My Gerbil story - Advice needed

[alanasgerbilz5214]

About a year ago I got two sweet gerbils (Almond and Sunflower). Sunflower was a bigger gerbil he and Almond were a month apart and I thought nothing of it, but in late October of that year Sunflower wasn’t his normal self. He was lying down on top of his bedding and not burrowing, eating, pooping, or peeing. So I kept a watchful eye on him (also when I held him he was super limp) so we got him into the vet and they said everything looked fine and dandy. They also told us that when gerbils get ill that it’s hard to tell right away so he could have been sick for a while. They sent us home with some food mix and a syringe and told us to feed it to him. I did, sometimes he would eat just a little but never much. After about a week I came home and had high hopes he was finally getting better, but when I go to check on him and feed him he’s in the worst shape yet. So I’m cuddling him, holing him trying to feed him. And then he starts shaking and his eyes are rolling behind his head, I couldn’t see him like this. So I gave him to my mom and I passed in and out of the room for about a minuet. When he stopped shaking my mom told me he had passed away. We buried him in the yard that night. From then on I was determined to get Almond a friend.

So we looked for a breeder or a rescue shelter for young gerbils, we sadly couldn’t find any rescues but found a really nice breeder who knew exactly what he was doing. But he lived almost three hours away and we were busy people! So Almond (showing little signs of depression) was alone for two months. Until in early January my mom finally met up with the breeder and got my newest gerbil… Winnie! I had put the split cage in the tank that morning ready for Winnie’s  arrival. I was switching them  originally 3 times a day but then switched to 2 because they were seeming super stressed. Over time they started to calm down and started being interested in each other. So I was like “their ready for an introduction”!

When they met it was in their original enclosure with most of their stuff, Winnie was on the wheel not really interested in almond. But almond was curious so he explored the whole enclosure before coming to Winnie who was still on the wheel. No bad signs AT ALL! They stayed in a nose to nose stance for a little bit until Winnie was starting g to slip. He moved his paw to get balanced but almond attacked and they immediately went into a ball, me and my mom ripped them apart and put the split cage back into the enclosure. The next day we did another intro and  immediately went into a ball. In some footage I’ve seen the people let the gerbils go into balls but I don’t know what to do.

here is a video of the first intro (Winnie’s white, Almond’s brown):

 share.icloud.com/photos/059fQCkMmu4PwBixKbY5euqDw

Sadly I did not get a video of the second Intro but it was very quick.

I haven’t done any more introductions and its been like a month so its needed. But lately Winnie won’t let me hold or touch him, he’s always biting me! The breeder said that he was a really calm and kind gerbil, not lately. I think I need to get that under control before another introduction.

If you have any advice please share.

[Markpd]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, I'll see if I can help a bit until the more experienced folk pop in.

(For those watching the video, the actual intro starts around about 3m:20s.)

When they met it was in their original enclosure with most of their stuff
I originally wasn't sure if you meant you took them out of their split cage into another cage or not, but after seeing the video I see you removed one from the split cage and put him back in the split cage after you removed the divider. (I guess because the divider is a little fiddly to remove?). I'm not sure if that matters at all or is irrelevant. But maybe it would be better to block one gerbil in a corner with a piece of cardboard, and then someone else remove the divider?
Anyway, one thing I noticed, having their wheels in their possibly wouldn't help, it would distract them from the task of getting to 'know' each other and give them something to potentially fight over. In a long (time) split, they can be left in initially, but the general recommendation is that they should be removed in the last few days at least.


They stayed in a nose to nose stance for a little bit

My boys did that on a one off semi re-attempt at a re-intro (but no slipping or anything happened to them). They stayed face to face for maybe as long as a minute (an eternity in gerbil terms!), it was a very tense situation and was making my heart pound!
Staring face to face is potentially a very bad sign in my opinion (although I've just noticed it's not in our list), imagine if you're staring face to face with someone your either not sure about, or don't like, it stands a good chance of going badly! Although if one of the gerbils backs down and submits, it can end ok.
In my boys case Blake slowly lowered his head and 1/2 closed his eyes (pretending to go to sleep it appeared), then Avon very slowly came over and groomed Blake's ear and head, this seemed like it was calming things down, but then Blake suddenly jumped back and Avon went after him, at which point I blocked them with a piece of card and separated them.

After watching your video, it seems (in my very limited experience) that Almond is maybe offering himself to be groomed, but then as the Winnie attempts to, he backs off! I'm rather confused by that, so I think it needs more experienced folk to comment, betty and LilyandDaisy et al.
But I guess, whatever the interpretation, neither gerbil is being submissive, and hence the ball fight.

Once they get into a ball fight you can't just re-introduce them, you need to put them back in the split cage and swap them end to end again. Or, if they are really aggressive towards each other in a split cage, then temporarily (at least) put them in separate cages.

A couple of questions, how old is the new gerbil Winnie? (The older gerbil (Almond) I assume is a little over a year old).
And how long were they in the split cage before you removed the divider?

[LilyandDaisy]

I've watched the video. I think, like Markpd says, for a future introduction, I would take out the wheels a few days beforehand and the water bottles just beforehand, partly so you can see what's going on better and also so there's less to be possessive over. I can see from the video that Winnie turned his wheel into a little "outpost" from which to defend himself from Almond and that wouldn't have been the main reason it didn't work out but possibly didn't help.

I don't think the video looks too bad actually. Others may have different thoughts, but to me it seems that Almond is repeatedly going over to Winnie to try to appease him and make friends but Winnie isn't ready yet. And eventually it gets too much for Winnie and that scuffle happens. I think there's still a high chance these two can be friends, but they need more time in the split. I would give them at least a couple of weeks before considering another introduction.

I would try to do 3 swaps a day if you can, or if not, 1. It's better to do an odd number of swaps so they spend the night on a different side each time.

[alanasgerbilz5214]

Thank you for all the advice!
To answer your question about how old they are Almond is One and Winnie is about four months old.

[Markpd]

And how long were they in the split originally?