how long before a long gerbil starts to get lonely

[tacobagel]

hi, im a first time gerbil owner and today i realised that i hadn't seen one of my boys for a few days, my dad completely checked all of the gerbilarium and couldnt find an alive or dead gerbil anywhere (except for his brother who hasn't escaped lol) i assume froggy (escaped gerbil) has been gone for a few days, i'm not really sure how he escaped, i think probably he squeezed through the bars as he is quite a small gerbil, i set up a trap so hopefully i can catch him before any harm comes his way (i'm being really careful not to let any of my cats get in my room) or my hamsters way as three of my hamsters don't have tops on their cages but in the mean time i'm worried about tadpole (my non escaped gerbil) this is my first time dealing with an escaped gerbil so i'm not sure how long it will take to catch him and i was just wondering how long tadpole will be okay by himself?

thanks

[barryozzy]

He will probably be okay for a while. As long as he is still acting normally I don't think you have to worry too much. What I have noticed when a gerbil gets too lonely, they will stop eating as much and laze around all the time instead of playing or running around. Make sure to give him extra attention also.

I hope you can find Froggy quickly! If you do find him, you might have to reintroduce them gradually. If they don't recognize or remember each other's scents, they will probably fight.

[Thea]

Sorry to hear that, really hope you do find him

As barryozzy said, Tadpole will probably be okay for a while. Probably keep a good watch of him though and give him lots of attention. It may hit him at some point that his brother isn't there, and become lonely, but it's good if he seems fine.

I would think that bars are rarely big enough for any gerbil to squeeze through on a cage designed for hamsters/gerbils or a gerbillarium, so just wondering if you know the bar spacing?

[tacobagel]

Nov 23, 2021 16:17:16 GMT -8 tacobagel said:

hi, im a first time gerbil owner and today i realised that i hadn't seen one of my boys for a few days, my dad completely checked all of the gerbilarium and couldnt find an alive or dead gerbil anywhere (except for his brother who hasn't escaped lol) i assume froggy (escaped gerbil) has been gone for a few days, i'm not really sure how he escaped, i think probably he squeezed through the bars as he is quite a small gerbil, i set up a trap so hopefully i can catch him before any harm comes his way (i'm being really careful not to let any of my cats get in my room) or my hamsters way as three of my hamsters don't have tops on their cages but in the mean time i'm worried about tadpole (my non escaped gerbil) this is my first time dealing with an escaped gerbil so i'm not sure how long it will take to catch him and i was just wondering how long tadpole will be okay by himself?

thanks

thank you for all your replies but unfortunately today i found a ball of black fur and a tail in my gerbilarium

I'm not sure how froggy died, tadpole never showed any sign of aggression, they always had a good relationship, i assume he found a way to escape the cage and then get back in? coz my dad checked really thoroughly before and couldn't find anything. It's really confusing and I don't know how or when he died or he had even escaped, i assume at some point he must have just died from sickness or something and that tadpole ate most of him

tadpole is only a few months old so i will be getting another gerbil, it would definitely not be fair to leave him alone for the rest of his life, i'm going to use the split cage introduction method and give them about a week to a week and a half before i try removing the mesh, like i said im a first time gerbil owner so any advice about this whole situation would be appreciated  

[catnut]

so sorry to hear about Froggy, maybe he just got ill and passed? make sure to do a two week quarantine first to make sure the new gerbil isn't ill, okay?