Health check?

[henriika]

Our two nine months old gerbil boys Mustis and Tyyni seem to be happy and healthy but I’m worried about not noticing a possible problem with their scent gland and I’m not sure how easy they would be to handle at a vet. When we bought them, the pet store recommended a health check every day by grabbing the gerbil, placing him on his back and gently blowing on the fur so that you can see the scent gland. However, that didn’t seem possible during the taming process when we wanted to build trust with them.
Now, Tyyni likes to climb on us and it would be possible to do the health check for him, I guess, but we’ve never hold him against his will and he is very active. I’m afraid of forcing him. Will he loose his trust? How to introduce the health checks in a gentle way or is there another way to do it?
Mustis will climb on top of us when we sit in the paypen but he doesn’t trust us to carry him so we use a poster tube for him. He loves the tube and understands how it works. But how to have a health check for him?
We would also love to pet them but they are not interested in it at all. Should we still try it with treats or should we just accept it’s not going to happen? They are very affectionate with each other!

[TJ's Rodent Ranch]

Hi there,

to do health checks, or at least scent gland checks, I usually pick them up at the very base of the tail (never the tip or middle, or the skin will come off!) and I give them something to put their front paws on. They will grab on, but this way you have complete control and their stomach is exposed, so you can check for SGTs. It usually only takes a few seconds to check, maybe a little more, but then you can turn them right-side-up.
Gerbils never like their stomach to be exposed, so no matter how you do it, they're not going to like it. But, if you find a way to do it quickly and smoothly then it's easier for the person and the gerbil.

(Picking Mustis up by the tail, and keeping him on your palm while still holding his tail ((so that he can't jump off)), could be a new way to carry him. If you do this every time it could start to teach him the palm of a hand is not to be afraid of. As that goes on, you can even let go of his tail when he stops trying to jump. This is something I do with my gerbils to get them accustomed to being held in the palm of a hand, or being held period.)

Trust is a tricky thing. If your gerbil already trusts you, in my experience they'll forgive and forget. However, if they don't trust you yet, it can back up their ideas that you're dangerous, and make them trust you even less. Tyyni sounds like it would be perfectly fine, and Mustis sounds like it would probably be okay too, or at least worth a go.
Building trust in the first place is a totally different thing, though. In the beginning, when they're very skittish, I usually just have my hand in the cage for about a minute every day to get them accustomed to me. After this, I pick them up. Picking them up is never easy, and will always be a struggle the first time, but as long as you go slow, and don't pursue them for long if they're running away, it should be fine.
I find that it's more important to have them very calm when you put them down than it is when you pick them up. I'll hold them for a little bit, only as long as they don't start to freak out, and then I'll put them in the palm of my hand, and place my hand in the cage. You should be very near the bedding, or even on the bedding when they hop off.
The end of this interaction will be not so stressful for them, and they won't be thinking about the beginning interaction.
For some of the very skittish gerbils I've done this with, it took a little while, while the calmer ones that just aren't big on humans, it can take only a few times. However, at the end of the process, they'll usually hop onto my hand whenever I put it in the tank, and I will be able to pick them up by just lifting my hand when they're on it.
I don't claim this works with every gerbil, there are some that just don't like interaction and it's as simple as that, but it's worked with the majority of the ones I try it with so I feel that it's a solid system.

Gerbils aren't very keen on petting. You can always try but they pretty much all hop off when you do. They just don't like that kind of touch very much. I've had a few that enjoyed being pet, and two that even enjoyed a tiny gerbil massage, but this isn't really about building trust or friendship, it's just their personality, some like it some don't. Always feel free to keep doing so, it's not stressful for them, sometimes just a nuisance, so it's okay to do so. And who knows, once you bring out their personalities a bit more, they might show that side and like pets.

I hope this wasn't too long a response, and that it helped some, and answered some questions

[LilyandDaisy]

At nine months it's quite unlikely they would develop a scent gland tumour so I would say the pet shop's advice to check every day may be unnecessary. To keep a general eye out, you can hold a treat above them so they have to stand up tall to reach it, and try to get a glimpse that way.

I think it is good, if you can, to handle them more intensely (e.g using Jamie Whiler's method) from time to time when they are younger, to make things easier when they are older when a health check may be genuinely necessary. It's also good to get them used to having their teeth checked by moving their top lip away.

I find it helpful to sit in a playpen or other enclosed area while they are running around and allow them to climb on me. Sometimes when they are climbing I will just pick one up, hold them for a couple of seconds and let them go, so that they hopefully learn that being picked up isn't anything to be scared of. Once they are used to that, you can move on to turning them over to check their bellies or checking their teeth.

[henriika]

Thank you so much for both of you for your very helpful and comforting advice!
I’ll definately try to combine your methods by starting to hold them / Mustis especially in the paypen for a little while and gradually start to use the root of the tail technique. I agree that with Tyyni it will probably be quite easy. It would be wonderful if we could get Mustis to trust the hand!

[TJ's Rodent Ranch]

I'm glad it was helpful!
I find it's always the root of the personality that matters.
If they have a personality that simply doesn't like people, or isn't very friendly, then that's much harder to work with because that's how they naturally are, and it would be like someone getting to know you, versus trying to get you not to be an introvert. Very different things.
If it's simply a trust problem, and they're skittish, you can almost always work through that, and get to the bottom of their real personality, which in a lot of gerbils is actually very sweet and friendly. This would be like someone simply getting to know you.
If Mustis just doesn't trust the hand and is skittish, then it's very likely something you can work past.
The best kind!