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Post by nixee on Sept 20, 2020 2:02:28 GMT -8
Hello all,
A couple of weeks ago 1 of my 2 girls sadly died. I considered letting the other one stay alone but decided to pair her with a new pup. Right at the end of pairing her, when they were successfuly together and cuddled up, she suddenly died. This was last night and it was horrible. I took her out of the cage before it was happening so it wouldn't stress the new pup out.
The pup is now alone, I have already asked where we got her if we can get another one right away but they are closed on Sundays so I'm worried she will be alone the whole week till we can pick up another one next Saturday.
She is about 7 weeks but I wont know the exact age till tomorrow. She was super attached to the older one and was clinging on to her full time. To make matters worse, they both came home to a new home yesterday.
So she had the stress of the pairing, then car ride home, new cage, new people, new home, then tank mate dying and now maybe alone the whole week and then a new pairing. I'm so worried it's too much.
I'm planning on lavishing her in attention but I tried to take her out to play and she freaked out so I'm giving her some space to adjust now. I think in the shock of the last two days, I was too hasty.
I dont have any experience with pups and I really want to do everything I can to make sure she is okay. I'm going to ask the breeder tomorrow when they're open if we can come after business hours to pick up the new pup.
So my questions are: Is tomorrow too soon for another pairing? Is Saturday too late?
How much should I handle her and how much should I leave her alone? Normally I would have given them at least a week to adjust with minimal gentle handling, but now I'm terrified she will become depressed and lonely.
If I give her lots of toys now, will it affect the new pairing because they will all already be scent marked?
If she's alone the whole week, will it have an affect on her long term development? I don't know how much she'd normally be learning from another gerbil right now.
I haven't seen her drink from the bottle so I gave her a little bowl as backup. Is it normal for baby gerbils to drink so little?
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Post by nixee on Sept 20, 2020 2:06:10 GMT -8
Oh one last question, when I briefly let her out it was only for 10-15 seconds but she was panicked and she started doing a weird thing with her head. She quickly moved it forward and down then up and back a few times, kind of like a turtle. It looked very much like an involuntary neurological effect.
Sound familiar to anyone?
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Post by gerbilord on Sept 20, 2020 2:26:15 GMT -8
I'm so sorry you are going through this. I don't think one week would be too late for pairing, it might be good to wait a week so the pup can grieve for the other gerbil. Just make sure to give her lots of attention - even if she doesn't like being out of her cage you can still talk to her and feed her etc. When you pair the gerbils, take out the toys so they have minimal things to do, then you can introduce them later when the pair have bonded well. gerbils are very secretive in their drinking so might drink when it's very late at night/when you're not around and they are desert animals so don't drink loads of water anyway. I haven't heard of the head thing, maybe someone more experienced like betty , LilyandDaisy or catnut could tell you. Or you can ask a vet if you think there might be something going on, I don't know if they can do any scans/checks but they can probably tell you more than me!
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Post by nixee on Sept 20, 2020 6:43:11 GMT -8
Thank you for your reply gerbilord. She was very active and bouncy yesterday when the adult gerbil was still alive. Today she has mostly been sleeping. I stick my hands in there and talk to her every 2 hours or so, sometimes more often but Im trying to leave her alone if she is sleeping.
Of course my instinct is to take the poor lonely thing and cuddle her to bits all day but I don't think she will like that very much!
She isn't chewing any karton and she also doesn't really make a nest or break up the hay. I was really looking forward to her learning how to do all that from the adult. I hope when she feels more relaxed she will start experimenting.
She also has literally no interest in any snacks, not sunflower seeds or fresh stuff. It's like she doesn't even see them she doesnt sniff them or look at them, just walks over them. Do you think that's normal for a pup? Or is it just because she's not settled in yet
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Post by betty on Sept 20, 2020 10:14:13 GMT -8
Hello there nixee - and cripes - what a story. As said time alone from other gerbils isn't too bad overall so don't panic yourself over it - plenty of chewing will keep a gerbil mind occupied - but as she is so young ideally within the week would be best. So if you can get another pup from the breeder asap (if they were the breeder who you originally got the pup from) then I may well just put them together supervised after just one might on the split. If your pup is only 8 weeks old and the new one is younger, they may well bond very quickly indeed (no guarantees of course but that is often how it works with pups). Fingers crossed all will be well very soon. As for the hed twitching - I'm not sure what to make of that other than to make more detailed notes if it happens again. I wouldn't be too bothered if I t happened once - as we all have weird things happen ocassionally - but if it recurs then certainly come back to us about it in more detail. Ideally write down as much as you can remember about the first time (time of day, what she was doing when it actually happened and what she had done in the 10 minutes or so before - including anything in the room of house that had happened too - as something to compare. I had a weird neurological thing that happened to a few of my young gerbils a few years back from one litter who would get a slight head tic after binge-eating sunflower hearts? No idea why it happened or why it stopped (but thankfully it did!).
