Hey there!!
LOL!
-snicker-
That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!
I'm sorry you had to go through that confusion. Pet store employees, its amazing the things they try to tell people when they really don't know.
If they are already together and same sex pair, then as they grow up together, come around 10 to 12 weeks of age is when gerbils are considered adults.
BUT, they start into learning adult behavior and working out their hierarchy at around 8 weeks of age.
Now, they pretty much might have already established this, but if they haven't, then you will see some tousling, play boxing, one maybe pouncing and flipping the other over, etc.
This is not concerning behavior to separate them, but do keep an eye on them. They will work this out themselves.
With ANY pair at any time for any reason, they can de-clan, but if kept in pairs this is greatly minimized. And there are things you can do to try to keep that from happening.
It doesn't happen often with pairs.
As always, FEMALES are more touchy than MALES, so keep that in mind.
Gerbils.. do NOT "Eat" each other. Alive anyway.
HOWEVER.. if there has been a death and the body has not been removed from the cage in a "timely" manner.
Then they will start handling the problem themselves in order not to "Attract predators to the home burrow".
But one or a pair cannot "eat" a whole body in captivity and so portions will be eaten. It's up to us to handle the matter.
In the wild, a social group will handle the problem or the body will get drug away far from the burrow to let other animals find.
Or.. if a mother gerbil has a pup pass away, she will, again, handle the issue for the same reason if the body isn't found and removed.
This is natural behavior.
Only other thing I have ever seen is a mother attacking her otherwise healthy pups starting at 10 days old for some reason, and wounding them on the belly, back, and hind legs.. but this is not "eating" them. I'm still not quite sure why this happens with some random mothers.
Hope this helps!
