Male gerbil trying to mate with other male (not dominance)

[alexs]

Hello! I would like some advice because one my gerbil started to act strangely recently:

I have two male gerbils, they are 1 year old. They were adopted from a breeder, they are in perfect health, and they pretty large habitat (60 Gallons)

We had them since last October (this is our second pair) and everything is going super well, they are getting along well! Its hard to say who is the dominant tho

But recently (like a month ago), one of the two gerbil (the smaller one, if that matters) started to act very annoyingly: Every single day, especially during the evening he will try to mount the other male gerbil incessantly. We thought it was a simple dominance thing, but after looking more carefully, the one that mounts the other really look like it trying to mate:

-He humps the other for a few sec and then stop, and repeat this over and over

-The other one squeak because he is annoyed

-The back fur of the one getting humped become all fuzzy and weird. Some patches of fur get all sticky when this happens...like clumps of wet fur His fur gets back to normal the day after

-The one that humps keeps grooming his penis (not his scent gland) between two humping sessions, and it seems pretty erect. He sometime thumps his feet like he is excited (different from scared)

This chasing and humping happens every evening now, sometimes multiple times a day. Sure, is nothing major, we observe to make sure it doesn't evolve into a fight, but it's seems to be very annoying for the other (he keeps squeaking in disagreement).

We tried to think about anything that could have changed in the habitat or the room, but we didn't introduce any new odor, bedding change or anything...

So, is my gerbil too horny ? I really don't want it to get to a point where I need to split them up...I was reading some stuff about neutering/castrating gerbil, its true that this gerbil has always been very very energetic, but is this even something that could be considered?

Thanks a lot, sorry if this is a dumb post

go to horny jail!!!

[alexs]

Bumping this, its still going on, nothing has changed

[betty]

He does indeed just sound like he needs to 'do this' endlessly - potentially due to his hormones rather than thorough choice. I have seen this happen infrequently in pairings and at a low rate it didn't seem to affect the clan.

However, full time it might be of concern just because of the annoyance of it (and noone want to groom THAT off with your own tongue). Nothing you can do to stop it if he wants to do it - but you can certainly keep any eye on the victims tolerance level of it.

I wonder though if distraction might work. Obviously if this male is trying to proive his maleness - then perhaps offering him new things regularly might wear him out scent marking them. I have no idea if this will help - but if he is let out in a small run with say a dish, or wooden platform that is clean - he may well scent mark all over it over say 20 minutes - then when he goes back in to the enclosure he may well have 'satisfied' himself enough to not hump the other. It could however increase it? I would certainly consider wearing him out in some way to see if that helps.

[alexs]

Thanks! Acutally Ive just found out something troubling just today:

I saw a bit of red liquid on the ground while he was in a playpen, and i checked him: he had a bit of red liquid (not sure if its blood, its a bit too clear) on his penis

Might be blood in the urine (infection?) or maybe the blood is coming directly from his penis (because he is grooming it a lot, maybe he has a small bleeding wound, hard to say)

Gonna take a a vet appointment ASAP, hope he is gonna be alright

[betty]

Oh no - perhaps it is all linked - either the excessive humping has damaged it somehow - or it was irritated before (or he had internal discomfort that he didn't understand somehow) and was interpreted as 'hump something'.

Poor thing. Let's hope it clears up after a course of treatment.

[Markpd]

Fingers crossed, keep us posted.

[alexs]

Update:

The vet didnt see anything special, we even did a radio in case. Just to be sure the vet gave us antibotics and anti inflammatory for two weeks, which Im currently giving him!

But just today while playing outside in their playpen, we saw the little guy pee a big dark red puddle! We look at it closely, his butt area was all stained too...From what I gathered on the internet this seems to be a Urinary tract infection? (UTI) The pee was a dark red, and very smelly.

Does anyone know if the antibiotics the vet gave me (Meloxicam) will help for that? Im trying to buy some natural cranberry juice ASAP to help also (maybe give him a little of it, diluted in water). The vet I go to is always packed and Its super hard to get an appointement, I cant go before at least two weeks

And he is still humping his cage mate every night, Im started to wonder if all of this is related like you said Betty...I will keep you posted, thanks you for answering !

[alexs]

(sad) Update:

This morning, i saw him very lethargic in a corner...I checked him and he had pink swollen spots under the testicles. I took him To the urgency, a vet that we trust a lot could check him, and found a big hard mass in is belly

Apparently he had a tumor in his bladder, prostate or somewhere around. Being internal it was too risky to remove (we would have done it if there was a real chance), and it felt too cruel to bring him home with painkillers as he was just not feeling well and suffering
We put him down as it was best for him, he was very young so it was hard (only 1.5 years), I guess he got very unluncky

Hoping this thread may help others! In the end everything was probably related: his cancer tumor must have been growing and felt unconfortable for a while. He started humping the other probably thinking it could help...Then the red urine was probably a sign of the tumor growing


Now we have to decide what to for his cagemate! He is a little younger than 2yr old, he might be too young to live alone. we will try to look for a solo gerbil around the same age for adoption and try to introduce them together

[Markpd]

Oh sorry to hear that, and yea that is young, I guess he got unlucky with the gene lottery .

Thanks for reporting back, how did the 1st vet miss that btw??

[alexs]

Jun 3, 2021 10:42:46 GMT -8 Markpd said:

Oh sorry to hear that, and yea that is young, I guess he got unlucky with the gene lottery .

Thanks for reporting back, how did the 1st vet miss that btw??

This was a new vet, and the person seemed definitely not very familiar with rodents I think (its always hard to find good exoctic vets )

[Markpd]

darn , what country are you in btw?

[alexs]

Canada (quebec to be precise)

[betty]

Bless him (you never told us his name).

Well, if it wasn't treatable - and certainly making him feel really poorly - you made the best decision for him right there.

Always very difficult - and always very sad - but always the best choice for the gerbil.