Keeping two gerbils of different sex in same room

[kirstin]

Hi everyone, 
We have had a bit of sad time with our gerbils. We purchased 4 female gerbils from reputable pet shop in late December (born 3 November). Had them at home for two weeks and it was all going well, when one of them suddenly died. I blamed myself for putting a Kapok pod in the tank. To cut a long story short, two weeks later and we've lost another 2 of the sisters! In both cases it looks like they've had a stroke/seizure, took one of them to the vet and they were able to rehydrate her, but one week later and she died very suddenly overnight. No sign of fighting or anything. Tonight a third has gone.   They belong to my daughter and she will be devastated when I tell her in the morning - she's been so diligent at looking after them. So my question is - what is the best thing to do for the one sole surviving female? She has lost 3 of her sisters in quick succession and is only 3 months old. 
We do have one other gerbil in the house, a male, two years old, who we've always kept in a separate cage and on a different floor. They've never been introduced. I'm not proposing to split-cage them, but I was wondering about at least keeping them in the same room together, albeit in different cages, now that they are both on their own. Thoughts? Assuming I'm right on the seizure front we may also lose our last female, but I'd like to give her (and our boy) the best possible care in the meantime. 
Any advice appreciated. 

[barryozzy]

I think it is fine to have them in the same room. I have a single male in a tank right next to a pair of females and they don't really pay attention to each other. I figure maybe it's better to have their tanks close so they can still have a little companionship, or know that they're not the only gerbil left lol 

[Thea]

So sorry that you've already lost 3 of the gerbils

I think having the two cages in the same room would be better than keeping them entirely separate - as then they will be able to hear (and maybe see/smell) each other which could bring them both a lot of comfort.
Another option, if you have a large enough enclosure to do this, is to do a permanent split tank like Markpd and ps25 have done.
Although, for this you would obviously have to make sure there is absolutely no way either gerbil could get to the other side, of course.
I'm still not sure if this would work with a male and female gerbil, so I might need someone else to add to that!

[betty]

I noticed that you said on a different floor? Is this a different floor of the house - as although this could be related to a geneitc family issue of the girls - it is actually quite unusual to have 4 females in the same litter - so they may be from multiple litters which could therefore reduce the chances of a hereditary issue.

If you other gerbil is on another floor of the house - I might tend to lean towards and environmental factor - and so bringing the male down into the same room could expose him to that too.

Obviously I am just clutching at straws here with the info given - but whenever multiple animals all pass or get ill within a short space of time - always look to the environment first.

Do give us an update if you can on things with a bit more detail on the girls set up and the room layout etc.

[kirstin]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for the advice so far. So by different floors I meant different floors of the same house. We have historically always kept our gerbils in a ground floor room as its quiet and warm, but still close enough for them to get plenty of interaction. This has worked well for us for the last 3 years. When we lost one of our boys, and decided to get a new girl, we moved the boy gerbil upstairs to the spare room, and bought him a new cage. We then thoroughly cleaned our original (very large) enclosure and used that for our new 4 girl gerbils. I have today brought our boy gerbil down to the same room as our girl gerbil to see how they get on. Same room, two completely separate cages, on different sides of the room. So far they are ignoring each other. The one remaining girl seems a little subdued but as she lost her sister a few days ago I suspect she is grieving. Same cage as we have alyways used, same type of bedding etc. Our house is not the warmest, but we've got them in a cosy corner quite close to a radiator, and with the door shut at night so it stays pretty warm.
When we bought the girls from the pet shop we were told they were all sisters and they did seem to have bonded really well together, so we agreed to take all of them rather than choosing a pair.
Just a bit sad that we've had this experience with the girls. They belong to my daughter (aged 9) and whilst I supervise closely, she is ever so diligent with them. Suspect the recent passing of 3 of them has rather put her off gerbils for the future, which is such a shame.

[Markpd]

Whether the cause is genetic, or environmental, it is very rare to lose this number of young gerbils so quickly (might be worth telling her that so that she perhaps isn't permanently put off gerbils), still I quite understand it must be very upsetting for her (and you too of course).

Perhaps you would be safer to bring the girls cage to where the boys cage was? Just in case of an environmental issue (as per betty's suggestion). Assuming you have room of course!
I doubt they'll be much interaction between them tbh though, if they can't touch noses then they won't be able to get a strong scent of each other (as well as the physical contact aspect). I would think that's only really possible with a permanent split cage?