ASAP : can declanning be stopped or undone ?

[jd]

After living together without major problems for 2 years, my females (2 parents with 4 youngsters) started to declan severely since 2 weeks.

Their cage has the size of a double height rabbit cage with a floor and stairs in the middle. Unfortunately I put (since summer yet) a too small built spare house in the lower section. As I read here, this could be the reason for the declanning and it started after they moved for the 2nd time to this basement where they made their nest under and behind this house.


But also this cause could be likely : some weeks earlier, one of my (despite in even seperate room living) males escaped and was found on top of the females cage where clearly they fell in love gently, without the usual excited movements at any separating wire.

After that, one female also was found nearly 16h on the floor in the males their room close to their cage. She must have been chased out of the cage because almost no single female gerbil escapes throught the wide gap on the vertical lid.




my attempts :

With mixing each day the composition of the getting divided 2 groups I tried to get declanning reversed and this worked out in the beginning, except for this one mom who kept on chasing this one daughter of hers.

Her aunt even chased away her own daughter to prevent any conflict in the upstairs section, where she got along with this one female after a short "discussion".

After I even could unite 5 of them, it got worse because the animals that had got along became hostile - even those who had turned into friends earlier. Then their chasing eachother wasn't possible to influence anymore and seemed to have got more severe.

The one "weaker" daughter who always had got been chased also becomes less confident and avoids more attempts - she even got injured after a fight in their upper house when she couldn't escape some days ago. After I had stopped the chasings with my bare hand (my females don't bite at interventions - my males do) she obviously trusted me more and moves around quite happily.

Last time I cleaned their cage, they all got along very good for 2 weeks - then the chasing started all over again. Former "ennemies" live together in a separate group and I can't get chance even a bit this composition anymore now.




my question :

Are continuid (or intensified) attempts - under close supervision in a big plastic tray where I can reach them good and react quickly - a very bad idea with very little chance of succes ?


Advise with some experience would be appreciated.

[Markpd]

Unfortunately a clan of 6 gerbils is extremely likely to declan sooner or later, you did well to have them getting on well for 2 yrs.
From what I've read, it's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to get this clan to get along again, even if the (one off) external influence of the escaped males was the cause in the 1st place.

With mixing each day the composition of the getting divided 2 groups....
I'm afraid I don't understand this sentence.

I suggest you remove the daughter who was being chased, and pair her up with the gerbil (or gerbils) she best got along with in another cage.
Or if 2 groups are now living separately within the cage, remove that whole group to another cage.

Something worth bearing in mind next time you clean out the cage, keep back some of the old bedding (about 1/4 to 1/2 I suppose, depending how often you change it, keep back more if you change it more often), losing the group scent can cause a declan too.

Also, even where there's a chance of reforming a smaller group, you don't want to try this in neutral territory (e.g the plastic tray), you'll want to do it in their main cage with a secure meshed divider, and swap them end to 1 or 3 times a day (3 is better, if you have the time). However this split intro method is primarily intended at introducing just 2 gerbils (or at most 2 pups to 1 adult).
So personally I'd advise against trying to reform the 6 gerbil clan, if there are 2 distinct groups that get along with each other within those groups, then remove one group to another cage (as I mentioned above), whether that's 2 & 4, or 3 & 3.
Just be aware that a 4 group is still at significant risk of declanning in the future too (and even a 3 group is at a higher risk of declanning than a pair, although I have no idea on the chances of that vs a pair).

[LilyandDaisy]

Yes, I'm afraid in this case the only solution is to remove the gerbil being bullied/chased. A declan in a pair can sometimes be stopped if caught early but when it's a group and it's already progressed to chasing, it's safer to split them.

A group of 6 females will almost always declan so I'm quite impressed yours made it to 2 years together, especially in the multi-level enclosure which increases the risk of a declan.

[jd]

Thanks a lot for your advise, which came sooner than expected and got noticed hours later.

Yesterday getting the 4 daughters together without chasing/fighting succeeded in the tray, but I didn't want the risk of a new fight in their cage section during my abscence.

This stabilised 2 groups are the 3 bigger/stronger (dominant) ones separated from the 3 smaller "shy" gerbils, I realised. The daughter who always got chased must be the new alpha-female in their part of the divided cage now I guess.