Post by scaradee on Jul 7, 2021 14:20:24 GMT -8
Hello!
My two girls Tetra (9 months) and Nyxie (7 month) declanned last month. I was lucky enough to find 2 separate lonely adult girls via charities/shelters in my area. Squirrel (11 months) is currently in a split cage with Nyxie as I wanted to give Tetra a bit more time to heal from the wound she received during the declanning. I only just adopted Pickle (12 months) a few days ago so she's still quarantining. The plan was for her to (hopefully) become Tetra's new partner.
The thing is that Nyxie is quite small compared to Squirrel. She's easily 1 or 2cm shorter than Squirrel. She's not skinny - she eats normally and has plenty of energy, she just happens to be of a smaller stature. Even her head of smaller. It's quite noticeable now that they're in a split cage together.
Tetra is probably much closer in size to Squirrel, and Pickle is slightly smaller so would be closer to Nyxie's size. My question is, does size have a significant impact on female gerbils' ability to bond and stay bonded? Nyxie and Squirrel have only been in the split cage for 1 1/2 weeks and I don't think they're super close to bonding yet (occasional drumming when they encounter each other through the mesh divider, immediate marking of territory as soon as they swap sides, etc). Would I be better off abandoning that pair and should I instead pair the smaller gerbils (Nyxie and Pickle) in one tank and the larger ones (Tetra and Squirrel) in the other (once Pickle is out of quarantine)? Or does it not matter?
Many thanks in advance!
My two girls Tetra (9 months) and Nyxie (7 month) declanned last month. I was lucky enough to find 2 separate lonely adult girls via charities/shelters in my area. Squirrel (11 months) is currently in a split cage with Nyxie as I wanted to give Tetra a bit more time to heal from the wound she received during the declanning. I only just adopted Pickle (12 months) a few days ago so she's still quarantining. The plan was for her to (hopefully) become Tetra's new partner.
The thing is that Nyxie is quite small compared to Squirrel. She's easily 1 or 2cm shorter than Squirrel. She's not skinny - she eats normally and has plenty of energy, she just happens to be of a smaller stature. Even her head of smaller. It's quite noticeable now that they're in a split cage together.
Tetra is probably much closer in size to Squirrel, and Pickle is slightly smaller so would be closer to Nyxie's size. My question is, does size have a significant impact on female gerbils' ability to bond and stay bonded? Nyxie and Squirrel have only been in the split cage for 1 1/2 weeks and I don't think they're super close to bonding yet (occasional drumming when they encounter each other through the mesh divider, immediate marking of territory as soon as they swap sides, etc). Would I be better off abandoning that pair and should I instead pair the smaller gerbils (Nyxie and Pickle) in one tank and the larger ones (Tetra and Squirrel) in the other (once Pickle is out of quarantine)? Or does it not matter?
Many thanks in advance!
