Male gerbil keeps offering me his back to mount?

[bananaboat]

Hey Guys!

My gerbil is healthy and not shy or aggressive, but he sometimes offers me his back when he is playing outside of his tank. When I scratch his back, he arches and walks away then continues to wait for me to "mount" his back again. It is almost like he is a female in heat, but I know he is a male. Is this a submission behavior? I am worried that he is doing this because he is scared by my size compared to him. It is a silly thing to worry about, but I want him to like me! Haha! 

[LilyandDaisy]

Well this is strange as that's definitely a very female behaviour! Does he always do this or is it cyclical, like a female's heat cycle would be? I'm doubtful it would be a submissive or scared behaviour as it sounds so hormonal.

"Presenting" to a human would be a bit unusual even for a female gerbil actually. Does he live with other gerbils and how does he behave with them?

When you say you know he's male, is that because he has male external anatomy?

[tanzanyte]

He may just like being stroked?
We have a male gerbil who will sit and have his back and behind his ears stroked for many minutes. I’ve not noticed him arching his back but he will always go to the same position as he knows I’ll stroke him.

[Markpd]

Wow! What an amazingly affectionate gerbil! Would like to a see a video of that

[tanzanyte]

Max is the most affectionate gerbil we've had. Vanilla was pretty chilled being held, but not so bothered about being stroked that much. It's funny because his brother really isn't keen on being touched at all, he flinches away even if he's eating a treat.
I've asked my daughter to try and record him. Where he sits it takes my other hand out of action so I've never been able to get a recording.

[tanzanyte]

This is Max having a short stroke. He usually goes longer than this, plus we didn't start recording straight away, but it gives you a general idea of his love of being cuddled.

[Markpd]

For some reason that link is broken, I'm going to have a look to see if I can fix it... [edit, yep you'd inserted it as an image instead of a video ].

Just watched it, he's so cute!

[tanzanyte]

That's so weird as it came up as a video when I had it up. Thanks for fixing it.

He is a real cutie but I'm biased. He has to be on that arm, just on my hand/wrist otherwise he climbs back up my shoulder and resets himself. I have to stroke him down both sides as well otherwise he knows and keeps turning his head to look at me. He's a real creature of habit!