if I don't even exist, as if they've known me forever!

The human's going to watch us for the night, and has a backup mini-cage ready just in case I get fed up. But if there is going to be trouble from this new 'family', it'll be from me. I'm bigger than they are, and this was my tank before it was theirs.

Bah.

Ice.

[j]

wth @ DROWNING A BABY.

Guess you were in the right place at the right time for a reason. Don't worry about putting or keeping the 3 together. They're very young, gerbils almost always accept babies instantly and not attack or fight because they don't have the sexual or territorial smell to them yet. Babies are too young to know better as well, too young to even be scared of the older guy.. they probably think it's their mom or dad or something.

As for the "grey". Umm Lilac I think.
This should help:
www.gerbilsuk.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.htm

[doomgerbiluk]

You have a very nice soptted golden agouti there.
She doesn't look that young though, certainly at least weaning age.
Is there a minimum age to sell gerbil in the US?
Good luck with the intro
Do remember one thing though, there is no such thing as 'resuing' from petshops, only making space for them to get more stock in. This is not a criticism of you but a warning to others, and yes I would have take the baby too in that situation .

They are 3 very nice gerbils and I hope they settle in well together.

Babies gender? have a look at the underneath by lifting the tails. If the two openings are very close together then you have a girl, if they are a bit further apart with 'bulges' forming in the gap between its a young lad. Depending how well developed you should be able to tell now or very son.
If it does turn out to be a lad then I'm afraid your going to need another cage. The good news is lads are easier for intros and all you'll need is another lad between 5 and 8 weeks.

How are you for names?? Or do we all need to get our thinking caps on

[khelkhet]

This morning, which completely made my morning, as I was still 3/4s asleep and upon getting out of bed, I told Bruiser (One of the dogs we've been babysitting since June) to get out of my way, looked out the window, swore as I saw that the chain where Bruiser is tied was dogless, and spent half an hour OUTSIDE in the cold rain trying to find what I thought was an escaped dog.

Til I remembered that I had shooed the dog away from my bedroom door. He was inside. Well, right then he was inside laughing at me outside in the rain.

.,..But anyway, I came back into my room and decided to peek, and lo and behold, Ice and the two newcomers were all cuddled up asleep together. I checked for any nips and stuff, and found none. I'mthrilled, I was peeking at them every 20 mins or so til 3:00 and all was well so I figured I'd risk it. I'm quite happy that they are getting along, in fact I -think- that Ice is even bringing food back to the nest, now, for the wee little one.

As corny as it sounds, J, I think that I -was- in that petstore at that time for a reason...We -never- go to that pet store cause it's about 30 minutes drive out of our way. The two regular petstores we go to are only 20 minute drive away, this one was 50. I just needed chinchilla sand! ;> So, I'm quite happy with how it has worked out so far. Yes, drowning is very and I can't believe they would do that rather than just take time to look after them.

I will check gender later on today when I'm more awake, the little feller is really fast. I'm also hoping that from them, Ice will learn to trust me more: I can't pet her, but as soon as my hand goes into the tanki, the wee little one and the other new one both dive for my hand and want me to pick them up, heh.

Names? I Haven't chosen any yet. A person on here came up with Ice for my grey (woo, Lilac? one for me. If you guys have ideas for great names for these two, I'm all ears!

[khelkhet]

Here's a better picture of the new female.



I also managed to get my unnamed males to stand still. Not a GREAT picture of them, but they are living a life in fastforward so it is the best I can get for now.



The wee little baby, still with no name, is adorable...When I put my hand into the tank, the baby runs from wherever he/she (I've been calling it a she) and dives into my hand, excited about being picked up.

[doomgerbiluk]

nice blacks
no white at all???


hold on..these two are BOYS
Well you have no problem with baby then
check carefully
if babies a boy then he can go with the two blacks (and they really do need names )
if its a girl it stays where it is
you prob have a cple of weeks grace before he/she gets too old for easy intro's
IF it's a boy and you have to make the transfer be careful of course and expexct a little bullying na d crying, but it shouldn't be a problem,

[khelkhet]

Both of the blacks have the little white line across their toes. Looking at them closer now I can see where not having any sand for them to bathe in has left them all greasy looking, blech. ;> I'd better find their dish and do that before I have my afternoon nap.

[sandy]

Just one more thing to think about, make sure the little one can reach the water bottle. You will see it stealing spit from the bigger ones at this age, but it should be learning how to drink. And yes, it is certainly old enough to wean and not have to be killed just cause the mom died!!!

[doomgerbiluk]

thats why i wondered about the age thing. Maybe there's a restriction on the age at which they can sell a gerbil

Still this little ones fallen on his/her feet lol

and it would appear to be a pied
assuming the collar's complete its a nice wide collar
any news on gender yet???/