Gerbil extremely scared of any movements/noises

[lmbn40]

Hello everyone,

I brought a single gerbil to my tank in August (the store only had one) and then I brought another one around a month later. I had them split for now because I would like to introduce them slowly. The problem is that the older one seems to be extremely scared of any slight movements or noises and he constantly hides/thumps whenever I move. He's fine with my hand so I don't think he's scared of me. Is there any way to fix this behavior?

[Mygerbiliscute]

I don't know what to tell you except that my gerbil is very similar. If I keep still, he's so happy to use me as his personal climbing gym, but a sudden movement can send him scurrying off to hide. The way I "fix" this is by moving slowly and cautiously around him.

[TJ's Rodent Ranch]

I also have a gerbil that's very similar. Never sits still, scared of sudden movement. She's otherwise extremely sweet and comes up to my hand and climbs and whatnot.
In her case, she was the runt of her litter and has a neurological issue that makes her this way... unfortunately, because of that, there's no way to work with her on this since that's just the way her brain works, to put it simply. For more skittish gerbils of mine that I can work with, I try to desensitize them to sudden movements, but this has to be done carefully so you don't make it worse. Unfortunately, if it's not you that he's afraid of, it's much harder/impossible to do much about it.
Like Mygerbiliscute said, the best thing you can do is adapt to them and move cautiously when you're around him.