Brother taking care of the sleepy one

[henriika]

I’m posting this as an interesting thing that I wanted to share with you and would love to hear if you have similar experiences and what to think of it.

We have two male gerbils which will be 5 months old at the end of March. They always sleep inside their house - except yesterday. The braver one, Tyyni, fell asleep out in the open near the corner of the tank. His brother looked really worried and as my husband brought his phone close to Tyyni to take a picture, Mustis had enough of it. He went to Tyyni and started to push him towards a carton box so that he wouldn’t be so exposed I guess. Tyyni was very sleepy and annoyed and kept chirping the whole way and when Mustis left he returned to the same corner to sleep.
I was a bit worried that Tyyni was unwell, but now he seems to be fine. The heating was on and the room was perhaps warmer than usually so perhaps it was too hot for him in the house. I just thought Mustis’ behaviour was intresting. Was he protecting his brother or was it something else? What do you think?

[henriika]

I should add that after that they have been sleeping in their house together as they normally do and they dig and play together normally, no fighting or chasing, so I’m quite convinced this isn’t about declanning.

[Markpd]

Curious, perhaps it was too hot in their house for him, how warm was it in your house?
And like you said, perhaps Mustis didn't like him being out in the open, but perhaps he also didn't like to sleep alone?
Other than that, I don't know, not seen that happen myself.

[henriika]

It’s hard to tell exactly how warm it was but the tank is situated close to the heater so it was probably quite warm. It was the corner that was farther away from the heater he was sleeping in.

[Markpd]

Hmm, ok, probably worth putting a thermometer near the cage to see the actual temperature (even if only temporarily).