Blake's been tricking me!!

[Markpd]

So my buddies have long since gotten used to getting a few treats from me each day, they've even recently started to come to the front of the tank ready to get them .

Anyway, Blake seems to be a bit clumsy sometimes and occasionally drops his treat, added to which he seems to have a poor sense of smell and sometimes can't find the treat (nor can I), so of course I don't want him to go without so I give him another one. This has been happening occasionally since I've had them from the beginning of last month. Then a week or so ago he dropped one again, and I thought, not again! lol, Only this time I didn't have a spare treat to hand, and for some reason I delayed getting it for a moment. He then ran into the entrance of their burrow and  I noticed the distinct sound of him splitting open a sunflower seed, where did he get that from!? I suspected what he'd done but didn't confirm until next time he 'dropped' one.

What was actually happening was that he would in a flash put the seed straight in his mouth and then sniff around the ground as if he'd dropped it! The sneaky bugger had figured a way to scam me into giving him an extra sunflower seed!! lol

I had no idea that Gerbils could be so devious!

I've known for a while that Blake was the faster learner, but this takes it to a whole new level! 

Congrats to Blake , btw his weight is ok I believe, he's 70g and Avon is 74g (as of today).

Anyone else got sneaky Gerbil tales??

[LilyandDaisy]

This is hilarious! I would love to see a video of it.

Once when Lily and Daisy were free roaming, Daisy found some millet which had fallen into a corner earlier in the day. After eating for a few minutes, she left. Then Lily started running towards the corner. She didn't know about the millet, she was just exploring. Daisy came running along, blocked her path and physically pushed her out the way so she didn't find the millet. I don't think Lily ever found out what was so special about that corner because I removed the millet before Daisy got too territorial about it.

In this video Daisy sits on the sliding toy, I suspect to stop Lily pushing it to find the treat. I also really want to believe that closing the lid on Lily's tail at 5:45 was deliberate, but I think that kind of malice is probably beyond a gerbil!

I sometimes hand feed my gerbils a millet spray and they have been known to snatch the whole thing out of my hand and hide it underground if I get distracted for a moment.

And yet at other times gerbils can be so simple minded. I once watched a gerbil sitting on top of a coconut hanging from the lid with a string, chewing through the string. Of course she fell to the ground with the coconut. Lily went through a phase where she was obsessed with jumping into the bin. If it had enough in it, she could jump back out, but if it was empty she couldn't (I'm not really sure why, it was the exactly same height to jump into the bin as to jump out), so she just used to stand there looking stressed until I rescued her. Then she would jump back in again, and again, and again. As if in those few seconds the bin might have filled up enough that she could get back out again.

[yeti218]

This is so funny.

Mine don't seem to be that smart, but i dont mind having a simple pet.

I also have a husky, so thats my quota filled on smart, sneaky pets.

[Markpd]

Yea I'd like to catch a video of it too , atm I've been clearing space on my phone as it's nearly full! In part with Gerbil videos and photos but a lot of general stuff too, it's slow tedious work!

Lol at lily and daisy's antics! (I must get some millet spray......I wonder why the call it spray?? Why not head?).

Husky's singing makes me laugh

[betty]

My jirds do this without the pretence - basically keep feeding me until I can't fit anymore in my mouth!

I think 5 is the most so far before they start falling out the sides.

Bet they wish they had pouches...

[Markpd]

Yea I bet , I wonder why cheek pouches only evolved in Hamsters?

Forgot to mention, catching Blake at it is going to be tricky I think, I do want to catch it though!

[LilyandDaisy]

I read that hamsters have pouches because they live in colder environments with harsher winters so need to store more food. Gerbils tend to come from hotter, desert environments (not so much Mongolians but most other species). This is why there are wild hamsters in Europe but no wild gerbils, and gerbils in Africa but no hamsters.

[Markpd]

Makes sense, longer periods without much food to forage I guess.

[Markpd]

Blake's done it again! Actually he has done it several times over the past month+ (sadly still no video, even when I remember it's tricky to capture), but this one is a new variant.

So it was treat time for them earlier, I started with a mealworm, I gave the 1st one to Avon and then quickly gave Blake his one, I turned away for a moment and then when I looked back I saw Avon sniffing around and he wasn't eating. I thought he couldn't have finished it already, so I looked around where he was, no meal worm, then I looked over to Blake who was merrily munching away on 1, .....and he had another one just beneath him! Somehow he'd stolen Avon's mealworm, I didn't see it and neither did Avon! lol Of course I gave Avon 2, I couldn't let my baby go without .

Blake is turning out to be quite the character....sneaky character! lol, I'll have to keep my eyes on him!

I also really want to capture the sniffing around trick that Blake still does from time to time after being fed, really needs 2 people though, which can't happen with lockdown rules atm.

[Markpd]

LilyandDaisy

I partially caught him being a little bit sneaky in this video where I was weighing him, you just see just after he's grabbed a seed (at 39s) he comes to me for another one and then sniffs around as if he's lost it, which sadly you can't see that bit (didn't work anyway with no substrate there! lol).

[LilyandDaisy]

Very cute. He's smart, and smart gerbils are fun to own! Rocket and Daisy are both quite clever. Lily is selectively intelligent. She's amazing at working out how to get my attention, or how to climb around the room, but won't usually learn any tricks from me. Storm is very cute but I don't think he would win any intelligence prizes.

Perhaps you could try to get Blake to put his intelligence to good use with some puzzle toys? I have this one and this one.

[Markpd]

Lol re Storm, I think Avon's in that department .

I remember you mentioning puzzles before, I'll check them out .
Although Blake seems to have a very poor sense of smell, neither of them noticed the treats and food I'd put in the egg box for well over a week! It was only when it got in the way they started to chew it and then realise their is food in it! lol

[Markpd]

Just bought them both , I got the living world one a £1 cheaper from ebay .

[LilyandDaisy]

I don't think they use their sense of smell much with these toys. You do have to demonstrate them and show them where the treat is before they're interested.

I'll be interested to hear how they get on.

[Markpd]

Will let you know (we need a thumbsup smiley!)