Post by jenwren on Apr 20, 2014 5:55:40 GMT -8
First off, I've been reading for a long time and this has really helped my as a relatively new gerbil-owner. Thank you all for this, it's the best resource I've found online ^_^
Ok the long version: myself and my partner got three gerbil brother last June from a breeder who was retiring and decided not to keep them on anymore. They were about 12 weeks old, an agouti called Leo and two black gerbs, one all black called Cody and another with a faint white stripe on the knuckles called Nimh. For 7 months they all got on fine, no problems at all. I kept them in this tank from Living World with the tank part of the P@H gerbilarium in there as a burrowing tank.
www.seapets.co.uk/products/pet-supplies/pet-cages/living-world-green-for-small-animals/living-world-green-eco-habitat-medium.html
Out of nowhere about a six weeks ago I came in to find Cody bitten all over his tail and back legs. His fur was gone and he was bleeding and limping but his temperament was fine. Although he didn't seem traumatised I separated him straight away and checked in with a vet in case he needed attention. He apparently was ok to heal on his own although he ended up biting his own tail off ( I couldn't find it either....did he eat it or something?).
So. Nimh turned out to be the culprit after a failed attempt to intro them together again so I resigned myself to keeping Nimh and Leo together and finding a new friend for Cody.
We picked up a baby spotted-slate from P@H we called Patrick. The split-cage worked after only a weekend but then Patrick succumbed to a Respiratory infection a week later. It was horrible, especially since it came so suddenly and wasn't apparent until the vet put him down and stuff came out of his nose and mouth, poor wee thing
So now we bought a new gerbilarium for Cody (attached below) with the idea of getting another two gerbil babies. Previously we kept Cody in the P@H tank but he seemed depressed with the downgrade.
www.amazon.co.uk/Wooden-Rodent-Hamster-Gerbil-Ferret/dp/B00AWPMMKE
So on Good Friday we picked up a BEW we called Shiro and a tiny Honey-cream called Pix. It's obvious there is an age difference between Shiro and Pix just from the difference in size but they seem to get in fine. My only concern is if Shiro is a candidate for dominance although Pix seems to have forgotten that he's the tiniest of the three and seems adamant to join in too. I'm exchanging them about five times a day.
TLDR:
Split-caging my 1-year old black Gerbil Cody with two new Gerbils, a BEW called Shiro and a Honey called Pix. Shiro seems older then Pix by a few weeks but Pix is quite a bold little one and has boxed/wrestled with Shiro trying to groom him. No ball-fighting/chasing between the two though and they sleep together fine.
So since they seem fine interacting between the bars (Shiro goes nose to nose with Cody through the bars and closes his eyes which I think is a good sign, Pix has no interest in Cody) I decided to try first having Shiro and Cody together and then adding Pix.
I'm mainly confused as to whether they're ready to live together because although they didn't seem to fight or anything there were a couple of red flags:
Cody is obsessed with Shiro's um....'Ger-balls' and I think bit him there since they both jumped up suddenly at one point when this was happening. This freaked out Shiro.
Shiro groomed Cody and Cody let him. Seems inconsistent since it's been the other way round through the bars.
Pix bit poor Cody's stump. Is this Pix trying to attack Cody like Nimh did or showing juvenile interest? Cody seemed more irritated by it than threatened/angry.
Because of this I split them again but I wanted to ask for your opinion on this. Are they actually ready and I'm overreacting? Or do they need more time apart? What behaviour is acceptable here? Is Pix showing signs of being aggressive? Or is he just still too young to know any better?
Hope this wasn't too long....let me know if there is anything I need to be aware of re: forum etiquette. I read the rules but might of missed something and I'm fairly new to forums in general.
Thanks for reading
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Ok the long version: myself and my partner got three gerbil brother last June from a breeder who was retiring and decided not to keep them on anymore. They were about 12 weeks old, an agouti called Leo and two black gerbs, one all black called Cody and another with a faint white stripe on the knuckles called Nimh. For 7 months they all got on fine, no problems at all. I kept them in this tank from Living World with the tank part of the P@H gerbilarium in there as a burrowing tank.
www.seapets.co.uk/products/pet-supplies/pet-cages/living-world-green-for-small-animals/living-world-green-eco-habitat-medium.html
Out of nowhere about a six weeks ago I came in to find Cody bitten all over his tail and back legs. His fur was gone and he was bleeding and limping but his temperament was fine. Although he didn't seem traumatised I separated him straight away and checked in with a vet in case he needed attention. He apparently was ok to heal on his own although he ended up biting his own tail off ( I couldn't find it either....did he eat it or something?).
So. Nimh turned out to be the culprit after a failed attempt to intro them together again so I resigned myself to keeping Nimh and Leo together and finding a new friend for Cody.
We picked up a baby spotted-slate from P@H we called Patrick. The split-cage worked after only a weekend but then Patrick succumbed to a Respiratory infection a week later. It was horrible, especially since it came so suddenly and wasn't apparent until the vet put him down and stuff came out of his nose and mouth, poor wee thing
So now we bought a new gerbilarium for Cody (attached below) with the idea of getting another two gerbil babies. Previously we kept Cody in the P@H tank but he seemed depressed with the downgrade.
www.amazon.co.uk/Wooden-Rodent-Hamster-Gerbil-Ferret/dp/B00AWPMMKE
So on Good Friday we picked up a BEW we called Shiro and a tiny Honey-cream called Pix. It's obvious there is an age difference between Shiro and Pix just from the difference in size but they seem to get in fine. My only concern is if Shiro is a candidate for dominance although Pix seems to have forgotten that he's the tiniest of the three and seems adamant to join in too. I'm exchanging them about five times a day.
TLDR:
Split-caging my 1-year old black Gerbil Cody with two new Gerbils, a BEW called Shiro and a Honey called Pix. Shiro seems older then Pix by a few weeks but Pix is quite a bold little one and has boxed/wrestled with Shiro trying to groom him. No ball-fighting/chasing between the two though and they sleep together fine.
So since they seem fine interacting between the bars (Shiro goes nose to nose with Cody through the bars and closes his eyes which I think is a good sign, Pix has no interest in Cody) I decided to try first having Shiro and Cody together and then adding Pix.
I'm mainly confused as to whether they're ready to live together because although they didn't seem to fight or anything there were a couple of red flags:
Cody is obsessed with Shiro's um....'Ger-balls' and I think bit him there since they both jumped up suddenly at one point when this was happening. This freaked out Shiro.
Shiro groomed Cody and Cody let him. Seems inconsistent since it's been the other way round through the bars.
Pix bit poor Cody's stump. Is this Pix trying to attack Cody like Nimh did or showing juvenile interest? Cody seemed more irritated by it than threatened/angry.
Because of this I split them again but I wanted to ask for your opinion on this. Are they actually ready and I'm overreacting? Or do they need more time apart? What behaviour is acceptable here? Is Pix showing signs of being aggressive? Or is he just still too young to know any better?
Hope this wasn't too long....let me know if there is anything I need to be aware of re: forum etiquette. I read the rules but might of missed something and I'm fairly new to forums in general.
Thanks for reading
