Gerbil siblings

[londongerbils]

Hi, just a quick question out of curiosity.

if a gerbil births a litter and then the pups are split into gender groups after they’re a bit older, will the pups get along together as a group of 3 or 4 females or 3 or 4 males together in one tank without their being de-clan issues later down the line? 

[sandybadlands]

If you've got a group of four, everyone will probably be happier and safer if you eventually split them into pairs. But I've had several groups of three males live happily together without issue...females are trickier, since they are quicker to declan.

If it were me and I ended up with a group of three, I'd watch them closely as they grew up and separate them if they showed any signs of fighting. If you end up with an odd gerb out, you can always try to find them a new friend.

[tuftsnfluff]

Hey there!

Agreement what Sandy said!

Far as gerbils are concerned, its most LIKELY they will get along BETTER if they are siblings and grew up together.... but I can tell you honestly, gerbils really just don't care.

They can start to not get along at ANY time.  

I just had two pairs of female siblings Declan. 

One was yesterday and the other pair, the day before.  

They had been together quite happily and suddenly...  nope, not having it.

   

Only thing I can think of was perhaps the stress of moving.  I really don't know.  But everyone else is doing fine, male and female pairs alike.

Ugh -- females.

Anywho, again putting them in pairs will always be your best bet, and even then, its not 100% guaranteed.

[londongerbils]

Thanks for this insight. I didn’t know whether being siblings would make a difference.

With regards to tuftsnfluff’s pairs... It can’t be a coincidence to have 2 pairs de-clan in 2 days?! Is that why you’re putting it down to moving? So unfortunate!

[tuftsnfluff]

Aug 13, 2019 12:38:57 GMT -8 londongerbils said:

Thanks for this insight. I didn’t know whether being siblings would make a difference.

With regards to tuftsnfluff’s pairs... It can’t be a coincidence to have 2 pairs de-clan in 2 days?! Is that why you’re putting it down to moving? So unfortunate!

I've honestly no idea.   One pair has been together longer and were purchased already together at 6 weeks old and siblings.

They've been together for least 5 months and now suddenly de-clanned a 9 days after we moved.

The second pair was a pet store loner and one of my own hand raised pups.  They were introduced by bathtub method and watched over for about an hour.

When they got into the tank, 2 hours later they were tousling so I split caged them for 5 weeks.   They got together, been together for 3 months.. and de-clanned Monday night only 11 days after we moved.

Weirdest thing.   I rarely if ever have pairs Declan.

Only thing I can think of is the move.   But I can't be certain.

[Rockstar Gerbil Clan]

This could be a little confirmation bias, but I just got done introducing two male pups to a pair of declanned brothers, for their owners. So I set them up with friends in nice happy pairs, split them and observed them for 2-3 weeks before giving them back.

The new owner is a friend of mine, so I helped set up their new tanks in their new home and definitely observed a change in the gerbils behaviour when they got into the new environment. I watch my gerbils A LOT because they are in my living area (and I just like watching them), and I definitely noticed the pairs suddenly start to scuffle and wrestle a bit more after the move. There has been no declanning as such, but they definitely got testy with each other. Almost as if to say “new place, new rules!”.

[gerbilbo]

Maybe the safest option in a new environement is to start with nearly no buildings and toys, just the basics (water/food), substrate, paper towels for nest building and add the other stuff slowly one by one over many days, which is recommended for introducing two unfamiliar gerbils as well. Therefore there won´t be debatable territory. May this have been a contributing factor?

Aug 14, 2019 19:58:15 GMT -8 Rockstar Gerbil Clan said:

so I helped set up their new tanks in their new home and definitely observed a change in the gerbils behaviour when they got into the new environment. [...]  Almost as if to say “new place, new rules!”.

[tuftsnfluff]

Well in my case, the gerbils in my Kennel were never removed from their tanks. 

It was us moving them from our home to another home.

In fact, everyone's been in the same home tanks since being placed within them.  

Now, so far, we haven't had anymore issues.  

Just these two pairs of females declanning for seemingly no other reason than our move.

Once we get a little more settled, we'll see how many loners we have and then go about split tanking different ones together.