Scrawny Gerbil

[Thelodar]

I purchased Eliza and Felicity back in mid July. They were almost 7 weeks old, born 5/29. As soon as I saw them I was shocked at their size. I had another gerbil at home about the same age and he was strikingly larger. But also male and a singleton in his litter, so I wasn't sure if mine was big or these were small. I weighed one of them (don't remember which) at the time and she weighed 28 grams. My male weighed 48 grams. I posted about them on a gerbil facebook group and it was suggested they may have been fed a poor quality food at the breeder's, as they did look runty to them. So I hoped with improved nutrition they would grow and thrive.

Then in August they developed very red noses. I changed bedding and they continued to worsen. The burmese, Felicity also continued to concern me with her body condition. Eliza is also small compared to other gerbils, but more filled out. I also found their stool to be quite small and dry. So we went to the vet on 08/19. The vet didn't think they had bad body condition, but I also don't know how many gerbils she's seen. They were given an antibiotic ointment for the noses which cleared that issue right up. Felicity weighed 46 grams, Eliza weighed 52 grams (at nearly 12 weeks).

Fast forward to today. Felicity still concerns me. Today at 18 weeks Felicity weighs 52 grams and Eliza weighs 57. So yes, they are growing. Eliza does not concern me. Yes, she's small for an adult gerbil, but she feels more plump and sturdy in my hand. There is just something about Felicity that looks sickly to me. I rarely see her show interest in food. I feed them every night and almost never see her pick up food. Sometimes she'll pick something up and run it underground then reappear quickly, like she stored it. I have been watching more carefully and did see her eat an unshelled sunny and a pumpkin seed the other night, so she CAN eat. I have also started offering critical care which she sniffs and then ignores. Her teeth are great. As of today her eyes are leaking porphyrin. Not sure if it's the hay I gave her a few days ago, she needs a bedding change, or she's not well. They are obviously sensitive given the nose reactions they had back in August and they are due for a bedding change. So hopefully that's all it is.

Behaviorally she's super active, like insanely active. Hours and hours of chewing and digging. I assume she sleeps but wakes as soon as she hears me enter the room. If not occupied with toys/cardboard she will start leaping at the lid of the tank. When I lift her up she does this weird digging in my hands. Mind you, she willingly jumps onto my hand and is not being restrained. I can have her in an open flat hand and she'll scratch at it with her front feet. Not sure if she's just trying to figure out if she can dig into my hand or if maybe she's hungry and looking for food? It's just different, and she does it repeatedly. Her coat is also odd. I figured it was just a patchy molt but it's been sticking around. I'm afraid it could be stress coat...not sure. She has darker fur on her torso on each side, a big patch.


All this is to say that I'm not sure if I'm crazy or should be worried lol. I mean she's been this scrawny thing all along and is still with us. She's not emaciated...just tiny and I don't know...frail looking. If it was some sort of failure to thrive I feel like she'd be gone by now. When I look at photos she doesn't look quite as bad as she appears to me which makes me think I'm imagining things. Any ideas for other things that could cause a young gerbil to be scrawny (without being lethargic)? Any suggestions for beefing her up? In addition to offering critical care I tried offering nutrical which she ignores. I offer nuts and seeds but she has little interest. I've considered going back to the vet, but feel like they're not going to have much in the way of suggestions for me. I haven't had great luck with vets and gerbils, they don't see many.


Here are photos, what do you think? The photos above the white tote lid are from today, the photos in the playpen on the gray/white sheet are from about 2 weeks ago.

[LilyandDaisy]

She sounds a lot like my Lily (scrawny, insanely active, including jumping at the tank lid, and uninterested in eating food, but loves hoarding). I used to give Lily extra fatty seeds, mealworms, nuts, the occasional bit of cheese. It always seemed like she must have burnt off any extra calories I gave her though, she was just so hyperactive. This was her at 8 months old. The camera angle exaggerates her a bones a little, but not much.


At about a year old she finally filled out and calmed down quite a bit too.

Do yours have physically small frames, or are they normal size but thin?

[Markpd]

She just looks very cute to me (sorry nothing useful to add really! lol).

[tanzanyte]

She looks beautiful! If she was the runt of the litter she may well stay a lot smaller than her sister. Hopefully she is just burning all the energy off. One of our gerbils has always been scrawnier than her sister and has only put weight on in her old age.

[catnut]

Felicity does seem quite thin but if she is very active, she will burn calories faster, i would just keep tempting her with treats, esp. more fatty ones and see if she likes oats (dry or you can wet them abit) as that may help her gain weight. I had two small burmese girls, my Sophie was always thinner but was healthy, although she wasn't very active. Try any safe foods for gerbils and see what she likes. What brand of food do you feed her? maybe try another brand if you can that has more fat content in it. Also, put in two bowls and also food in different areas of her home as some gerbils prefer to not eat out of a dish. Good luck with her. Take care, Tammy

[tanzanyte]

I forgot to say, we would mix up the treats and give Vanilla things like walnuts, baby food pouches, half a nibblot etc along with the usual sunflower, thistle and pumpkin seeds. Gradually we managed to get her weight up to something more normal.

