Introducing female to neutered male

[londongerbils]

Hello again!

I have finally managed to rehome a single gerbil from an animal shelter to introduce to my 1 year old female. He is 2 years old and neutered. I have only introduced adult female to female pup before, can I expect the split tank introduction to go differently between an adult female and adult male?

Any advice would be really helpful. Thank you.

[betty]

Yay.

Have you started already londongerbils? I usually find that male-female adult intros aren't too bad (only had one that didn't work out of loads).

Usually you start the split as usual and it is all down to either the male being grumpy or the female coming into heat, often you don't even see the former.

For me, often the female is defensive at the start, and then turns to mush during a season - however without his hormones being 100% intact this might not work so fast depending on his interest level in just her 'love' signals? But I am sure - given the loving nature of male gerbils - he will soon fall for her charms...

Just so you know, neutered males (and infertile females) may still mate regularly - so there is that 'arghh' - and fingers crossed moment every time you see it.

[londongerbils]

This sounds promising then. I haven’t started yet, I pick him up on Saturday.

Thank you for warning me, my little female is quite skittish anyway so I’ll prepare for her defensiveness.

Oh no, i didn’t realise they’d still attempt to mate! have you ever heard of a neutered male getting a female pregnant unexpectedly?!

[LilyandDaisy]

My pair don't mate. Well, the female tries but the male isn't interested. But I have heard of cases where a neutered male and female continued to mate, but those seemed to be cases where they were a breeding pair before the male was neutered, so perhaps it depends on the male's previous experience?

There is a period after neutering when a male still has viable sperm and can impregnate a female. For rats they say to wait 3 weeks to be safe, so that's what I would go with for gerbils. As long as it's been that long by the time you remove the split cage divider and the surgery was successful I wouldn't think there's any chance of a pregnancy.

[londongerbils]

What a relief!

The shelter did say that they were waiting until a few weeks after his op for me to take him home and now I see why!

[betty]

Ha ha yes - if it is a fresh snip - beware!!!

[londongerbils]

Sorry, a few more questions!

How long can I expect the split to take? Female to female took me four weeks! Obviously I realise it will vary from pair to pair.

Also, does it matter when I introduce them without the divider, eg when the female is or isn’t on heat, or won’t it matter? My little girl is a year old, but she’s so small, I find it impossible to tell when she’s on heat! It’s much easier with my bigger girls.

Also, when I introduced my females without the divider, there was a lot of mounting/laying down to establish dominance, then they were fine. Can I expect this to happen with a female/male?

[betty]

It should be quicker with a male and female pairing - and even though 'it won't matter' that she is in heat biologically - it could be important psychologically. If she is showing all the signs and he responds to them it will totally matter to how well they could bond.

As for seeing the heat - it may well be more pronounced if she actually had a man standing there in front of her. And if she is on her own with no influence from anyone else, and you are watching her more closely - you may well see the signs more easily.

It will be different depending on her heat/his reaction to her heat - but you may just notice either her displaying to him and him reacting to that (either by ignoring her or courting her) or her not being in heat and perhaps trying to appease him (hiding from his advances and chirping at him while standing still).

I have never introduced a neutered male to a female - so I am only assuming it would be like an unneutered pairing - but I have no idea in reality. Sorry.