Declanned sisters? - living arrangements?

[bryonyr]

Hello everyone, first time poster and new to keeping gerbils. We've had Daisy and Jackie for just over a year, so they're probably c. 1year 3-4months old. Jackie has always been dominant and Daisy more nervy, but they seemed happy enough together until last weekend when Jackie started chasing Daisy aggressively; Daisy was jumping to get out of the way and once or twice they were rolling around -no death ball, and no blood, but it seemed best to separate them, so we've set up a split cage, swapping them over every day. Since then they've been showing a bit of interest in each other through the mesh, but Jackie (true to character) is much more active and seems to be digging and scratching to try to get at Daisy, while Daisy seems to spend a lot of time just watching Jackie or in parts of the cage where she can't see/be seen. All this makes me think that a reintroduction is unlikely to succeed.

So my question is a) is my instinct right? - my eight-year-old daughter whose gerbils they notionally are is scared of reintroducing them! - and b) if we do decide they have to live apart, should we give them separate cages away from each other? I'm concerned that just being near Jackie might be making Daisy anxious and she'd be happier completely away from Jackie - though it may be that Jackie misses having someone to be top dog around

Any advice gratefully received. The tank/cage they were in, which we've split diagonally, is a c. 25 gallon tank with a similar size wire topper.

[Pim]

I'm not sure but I think if you can handle a re-introduction then it never hurts to try just be very cautious. doesn't seem to me like they are likely to fail from your description but that might just be because i haven't seen them. If you do separate them it is not great to keep them alone so you would either need two new ones to intro to them or you could keep them in a permanent split. but i would recommend getting a bigger cage if you do a permanent split.

[bryonyr]

Thanks Pim maybe we should give it a shot - I'm just a bit terrified by all the talk of badly injured gerbils, and I know my daughter would be so upset if anything happened. I gather we would need to keep an eye on them closely for several hours while they get used to each other again - or not! -and then of course just keep an eye out in general.

[Pim]

Yes you probably would need to spend the day watching them! then leave them in the tank with only a bit of bedding for another two days with two water bottles and scatter fed food. You can give them a hide but make sure it has two entrances so they don't get stuck if they get chased. Then after two days of no aggression you can start to put more things in.