Gerbils Fighting

[Eli]

I'm hoping for some advice, I came home today to two of my clan of three gerbils attacking one another and I'm not too sure what to do.

All three have been living happily together for the past few months with no problem. My original gerbil Tom, lost his brother a few months ago and he was introduced to two six weeks old male gerbils who he took to straight away, Junior and Jasper.

I haven't had a single issue with them up until today.

I'm still not quite sure who the initiated the attack, but I have a feeling it may have been Junior. Both Junior and Jasper are now just over 6 months old and Junior is almost the same size as Tom, so Im sure it was a challenge for dominance. Jasper appears to have stayed out of the fight and is completely unscathed, but Tom is pretty beat up with bites to his neck, shoulder and legs. Junior has a couple of small cuts on his shoulder but that's about it - which again leads me to believe that he was the attacker as I would have expected more severe wounds if he was the one being attacked.

I have separated Junior off from Tom and Jasper using the cage within a cage method (haven't had chance to create a divider yet for split cage), following the advice from some other gerbil lovers to separate off the attacker.I'm also planning on swapping them a few times a day so they are still used to each other scent.

Do you guys think that they will ever be able to live together again, and if so how long would you recommend leaving them split before trying some sort of intro? I.e. remove divider, neutral territory etc

[tuftsnfluff]

Hey there!

It's always a better idea to try to introduce only one gerbil pup to an adult gerbil.
Where you hear about trios and foursomes, mostly males, able to remain together till passing away of old age happening successfully – majority of the time it ends up in Declanning.

It's easier to keep gerbils in big same sex groups when they are pups..because they are babies, young, and don't really know any different.
It's when they hit that 10 to 12 weeks "becoming an adult" stage when it usually starts to break down and instinct begins to kick in to do what they would naturally do.

Many times the situation is fine for a few months, but then as the pups get older and grow to adult size, that's when the situation starts to break down. 

It is always BEST to keep gerbils in PAIRS, regardless of sex.

The only time I would recommend more than a pair of gerbils in a tank larger than 30 gallon tank is if you were going to make a permanent split out of the tank.
In this case, I would use a solid plexi-glass divider or some 1/2 inch thick divider that they cannot smell or touch through so that each side seems like its own "enclosure".
This way you could keep two pairs, one on each side, in one tank.
They even have reptile black mesh lids that are hinged in the middle so you can open one side safely without having to open the other side.

Look, all in all, we have to remember, it isn't UP to US.
It is based on them -- their personality, their instincts, and the structure of their society.
I keep telling people it is always best to keep them in pairs and I know they are wonderful, curious, fun loving little fur-balls we’d love to have more of, but we also need to be responsible in following the rules of their society and in just how many tanks we can keep and ethically care for.

Majority of the time, we just cannot make them do what is not in their nature to do.
They are social, yes, many times a lone gerbil would 10 to 1 want to have a buddy; but a “burrow-type” social society is not a whole family clan piled up on top of each other in one big, huge burrow for gerbils.
It is a structured tunnel system with smaller burrows separated out a good distance from one another and either a large burrow for neutral ground or above ground being neutral ground.

Where trios and foursomes can work - and I've ONLY had ONE foursome of males work out to old age in 10+ years of gerbil ownership and breeding – this really isn’t the “normal” for their society.
Pairs are really just the BEST way for keeping physically, and mentally happy, pet gerbils!

My recommendation is to keep Tom and Jasper together, remove Junior and let him remain alone for a bit to settle down -- a few days or even weeks.

Then, if you can, get him a younger male buddy about 6 weeks old to introduce by the split tank method.

I hope this is helpful!