Gerbil bereaved - should we keep it near others

[porphyrogenita]

Hi there - we kept 4 gerbils as pets, 2 male, 2 female. They lived in separate cages on opposite sides of the room.


Sadly, Matilda, the dominant female gerbil, died recently. We have cleaned out the girls' cage as we read that will help the surviving one move on. We have also moved the two cages next to one another - about a foot apart. We don't intend to mix the two groups as we don't want to breed them, but we wanted to ask: will this be good for our surviving girl to feel like she is around other gerbils and therefore not too lonely, or will it stress her out to be near another clan and males?

Thanks in advance for your help and advice!

[Markpd]

Hmm, I'm not sure to be honest, on either front. You could just try it and see how they behave.

I will say though, that on the front of whether that is enough gerbil social contact by being 1 foot apart, I doubt it.

I say that because my boys are in a permanent split cage, they often touch noses and sniff each other through the meshed divider, and they seem quite happy in that setup (for some more permanent split cage experiences, check out my thread).

If/when they seem to get on ok being 1 foot apart, you could then try moving the cage right next to each other, if they can then touch each other, that might be enough social contact, assuming they're ok being that close to each other!

If not, how old is the remaining female? (What's her name btw? Would make it easier to write ). Perhaps you could intro another female to her?

And let's see what more experienced owners say too.

[porphyrogenita]

Thanks for the advice - the other female is called Triss (pictured in my profile).

There hasn't been any adverse behaviour since moving them close to one another - certainly they can see and smell each other but Triss seems totally unbothered by the boys, although they take an interest in her. We will consider moving the two cages so they are touching.

Obviously the ideal would be to introduce Triss to a new female but we got the girls in 2019 so she will be around 3 years old. We don't really want to get another female, just for Triss to pass away in the future and another girl to be left on her own.

[Markpd]

Ah ok, she's quite old then, understood.

Let us know how they get on whether you move them closer or not.

[LilyandDaisy]

At one foot apart they wouldn't be able to interact but whether the smells and sounds of other gerbils would help her feel less lonely is hard to say. It could hypothetically go the other way and make her feel less safe in her enclosure. We can't get inside a gerbil's head to know what they really think but you know your gerbil best so you could try it and see if she behaves any differently (whether positively or negatively).

One thing to be aware of is that the smell of a female in close proximity may cause your males to argue. So I wouldn't have them too close together.