What to do with gerbils after failed introductions

[icecontroller2529]

Or: How many tanks can you get?


When discussing the topic of introductions, people always seem to assume it will succeed. But what if it doesn’t? I’ve never seen the question of how to proceed discussed anywhere. The only thing you occasionally find is “If the introduction of the declanned gerbils fails, just introduce them to pups, that will go well”.

This is such a basic question, it should be part of every introduction talk.

So what if people get a couple of gerbils – and they declan, the split introduction fails? What if they buy a second tank and try to introduce their first gerbils to other gerbils, and it fails again? Even with pups? Or say that you have two gerbils happily living together, one dies, you try to get a new friend for your gerbil and the introduction fails. You try again with another gerbil for your old gerbil and one for your young gerbil. It fails. You're not supposed to have single gerbils, so basically you need to get more and more gerbils to create pairs and if it fails, you'll have to get more gerbils again.

Finding new homes for the gerbils is not always possible. People who want to get gerbils usually want pups, not gerbils who already have negative introduction experience.

What can you do with your gerbils after a failed introduction? How many tanks can you have in your house? How can you break the chain of getting more and more gerbils without successfully introducing them? What is your Plan B when you get a new gerbil?

[Markpd]

I guess you've missed my pinned (in this section) permanent split thread and what I did for my boys?

Permanent splits are mentioned from time to time, but yea, probably not in most split intro discussions? Perhaps because more often they go well??
And the possibility of a 2nd failed intro (even if small) is why I went for a permanent split. If you look in my perm split thread you'll see quotes from a much older thread where it shows that perm splits have actually been done for a long time, but isn't (wasn't?) discussed much.
Oh, obviously a perm split assumes they get on fine side by side, my boys did the day after a bloody declan! Very odd, but I'm glad they did get on like that .

[icecontroller2529]

Of course I'm not oblivious to your permanent split solution for your boys! 

It's great that this worked fine for your gerbils, and it has certainly been an inspiration for me. However, I don't see it as an optimal solution, for the following reasons:
1. That way, the gerbils have only half the space of the tank, which might not be enough room.
2. Everything is always about how gerbils need the social interaction with another gerbil, and I'm not sure the permanent split tank allows this sufficiently. 
3. It only works if, like with Blake and Avon, the gerbils don't hate each other. Thinking of our first gerbils, they weren't able to relax until they lived in different rooms.

I've never heard of people using this solution before and I wonder what people normally do when their gerbils can't live together. And how people normally avoid creating a chain reaction with getting more and more gerbils and tanks ...

[Markpd]

Good to hear

Yea good points,
1. True, it depends on the tank size, mine's 1.2m long, so was just long enough, although I started on a project (over a year ago!) to split a 2.1m tank (the tank ended up being less tall than advertised! grr, so I had to design from scratch a way to extend the tank height! (see the related thread of mine if interested), and I needed/need to still clear out stuff from my lounge to fit it properly. It became my boys playpen whilst I was working on those issues).
2.It did for my boys, they were quite happy occasionally nose kissing through the mesh, and even on the rare occasion grooming each other (I only saw that 2-3 times). I think they just preferred their own separate space. But of course you can't know beforehand if it will work out for other gerbils, but it is a plan B. Nothing is certain with gerbils! (or many other things of course!).
3.Agreed, but maybe with some of those gerbils that even 'hate' each other, it's possible they might calm down over a little time (e.g weeks).

Never heard of perm splits being used did you mean? Check out the quotes in my thread, from the much older thread, IIRC their were about 1/2 a dozen people who'd done it before, and a couple of us recently. Granted it's small numbers, but it's not never .

Anyway, hopefully we'll hear from the others too

I think mostly when people introduce pups it works out, so they don't have to deal with it, and we rarely hear about it. That said, some breeders will accept pups back if an intro doesn't work, as do some rescue ctrs with their gerbils.
And the chances of a pup not being able to be introduced to 2 different adults (i.e, if the intro failed with 1 adult, you'd be exceptionally unlucky if it failed with the other adult too, but no guarantees!).

Anyway,