Reintroduction after a short break

[ps25]

Hi 

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of reintroducing gerbils after they have been apart for a few days? 


I had 3 brothers who are nearly 3 years old.  Last week, I caught them in the start of declanning.  The boss gerbil began attacking his brother who was on antibiotics for an ear infection (I suspect this was the trigger).  I removed the injured gerbil to recover from his wounds and he will finish his antibiotics tomorrow.  He's looking really healthy and happy now but obviously lonely.  That left boss gerbil and the 3rd brother together and they seemed OK with the new arrangement.  Sadly, boss gerbil passed away last night.  It wasnt unexpected, he had been slowing down for some time.  But the timing really sucks.  I now have two former cage mates who have been separated for 5 days that I'd like to re-introduce back together.  Any idea if they will remember each other and go back together?  But without boss gerbil around, I guess they will need to figure out a new pecking order.  So maybe it would be safest to treat this as a completely new introduction and do the whole split cage thing with them?

Thanks

[Thelodar]

So sorry for your loss 😔
In your situation I would still do a split. They likely won't remember each other after being apart for this long. It might be a brief split, but better safe than sorry.

I hope you get them to be buddies again!

[ps25]

I decided to play it safe and do a full split cage re-introduction. I figure theres no need to rush things, especially with all the additional complications of antibiotics, illness, wounds and all the recent changes to their clan.

But I would still be interested to hear of anyone else's experience of doing re-introductions after a short break. I am curious about how long the gerbils "clan memory" (i.e. who is in the clan, who is not) lasts for....

[Pim]

It is mostly dependent on smell when the gerbil loses the smell of the clan they can't tell that he used to be part of the clan.

edit: this is meaning if they were seperated without there ever being a declan

[betty]

Yes, reintroducing after a break usually depends on how much of a declan occured in the first place and who it was between.

Sounds like with your case - these weren't the two that were fighting - basically you had the potential new boss and the lone bystander (your older guy was the existing boss). Usually you leave the lone bystander with one of either the old boss or the new boss - depending on your preference.

So all you have done is swapped one boss for the other with a slight delay - which hopefully won't be an issue with a full split intro.

[ps25]

Update - I set up the split cage after the 5 days of separation. The two boys were very friendly towards each other through the split, with no signs of stress or aggression. If things had been normal, I might have been tempted to let them meet properly. However, I am glad I waited a week in the split tank. When I did remove the barrier, they immediately rushed to groom each other and soon settled down to nap together, which I took as a good sign. But it wasnt so straight forward. The one that had had the ear infection was still suffering from some balance problems and later he toppled over. This sudden movement caused some alarm and an instant tussle. This happened several times and each time the stress went up. Fortunately, after a brief time out and some cardboard distraction, they settled down again and have now spent the night together.

So - I think a quick reintroduction after a 5 day separation might've been possible with these two. But with the added complications from the ear infection made it was all a bit more tricky.

[betty]

That is great news - and I hope that his balance doesn't cause too much trouble again in the clan.

If there is anything you notice that causes him grief in particular - perhaps you can design it out of the enclosure so that is reduced nicely for him (and them potentially).

Phew.