[jal]

One of my gerbils was underweight but is teeny as well as skinny. Scatter feeding really helped her put weight on. I think she just wasn't eating much from the food dish for whatever reason. I also try to sneak her the odd extra pumpkin or shelled sunflower seed when her sister isn't looking which also helped a lot. Unfortunately, her sister has a sixth sense where food is concerned and even in her old age is like a greyhound out of a trap if she senses a treat! She's a little heavy if anything so it was tricky as I sometimes ended up giving her a treat too. I found it best to mainly give the underweight gerbil treats outside the tank. It's trial and error to see what works best with your gerbils.

[Thelodar]

I wanted to go ahead and update this thread as Felicity continues to puzzle me. She is still scrawny, 57 grams. She is just "off" to me. It's slight enough that it's hard to explain. Her eyes are often held just a touch squinty compared to a normal gerbil. The way she walks is sometimes just slightly clumsy, almost like a person walking across a bed. Not exactly stumbling, just a little off. The scratching at my hand is still weird to me. Even if I'm not holding her, but just place my hand in the tank, she starts scratching it as soon as she gets to it. At one point about a month ago she started loosing point color on her back feet (it's come back though). One of the strangest things is that she rarely startles and when she does her reaction is mild, she'll either react like a startled human (involuntary body jump) or dart a few steps and then immediately go back to normal. She almost never actually runs back into her tunnels. Even if her sister is out with her and bolts, which in most gerbils would cause the companion to bolt, she acts like nothing happened. I have NEVER had to chase her around to catch her to pick her up, it's 100% easy scoop with no avoidance.

I've determined that she has trouble eating some things. She can no longer eat seeds with shells. If I unshell them she eats them readily. But she can still eat somewhat tough things, like dried fruit. She barely makes a dent in thin cardboard or packing paper (neither does her sister for that matter). A TP tube doesn't get touched. I've looked at her teeth and they are all there, straight, and a proper length. So it must be a jaw strength thing? She also takes a very long time to eat, both in the amount of time she forages the bedding for food, and in how long it actually takes her to consume an item. That said she is not desperate, because when I offer critical care she shows no interest. Or perhaps she's just used to being hungry at this point.
I've also started to consider that she may have vision problems, perhaps being entirely blind. This is a recent consideration, so I've just started looking for clues. I'm not entirely sure how to test her. But it would explain some of the behaviors. You'd think she would startle easier without vision but perhaps the world is less scary when you don't know how big it is?

Anyway that's where I'm at with my strange little gerbil. Any ideas on how to test for blindness?

[catnut]

Glad to hear Felicity is still here but i would be worried too if she was my gerbil- she could just be a picky eater and just try her with different safe gerbil foods to see what she likes to eat, you can also buy raw sunnies in bulk so you don't need to shell them for her. Have you tried her with a small box, like a jello box with the glue parts taken off- my Theo doesn't seem to like tubes but will do small pieces of cardboard, he's not a big chewer either. i don't know about how to check for blindness except maybe put her fave treat in your hand a foot or so and see if she comes for it? maybe try your hand infront of her eyes and see if she blinks or moves away? Is there an exotic vet near you? they may know more about gerbils. Take care and as long as she eats enough and is active, try not to worry too much.

[londongerbils]

Sorry to hear you are worried about her. One small piece of advice I have is that she might really like sunflower hearts like the kind you can get for birds. Theyre already shelled, very small to eat and contain the fattiest and most nutritious part of the seed.

[tanzanyte]

Bless her, she sounds like such a little cutie. It doesn't seem to be a stretch for it to be vision problems. I know they haven't got the greatest vision anyway, but they can usually tell when they're going to get scooped up.

Have you tried her with some baby food fruit or veg pouches if she is having difficulty eating? They are a lot nicer than the critical care mix and as she is taking some other seeds etc it may help supplement a little.

Out of interest how much does Eliza weigh now? Has she put more weight on so that there is a larger difference between her and Felicity?

[Thelodar]

I've been making an effort to offer more items that I know she can eat and am monitoring her weight to see if it helps. Might not be the most balanced diet though. Her sister is actually a normal gerbil weight, like 75 grams.

I took some videos of her being her, including her struggling to eat a peanut. Watching the videos it actually looks like holding the peanut is the hard part moreso than chewing it.

flic.kr/p/2kVPQYv

flic.kr/p/2kVPTGM

flic.kr/p/2kVTsBC

[betty]

She appears to have something wrong with her overall coordination?

How long has her movement been like that with the back legs? Is it only recent?

[betty]

Also Thelodar, I suggest you lower the substrate to almost flat and start feeding 'hospital' food that she doesn't need her hands for - things she can lap up (baby food, almond flour or similar crushed nuts or (shucked) seeds, scrambled egg, formula) until you notice an improvement in her stability.

Not sure what would cause this if it has been a while - but if it is sudden - she may have had a stroke or seizure.

[Thelodar]

It's not new, she's never been completely normal and I could never put my finger on it. But she seems to have gotten progressively worse, but no sudden change. I'm concerned that her sister has become more dominant lately. She mounts her far too often and has started peeing on her while mounting. When they were little Felicity was dominant. They're in the 40 gallon tank because they're my only pair, everyone else is single, but I could move them to a 20 gallon. Eating is the big thing that concerns me. I've been offering rehydrated ground up pellets. She never shows interest when I give it, but it's gone in the morning, so someone's eating them.