Introduction gone wrong

[g]

I had two gerbils for several months and one died. They're 2 years old. I adopted a new, single gerbil who is also 2. All females.

I kept the two current gerbils in a 20 long aquarium divided in half with mesh for a week.This is a neutral tank. They never fought. They sniffed each other through the mesh and acted normally on their side.

I decided to remove the mesh today. I was sitting right next to the tank watching them. They were fine for five or more minutes. Then suddenly the original gerbil started attacking the new gerbil. I separated them, and the new gerbil was bleeding a lot. It looked really bad because the new gerbil is white, so the blood really showed. The original gerbil was not injured at all.

I took the injured gerbil to the vet ASAP, and luckily she only suffered superficial scratches and bites. I was given antibiotics and pain meds to administer.

I'm going to keep them in separate cages now. Should I attempt an introduction again down the line? If so, when and how? Should I give up?

I was kind of traumatized from the experience today, and worry about putting the poor gerbil through this again.

[LilyandDaisy]

Hello,

I'm sorry to hear this. 1 week is too early really for an introduction between adult females so that's probably why it didn't work out. I would say, you can try again, but give the injured gerbil time to heal and reset first. So perhaps 2-3 weeks on her own before going back into the split. If you decide to try again, make sure you're swapping sides 3 times a day, and I'd anticipate this taking at least 3 weeks until they're ready for an introduction, but perhaps more.

I hope that helps It would be interesting if you could let us know how it goes if you decide to try again with the introduction.

[g]

Thank you @lilyanddaisy. That's good to know. I'll think about this and see if it's something worth trying in a few weeks.

I know it's often said that when pairing up a lone adult, a young pup is the best candidate. Do you think I'm in an uphill battle with two mature females?

Thank you.

[LilyandDaisy]

I wouldn't say uphill battle. It may be challenging but still very possible to do. With 2-year-old females you potentially have the advantage they often start to mellow from that age.

Obviously the fight would have been a shock and very discouraging, but I'm sure it was because they just weren't vet familiar with each other yet, rather than because they are inherently incompatible.

When I introduced Tilly and Wispa, Tilly spent the first few days of the split tank threatening Wispa through the mesh divider, and now they are living happily and peacefully together!

[g]

Nov 4, 2022 9:13:39 GMT -8 LilyandDaisy said:

I wouldn't say uphill battle. It may be challenging but still very possible to do. With 2-year-old females you potentially have the advantage they often start to mellow from that age.

Obviously the fight would have been a shock and very discouraging, but I'm sure it was because they just weren't vet familiar with each other yet, rather than because they are inherently incompatible.

When I introduced Tilly and Wispa, Tilly spent the first few days of the split tank threatening Wispa through the mesh divider, and now they are living happily and peacefully together!

Got it. Thank you for the insights.

[tanzanyte]

Have you tried another intro and have things gone any better g?

I am going through this. I experienced a few weekends of ball fights after an initial 2 week split before any intro's began. Thankfully I managed to break it up before any blood was drawn, but it would have lead to that.
We had to scale it back as after a number of weeks of swapping, and intro's at weekends, it wasn't going well and I think both girls were fed up and equally starting fights with one another.
We have had them back in a slightly larger space with more to do and they are much more chilled. We recently tried them together and although Mymble was posturing, they didn't fight and Mymble wanted to get on with other things. We'll see how it goes this weekend.
It's hard when so much out there says 2 weeks, that you have an expectation, but as others have shown on here, with a lot more time and patience it is still possible. We are waiting it out in the hopes that the girls mellow towards each other and work things out.