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Post by nixee on Sept 21, 2020 1:13:55 GMT -8
Thanks Betty, that is very helpful! I'm about to call the breeder now I will make sure to ask about the ages as well. Maybe I can even get one from the same litter so there will already be familiarity there.
I'm keeping a very close eye on her, she is doing wonderfully since yesterday evening. I think she just needed a very long nap. She is crazy about her wheel and completely unafraid to explore anywhere she can reach and hops on my hand readily.
So I'm no longer as freaked out about her being alone as I was yesterday. They seem to adapt so fast when they're young. My older girl died so unexpectedly and in pain and panic before we could even get to the vet. This pup is making me laugh when I'm crying and is such a joy to watch.
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Post by Markpd on Sept 24, 2020 11:17:45 GMT -8
Sorry to hear about your older gerbil, sounded like a very unpleasant departure . But pups are fun to watch , just wait until you get another one and their settled together, I'm sure they'll do all sort of crazy things! About the head movement thing, maybe you could take a video with a phone and upload it to youtube or similar?
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Post by catnut on Sept 24, 2020 13:52:24 GMT -8
soo sorry the older gerbil passed away just after they bonded, but glad she seems better today, sometimes they just need time to adjust being on their own again and i'm sure once you get another young girl, she will be very happy to have company, although you really should do a 2 week quarantine to make sure this new gerbil is healthy, before split caging, depending on the new gerbil if that will go quick or not. Just spend extra time with her and i'm sure she will be okay until the new one can join her.
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Post by nixee on Sept 25, 2020 14:08:21 GMT -8
Hey all, I've called her Parsnip (previously I've had Pickle, Peanut, Pepper, Pancake and Peach as pets, I'm super original!) and I'm happy to say she is still doing fantastic.
After the first day I haven't seen her afraid once, she is constantly trying to climb out and explore everywhere, has a huge appetite, is running on her wheel alot and loves hopping on my hand already. The only weird thing is that she hardly ever chews, she hasn't touched the carton and nibbled on hay and wood very briefly.
Tomorrow we are picking up another pup and I'm so excited to see them together. I really hope the pairing goes well. They are from the same breeder one week apart, do you think I still have to quarantine them? They will probably even be from the same nest.
I was going to get an 80 gallon tank tomorrow and I just read a ton of threads about how a big cage is not a good idea for a pair. I researched gerbils to bits before my first pair but it never occurred to me to research if a cage can be too big.
Atm I have a 25 gallon but I can barely fit anything in it as it's got platforms. And a very small split tank (9 gallon I think). Will something slightly bigger be ok like 35 to 40gallon? (For example 75*40*50cm) There are platforms but they are wide and there won't be any narrow bridges etc.
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Pim
Member
Posts: 346
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Post by Pim on Sept 25, 2020 16:55:11 GMT -8
Actually some people say that that is true but A declan is most likely to happen because of the moving of cage is stressful not because its too big.Just take it slow especially after a new pairing.
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Post by nixee on Sept 26, 2020 5:45:35 GMT -8
Just brought Turnip home, she was very calm on the way home unlike Parsnip who was a ball of energy.
Parsnip is desperate to make friends, she immediately drops what she's doing and runs to wire as soon as Turnip comes close. She is currently sitting next to the wire chewing hay, chilling and waiting for her chance to have a sniffle together.
Poor Turnip on the other hand is frozen on the far corner of the tank right now, she ran around a bit but besides two quick sniffs she didn't have interest in Parsnip. I know it's for her own good but it feels so mean to not be able to give her someplace to hide or the familiar smell of the tank she grew up in.
Found out today Parsnip is 9,5w and Turnip is 8 but Turnip is slightly bigger.
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Post by nixee on Sept 26, 2020 5:54:28 GMT -8
Tried to post pics but it seems to be very cumbersome on these forums 😢
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Post by LilyandDaisy on Sept 26, 2020 5:59:49 GMT -8
You could get a house (or two) with an open side, and place it next to the mesh. If you have two houses, you can put them next to each other either side of the mesh, so that they hopefully end up sitting next to each other.
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Post by nixee on Sept 26, 2020 6:10:35 GMT -8
The houses I have are too big and closed off for that I think. I'll give Turnip some time to settle in and sleep and swap them around a few times and see how tomorrow goes. If she is still not interested on Monday I can buy two little bridges that are open on both sides so they can easily go in and out and be covered but still be next to each other.
Won't anything I add now make them more inclined to scent mark though and less likely to bond though?
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Post by nixee on Sept 26, 2020 9:32:55 GMT -8
Still early days, only one swap yet but unfortunately today had been less than stellar. They have spent 30 min trying to attack each through the mesh. And then again after the swap but for less time.
I have the time and patience to stick at this for months if need be, but I was secretly hoping that with 2 babies it would be easy.
I wasn't going to give them anything to hide in yet but I think it might be a good idea now to calm them down a bit. It's really hard to see who starts the fighting, they're both equally enthusiastic that's for sure.
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