Introducing infants to a lone male

[lishlash]

Sadly we lost one of our pair of 2.5 year old male gerbils this week.

So far, postie, the surviving brother seems okay (🤞🏼) but I’m worried that he would be happier with some friends.

We’re looking at getting two infant males (under 10 weeks) to join him.

I have a few questions

1. How long should we leave him to get used to his brother not being around?

2. I’ve read all about split cage introductions, but this isn’t going to be feasible for a variety of reasons. Are there any good alternative ways to introduce babies into our existing cage?

[TJ's Rodent Ranch]

Hi there.
I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your male, I hope you guys are doing okay.

A lot of people choose to just let them live the rest of the time without a buddy at that age, since there's a significant age gap, but if possible I always like to reintroduce them to a pair of younger ones (like you're doing), since gerbils really are always happier with a buddy or two.

As an answer to your questions:

1. How long should we leave him to get used to his brother not being around?
I have noticed that a lot of times when two really old gerbils are together for most of their lives (were your two together for a while?) often when one passes, the other at that age will sometimes just decide to pass within a month or so. I've seen this quite a bit, so when I have a situation like this I'll usually wait about a month before seeking out more gerbils to make sure that the other one won't just decide to go as well. If you wait this amount of time and he seems healthy and happy then I would probably go get some males and introduce them as soon as they're ready, since that would give him plenty of time to come to terms with the fact that his brother is gone and be able to accept more gerbils if he's going to.

2. I’ve read all about split cage introductions, but this isn’t going to be feasible for a variety of reasons. Are there any good alternative ways to introduce babies into our existing cage?
I have done this many times before with young males, without a split. It's much trickier with females, so it's great we're dealing with males here! If you're going to do it without a split (which is much riskier) you want to be careful and slow.
So, the younger you can get your two new males the better, so that they're not old enough to really fight, and they're young enough the older male doesn't see them as a threat. This can be done at 10 weeks, but I would try to get them younger if possible. 6 weeks is best but 8 weeks works well also.
How you do this, is you get a large neutral environment, like a big tub that they can't jump out of (bathtubs work well). This is also because if there is a fight, it's a million times easier to break up if they're in a clear open space without anything they can go in or under. If they're in a tank, they could roll into a house or a tunnel, out of your ability to break them up, and in that situation seconds really matter. (Not saying there will be a fight). Keep them together for as long as possible, if they start standing still and their hair rises up break them up before there's a fight. If they do really well, smelling each other, investigating, and then eventually just turning around and paying attention to other stuff, you should be good, but keep them in the supervised tub for a few more minutes just in case. I must stress for the preservation of your hands in the possibility of a fight. Wear a pair of leather gloves! It has saved my hands countless times over years of intros! Often when a gerbil is pulled out of a fight, it still wants to fight and will bite the nearest anything. When you've just pulled them out, this is almost always your hand.
But, I find in this situation fights aren't common, so be aware, present, and ready, but you should be okay.
If they're doing alright together, put them in a tank that's just been cleaned, with no toys or anything (so no one can develop territories). If they're doing perfectly fine, and interacting really well you can put toys back in within a day or two, and they should be fine. I find the success rate for this situation (with one old male and one or two very young males) to be equal in either a split or the straight intro, though the straight intro has more to lose if it goes wrong.

Anyways, apologies for the novel of a post, I hope it wasn't too much and it helped answer your questions.
good luck with your boys!

Edit: Ahh so many typos! Apologies! Sometimes they just slip by I guess, lol.

[lishlash]

Oh this is all great- thank you.

They were brothers, so yes together a long while- so I’ll give him a bit of time and see how he’s doing, and then the bathtub scenario sounds great, so fingers crossed this might work for us!

[TJ's Rodent Ranch]

Yeah, I'm glad it was helpful.

Sometimes I've found it just happens that way. I've always found it kind of sad but also rather peaceful. When one realizes the other is gone, if they were really old they'll often just move on. You might not even have to wait long. If you can see he's happy and bouncy and seems okay, then it's very unlikely it'll happen. It's generally in the beginning that you decide if there should be a waiting process at all. I usually only do this if it seems to have hit them pretty hard.

I really hope it does work out! Intros are a risky business no matter the method, so it's always a bit of a gamble but it does often times work out. One of the big problems is that although there are an equal amount of good and bad experiences out there, it's really only the bad ones that get out on the internet, since when there's a good one there's not much to talk about or ask about. People don't often make posts or articles just to inform people they've had a successful intro. The fact that there's so many bad ones out there, and not good ones, can give people a very bad impression about it, and make them dread introducing their gerbils, which is really unfortunate and can make it more difficult for them to go ahead with it.
fingers crossed this works for you guys!

[mygerbilprince]

So I'd like to agree with everything Tunnely said, but also add on.

To your first question, since your remaining boy is older, it may be best to see how much time he has left and if he could live happily on his own. However, I've also heard introductions can go smoother when you re-introduce the "widowed" gerbil in under a month or so. It's supposed to help because they won't have as much time to establish their own scent, and are more adaptable to forming a new scent? I can't be sure of the accuracy of that, but it may be something to keep in mind.

To your second question, I have no experience in the method of introduction that Tunnely described, but I've also heard of another form of introductions with the cage-in-cage method. You basically put one cage inside of another, and treat it like a split tank by switching the boys in and out of each tank. I think using a tank with wire bars is better for this method. I'm not sure of this will be possible for you to try, but there's no harm in putting it out there! Good luck, and I'm sorry for your loss. Gerbils are such special friends.<3

[lishlash]

I just wanted to update this for anyone who is searching for a similar answer.

I decided to leave him to see how he fared on his own for a while, and three months later he seems to be very happy by himself. There definitely was a period of adjustment where we kept a close eye, but it by the end of the first month (where I was going to make the decision about whether or not he needed new friends), he was doing great!

[TJ's Rodent Ranch]

That's good to hear! Older gerbils can fare very well on their own, certainly much better than younger ones can.
Sorry again for the loss of your boy