Color variation and personality

[maly]

Hi,

I am wondering if anyone has noticed behavioural differences between white/light gerbils and dark/black ones?

The reason for asking is that we have noticed among our 3 gerbils that the lightest one just happened to have a distinctly different temperament. In time, the white one became aggressive/dominant and needed his own enclosure. We noticed the black ones stayed up late and were active on their wheel and were peaceful together, and with us.

The white gerbil was loved for its unique wildness, but was very smelly and marked everything with its scent gland, and after 3 years this became a sore that deteriorated. He passed away after 3 1/2 years. He was active until the end, and did not appear to suffer at all, he lost weight and was still eating, but his climbing ability was diminished during the last week.

I am wondering if the white gerbils would be more active during the day, and perhaps have more aggressive survival instincts, and the black ones could move easier through the night and developed differeng personalities? Or, am I reading too much into this? Also, does colour have any association with temperament, and is it possible the 3 gerbils we got from the pet store while immature and caged together, were not brothers?

[Markpd]

Hi, firstly welcome to the forum
Interesting observations about your owns gerbils, unfortunately you can't draw even broad conclusions from owning just 3 gerbils. I would think you'd need to have owned dozens of gerbils before you can start to see any possible trend, perhaps betty , Shooting Star et al can give us some insight there? I can't really help as I've only owned 5 gerbils, and 3 of them were in the 70s-80s! (of which the 1st pair were agouti).

As for coloured gerbils vs day and night, the natural colour for gerbils is agouti (a black flecked sandy/beige colour), and nearly all of them will be that colour, so they'd be no real selection pressures on the rare natural born non-agoutis. [edit] After re-reading my sentence I realised that could be misunderstood. What I meant to say is that there would be no real positive selection pressures for non agouti gerbils as their so rarely born in the wild, and actually on reflection I think their would be strong negative selection pressures as dark ones would stand out in the day, and light ones at night (at least white, or near white ones), and as gerbils come out at both day and night in general both very dark and very light gerbils would be disadvantaged.

In the just few years I've been reading about gerbils I have seen the odd comment that it seems black gerbils are more likely to be aggressive to other gerbils and more likely to declan. But I wouldn't read much into that as I don't recall the context, nor whether people were just jumping to conclusions based on a small number of gerbils.

It would be interesting to find out, perhaps we should start a new sticky thread asking people to report gerbil personalities and colours?

As for your last question, yes that's entirely possible, but theirs no way of knowing unless you had them DNA tested.

What do more experienced owners think? (about colours vs personalities).

[betty]

What a very interesting post indeed - and I would love to see some science behind it. My answers below are a generalised answer as there is some complicated biology involved that I am skimming over for an easy read/summary:

I am sure there is nothing in it directly (ie characteristics of rare wild colors linked to ingrained survivial strategies) because the gerbils themselves wouldn't know what color they were - they would just be a gerbil to themselves. But of course there are many neurological and health issues associated/caused by individual genes that ALSO change the colour of the gerbil themselves. For example I believe the Dilute (d) gene makes the structure of the hair to be thinner and more liable to break and so could affect behaviour on a more physiological manner (ie they may need to eat more/metabolise faster to stay warm and grow replacement hairs). For sure naked animals need to eat almost continuously to generate enough heat to stay alive (ask any skinny-pig owner about this).

Historic anecdotes also lean towards certain neurological conditions certainly relating to pied animals (spotted) in that the more white on a horse for example - the wilder it will be. The old "one-white foot good - 4 white feet bad" type stories for example. Piebalding does result in calmer animals (the main reason why so many domesticated species (cows/horses/goats/dogs/rabbits/guinea pigs often have a white element to them - but not too much. Too much goes the other way as these spotting genes can affect other developmental bodily structures including the brain - but also more noticably the eyes and ears. Unfortunately the same biological triggers for white hair (removal of the pigment) can also remove the structures that make sight and sound possible - resulting in white animals - like dogs - potentially being blind or deaf.

Obviously there are other genes that cause white animals that aren't so affected by this - and one of these is albino-types - PEWs in gerbils. Their sight can be compromised (faster than other pink-eyed gerbils) so this may have an attached behavioural aspect - although I have had a known blind gerbil before and she didn't act any differently to sighted gerbils - so perhaps not?

From what you describe yourself though it is likely that your white gerbil was just the dominant one of the trio and so always had to appear more 'bold' than the others to stay in charge and prevent a declan. However, as a result of being male and dominant - he most likely developed a scent gland tumour (SGT) that was the sore you described. They never heal unfortunately and will only get worse over time (unless the whole gland is surgically removed).

The other two were most likely more calm and active in a more friendy-appearing way was that they didn't have the stress of being the dominant one and so could be more relaxed when he wasn't around.

I would love to see a color/behavior thread indeed Markpd - as from memory (I didn't make notes on that in any spreadsheet) I can't think that any particular colors acted any differently over time? I think if there WAS a particular behaviour-linked color - I may well have noticed it over time. I must admit though that I bred AWAY from the pink-eyed colors overall - so perhaps I could have overlooked it. I certainly remember one white female (PEWs often turned up in new colrpoint lines) who was rather difficult shall we say - but like you said above Markpd - one memory of one gerbil isn't enough to base anything on.

Can't wait to hear from others.

[catnut]

I've had over 20 gerbils and my two white males were very skittish and not hand tamed no matter what i tried, but they were both rescues as well. I had two black females are both were friendly, also rescues. I've had a few agoutis- friendly, the male i had was very submissive and shy, a few black and whites- they were all friendly and two of them were rescues. I think it really depends on their born personality, how they are treated and spent time with and hand tamed and if they are submissive or outgoing. My current boy, who i think is a dark eyed honey, is very friendly and outgoing, was a rescue and he will sleep on my lap, he's 3 1/2 years old and i've had him since he was 8 months old, his brother passed last year.

[LilyandDaisy]

I've had one black male who was the most timid of the trio he lived in. Also a black female (Rocket) who was bossy but she lived with a neutered male and I think it's typical for a female to be bossy with a male.

With the anecdotes about black gerbils and aggression, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of some kind of bias affecting people's perceptions. Black animals in general are unfortunately not as popular as other colours. For example, black cats are harder to find homes for than gingers or tabbies. A black rodent tends to remind people of black rats, and by extension, vermin. I've noticed when I've shown my gerbils to people, they sometimes react slightly less positively to a dark gerbil like a black or burmese than another colour like a honey or a polar fox.