How to tame gerbils when they're always hiding?

[DawnandDusk]

We got two gerbils almost two weeks ago as a pet for my daughter.  They were at first glad to go in my daughter's hand and run up her arm and go for time in a playpen.  Now, however, they seem to have decided to become nocturnal and skittish. We rarely see them except late at night when they run on their wheel and explore.  They eat their food and chew up cardboard and hay, so I know they're alive, but they but never do any of this when we're watching.  It seems they won't come out from their tunnels unless they're pretty sure no one is around.  We have them in a 29 gallon tank with 8 inches of bedding, a wheel, water, and a little sand bath.  Is there a way we can lure them back out during the day so we can start again with taming them and interacting with them?

[g]

Dec 10, 2021 11:23:18 GMT -8 DawnandDusk said:

We got two gerbils almost two weeks ago as a pet for my daughter.  They were at first glad to go in my daughter's hand and run up her arm and go for time in a playpen.  Now, however, they seem to have decided to become nocturnal and skittish. We rarely see them except late at night when they run on their wheel and explore.  They eat their food and chew up cardboard and hay, so I know they're alive, but they but never do any of this when we're watching.  It seems they won't come out from their tunnels unless they're pretty sure no one is around.  We have them in a 29 gallon tank with 8 inches of bedding, a wheel, water, and a little sand bath.  Is there a way we can lure them back out during the day so we can start again with taming them and interacting with them?

What times are you trying to interact with them? I've only had my two gerbils for a few months, but I've noticed they come out at specific times throughout day. Sometimes I try to interact with them outside of these times and they ignore me; sometimes if I wait long enough and make enough verbal noise the boldest one will come out to investigate.

Both were a year old when I got them and will take food from my hand but aren't super tame. They still spook on occasion and flee if I make a noise or sudden move.

I say spend a whole day just watching them with zero interaction and log their activity times. Use that to time your interactions with them during periods you know they are out. Also use a special treat they only get from interacting with you. I use pumpkin seeds, which can be broken into several pieces per seed.

Good luck!

[DawnandDusk]

Thanks, ours are just a few months old now. We check on them frequently, but the only time we see them out is 8-11pm, which is not the most convenient time for those of us who need to sleep at night. Perhaps we should move their tank to the living room, or somewhere we frequent more often than a bedroom, so that we can keep a closer eye on them.

[Markpd]

Yea you could do that, you may well see them out more . I noticed when I had my boys just 1-2 months, that they suddenly became more reclusive for a couple of weeks or so, then they started to come out more again.
Now they tend to be out at about 5-8pm and again from 11pm to when I go to sleep

[amura]

Dec 11, 2021 11:59:42 GMT -8 DawnandDusk said:

Thanks, ours are just a few months old now. We check on them frequently, but the only time we see them out is 8-11pm, which is not the most convenient time for those of us who need to sleep at night. Perhaps we should move their tank to the living room, or somewhere we frequent more often than a bedroom, so that we can keep a closer eye on them.

Did it improve the situation?

Our gerbil has been a member of the family for only a few weeks, and he is doing the same.
The tank was in my son's bedroom but he was noisy at night so we moved it to the living room a week ago, which is where we are at all times when we are home.
But there is no apparent changes yet.

On New Year's Eve he was super active though. I suppose it was already late enough for him, and at those hours we are usually not awake.
I wonder whether he thought "Oh, see, today my humans are finally active at proper hours!" 

[DawnandDusk]

We didn’t end up moving them. Perhaps they were just getting used to their new home because they are now out more often in the day. They also seem to be seen less after we clean their tank, perhaps because they need to rebuild their tunnels.

[amura]

It happened to us too, our gerbil now enjoys much more being out while we are around. And even looks forward interaction with us! Which is joyful ^-^

I suppose that after you clean their tank they don't recognize it as their home anymore - cause it lacks the scent.
I've read that it's a good idea leaving a bit of the old bedding, instead of removing it all. Have you tried it?

[Markpd]

Yea, what amura said, it's a good idea to keep back some of the old bedding so they have some familiar scent left.
How often do you fully clean it out? (this doesn't need to be done so often as some people think, nor as often as other common pet rodents).

I wonder whether he thought "Oh, see, today my humans are finally active at proper hours!"

Definitely! lol

[DawnandDusk]

Thanks everyone! We have kept some of their old bedding when cleaning out the tank. This post was just after we had purchased them, so there was no way to have their old bedding there for them at that point. They're getting more and more likely to be out visiting with us, so that's great. We've been cleaning the tank out monthly. Now we're dealing with mites though. Off to read about that... Vet appointment scheduled for a couple days from now.