Post by mo3t on Oct 24, 2015 3:33:52 GMT -8
So, I started out with a pair of girls, Junior and Oreo. I bought them for my nephew and son, and of course the boys lost interest and they quickly became my gerbils. I rent an apartment unit from my parents that is seperate from their house, and one day while I was out, my mother had a visitor with small children, so she took them over to my apartment to show them my gerbils. Somehow, their tank was left open and they had escaped by the time I got home.
They were gone for a day when Oreo came back when I was doing laundry. I looked down and she was sitting on my foot looking tired, and let me pick her up to put her back in her cage. She went for the water bottle right away and drank for five minutes straight. Junior, though... she found a tiny crack in my floor which I didn't know was there, that lead to the crawl space under the house. There is no water down there, and so... well... she was discovered several months later, let's leave it at that.
In the meantime, I only had one gerbil and after a week I thought Junior had gotten outside somehow and was gone for good so I needed a friend for submissive Oreo. I live in the Northwest Territories, and gerbils are hard to come by. We have one little pet store, that's it. They get gerbils in once in a while, so when a friend saw that they had a litter in, she grabbed a pup for me and brought it home. It was a little albino female, cute as a marshmallow, so that was her name. Her little back foot was floppy and broken adn she was a nervous wreck that wouldn't stop squeaking. Ever. She squeaked constantly for a week and wouldn't come out of the gerbil house in her cage. I had to finally take a dropper of water to her because she wouldn't come out to eat or drink. After two weeks I coaxed her out and got her to eat out of my hand. When she was tame...ish... I introduced her to Oreo.
It didn't go well. Marshmallow hid from her in the playpen and squeaked whenever she came near. Oreo sniffed at her a few times, seemed curious but not too interested, gave the baby space. Until she walked by and Marshmallow ran out and suddenly bit her on the butt. You could see Oreo's eyes pop out indignation, almost hear her go "Why you little-!" and then she chased the baby down and bit her back on the butt about four times before I separated them. I felt her indignation, Marshmallow was a little freak. A split-cage method worked and I finally got them co-habitating, though I could tell Oreo was still a little disgusted with the new baby.
It's been two years of daily contact and treats and Marshmallow is still as high strung as she was when I got her. Oreo is completely tame and friendly, but Marsh can't even walk normally. She does that jerky stop-start walk all the time and she's sooo jumpy. She'll trust me enough to take a treat, but only if I'm alone and only if she sees Oreo come out and get one first. For example, I'll put them in the playpen and then sit down at my computer. After half an hour Marsh will come out of hiding and jerkily explore, and she's fine if I'm there but if I move in a new way, like if i reach for a glass of water, or yawn, or sneeze... she jumps five feet in the air and squeaks, then falls over herself doing this mad bug-eyed scramble to get to the nearest hiding place. My mother saw her do this one day when she went to say hi to them and she gasped and asked "Oh my... should I wait until she calms down?" to which I replied "That *is* her 'calmed down'." Oreo was looking up at me like "What do you feed her...?" and I was just like "Give her a break, I think she's a crack baby."
Nothing bad has ever happened to this gerbil in two years, but she acts like she's constantly tortured or something. I don't know, maybe Oreo whispers terrible things to her when she sleeps and jump-scares her when I'm not looking to keep her on edge. Her first few weeks must have been pretty awful I guess.
They were gone for a day when Oreo came back when I was doing laundry. I looked down and she was sitting on my foot looking tired, and let me pick her up to put her back in her cage. She went for the water bottle right away and drank for five minutes straight. Junior, though... she found a tiny crack in my floor which I didn't know was there, that lead to the crawl space under the house. There is no water down there, and so... well... she was discovered several months later, let's leave it at that.
In the meantime, I only had one gerbil and after a week I thought Junior had gotten outside somehow and was gone for good so I needed a friend for submissive Oreo. I live in the Northwest Territories, and gerbils are hard to come by. We have one little pet store, that's it. They get gerbils in once in a while, so when a friend saw that they had a litter in, she grabbed a pup for me and brought it home. It was a little albino female, cute as a marshmallow, so that was her name. Her little back foot was floppy and broken adn she was a nervous wreck that wouldn't stop squeaking. Ever. She squeaked constantly for a week and wouldn't come out of the gerbil house in her cage. I had to finally take a dropper of water to her because she wouldn't come out to eat or drink. After two weeks I coaxed her out and got her to eat out of my hand. When she was tame...ish... I introduced her to Oreo.
It didn't go well. Marshmallow hid from her in the playpen and squeaked whenever she came near. Oreo sniffed at her a few times, seemed curious but not too interested, gave the baby space. Until she walked by and Marshmallow ran out and suddenly bit her on the butt. You could see Oreo's eyes pop out indignation, almost hear her go "Why you little-!" and then she chased the baby down and bit her back on the butt about four times before I separated them. I felt her indignation, Marshmallow was a little freak. A split-cage method worked and I finally got them co-habitating, though I could tell Oreo was still a little disgusted with the new baby.
It's been two years of daily contact and treats and Marshmallow is still as high strung as she was when I got her. Oreo is completely tame and friendly, but Marsh can't even walk normally. She does that jerky stop-start walk all the time and she's sooo jumpy. She'll trust me enough to take a treat, but only if I'm alone and only if she sees Oreo come out and get one first. For example, I'll put them in the playpen and then sit down at my computer. After half an hour Marsh will come out of hiding and jerkily explore, and she's fine if I'm there but if I move in a new way, like if i reach for a glass of water, or yawn, or sneeze... she jumps five feet in the air and squeaks, then falls over herself doing this mad bug-eyed scramble to get to the nearest hiding place. My mother saw her do this one day when she went to say hi to them and she gasped and asked "Oh my... should I wait until she calms down?" to which I replied "That *is* her 'calmed down'." Oreo was looking up at me like "What do you feed her...?" and I was just like "Give her a break, I think she's a crack baby."
Nothing bad has ever happened to this gerbil in two years, but she acts like she's constantly tortured or something. I don't know, maybe Oreo whispers terrible things to her when she sleeps and jump-scares her when I'm not looking to keep her on edge. Her first few weeks must have been pretty awful I guess.
