How to care for gerbils after a bloody fight?

[miche987]

I have two male gerbils — Murph (nearly 2yrs old) and George (nearly 1 year old). They have always gotten along quite well. They live in a 20gallon aquarium with 10 inches of bedding. However, today I noticed brown stuff around their muzzles and under their nails. I thought maybe they ate poo or something…but then I noticed small amounts of blood and a few strands of fur stuck to the aquarium glass. Neither seems injured anywhere other than maybe around their mouths where they both appear to have dark brown dried blood (under their finger nails, too). I didn’t see or hear a fight, so I think it happened while I was out today. They appear to be getting along fine now as they were both in the same area of their burrow and in the sand bath together, too.

My questions are:
1) how concerned should I be? Do I need to worry about declanning?
2) what (besides cleaning the blood off the tank) should I do? I’m not sure they’ll let me wipe off the dried blood with a wet towel …will they be able to clean themselves adequately in the sand bath? Should they be separated if they are getting along now?

Thanks

[betty]

Hello there - and you are certainly right to be cautious.

Declans of 'equal' gerbils often result in bloody faces and cheeks as well as maybe on the necks and shoulders - however - just both chewing away at the same wooden thing (especially those Trixie darker woods) the wet wood and how obsessed they are with it can also cause porphyrins (brown stains) around the nose and face - and the dark wood could stain their nails.

However one way to tell these apart would be that blood will stain a different colour on dry kitchen roll/q-tips than the wet wood if you were able to - and another would be that if you feel a gritty feeling on your gerbils - these could be teeny scabs. LCeaining them yourself could show this - or they will eventually clear it up with sand baths. Have the recently had any new substrate or grasses/hays just out of interest?

Obviously if you see or hear chasing or the occasional bang - see scabs or blood on the rump or tail - or see one gerbil more often alone at a high point in the enclosure you can almost certainly assume a declan rather than obsessive chewing.