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Post by gerbilord on Dec 3, 2022 13:55:59 GMT -8
Hi
I’m having a real problem with one of my gerbils.
I adopted her along with two others three weeks ago and she has developed a really bad biting habit.
I put my hand in the cage for her to climb on and while the others do this no problem, she grabs onto the skin on my hand or fingers with her teeth and it seems almost like she’s trying to chew me like I’m cardboard!
At one point she was on my finger so hard that i had to literally open up her mouth with my other hand to get her off.
I can easily lift her up just by her teeth because she has attached herself to my hand.
I don’t know what I can do - I’ve tried letting her bite me so that she realises I’m not cardboard or food and so she knows I’m not trying to hurt her, I’ve also tried firmly saying no, taking my hand away as soon as she starts to bite, nothing works and just makes the problem worse as she seems even more determined to take a chunk out of me!
Does anyone have any ideas because I’m worried its becoming a habit now which is the last thing I want!
Thanks
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Post by iamplankton on Dec 3, 2022 14:04:05 GMT -8
It’s possible that she feels threatened and is biting because she’s scared. I’d evaluate how you’re approaching her and if you’re doing anything that could be making her defensive.
It may also be worth wearing gloves and using techniques to work on that
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Post by Markpd on Dec 4, 2022 6:23:49 GMT -8
Subbing to thread to see answer (sorry I'm not sure I can help, although I wonder if blowing on her face would put her off? i.e a short sharp puff. Can't be harmful, right?).
I do recall that friend's daughter's Gerbil did a similar thing, perhaps more aggressively! (also a rescue gerbil). Her gerbil used to race to her hand and bite her! She did stop that after a time, unfortunately I don't recall how/why it stopped. I'll try to remember to ask them.
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Post by gerbilord on Dec 4, 2022 12:40:59 GMT -8
It’s possible that she feels threatened and is biting because she’s scared. I’d evaluate how you’re approaching her and if you’re doing anything that could be making her defensive. It may also be worth wearing gloves and using techniques to work on that Yes I thought it could be that, but the thing is, she doesn’t seem fazed by my presence in any way - she’s quite content to eat some food beside me and once i have grabbed hold of her she doesn’t bite me(as much). Today I put my hand in, quite far from where she was and the others came over and had a little sniff, walked on my hand etc. She got interested and soon came over herself and sniffed me but straight away started biting me again. So I don’t think its me actually threatening her, I wonder if she even thinks its a game? It seems like a rather unusual behaviour for gerbils though - I didn’t think they bit unless they /had/ to - although tbh its like she’s trying to chew me more than bite me! I took her out onto my desk today so i could have a closer inspection of her, she didn’t show any signs of stress and was happy to run around and chew up all my things - she does seem OBSESSED with chewing - even more than a “normal” gerbil - as soon as she takes a sniff of something she starts chewing it frantically, before moving onto the next victim.. She does seem to enjoy chewing me more than anything else though, and funnily enough doesn’t take that much pleasure out of cardboard! (She’ll have a go at it but not for very long before she comes back to nibble on me) I don’t know if it is relevant but at the breeder’s home she was bitten by another aggressive female who took off fur from her tail and left her with some scarring as well. The skin has healed although that part of the tail is still hairless… I don’t know whether that experience could have made her more aggressive as a result? Or perhaps she actually started the fight and is just a very aggressive gerbil? I will definitely wear gloves if the problem gets worse - I already have loads of little red spots all over my hands from where she has bitten me! |
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Post by gerbilord on Dec 4, 2022 12:46:41 GMT -8
Subbing to thread to see answer (sorry I'm not sure I can help, although I wonder if blowing on her face would put her off? i.e a short sharp puff. Can't be harmful, right?). I do recall that friend's daughter's Gerbil did a similar thing, perhaps more aggressively! (also a rescue gerbil). Her gerbil used to race to her hand and bite her! She did stop that after a time, unfortunately I don't recall how/why it stopped. I'll try to remember to ask them. I did try blowing her a little, but it didn’t seem to faze her, if anything it made her more determined! Ouch that sounds quite menacing ahah.. I got my gerbils from a breeder so they haven’t really had a bad background, although she was bitten by another gerbil, (see my last post) perhaps that could make her more aggressive?.. I haven’t seen her fighting or biting the other gerbils though so her attacks seem planned directly for me (and the stuff on my desk lol) |
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Post by LilyandDaisy on Dec 6, 2022 14:49:26 GMT -8
That does sound unusual. I suppose she might a more neurotic type of gerbil and the biting is some kind of self-defence behaviour. I think gerbils can sometimes be scared while having an apparently confident demeanour. Being attacked by another gerbil wouldn't have helped things.
Alternatively, maybe she is very fixated on biting and chewing things (hands included), and she just doesn't know when to stop. Do you know what her background was like as a pup? Was she alone at all at a young age?
If you put something new in their enclosure, does she bite it the same way she bites you?
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Post by gerbilord on Dec 15, 2022 3:36:51 GMT -8
An update:
I think the cause of the biting was down to stress after all, they have stopped biting me (although do occasionally still have a go) but whenever someone new comes along who they don't recognise then all the gerbils tend to bite, mostly the one who had her tail bitten. I think the best way to get around it was just to keep handling them until they no longer perceived me as a threat. I found if I scooped them up instead of leaving my hand in the cage for them to bite then they didn't bite anywhere near as much, so maybe having my hand looming beside them was more stressful for them than if I just picked them up.. the other two seemed ok with leaping onto my hand but the particularly aggressive one would just hang onto my finger and bite for all her might..
My problem now is to stop them chewing my clothes because they do this excessively lol - I suppose that is just a gerbil thing though as my last two did it too.. I forgot how nice it was to have clothes without holes in hahahah
see that's the funny thing - she doesn't really care esp about cardboard - she'll chew it but not for very long.. My skin definitely seemed to be a favourite although she will have a go with anything, particularly when she's away from her cage (e.g. on my desk - she'll try eating pens, rubber, paper, anything that is available basically.) She has started to stop that though so I think it probably was a case of stress or feeling unsure of her surroundings and just lashing out at me and my stuff lol.
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), late 70s
