Fat-tailed female in same room as Mongolian males

[ulrike]

I am having Mongolian males for three years now. At this moment I am thinking of adopting a female fat-tailed gerbil from a rescue center. I have no experience with this species yet, but they seem adorable . Now I have multiple questions, I hope somebody can help me.

I know the female bites, which is not a problem for me as I think I need to spend my time as much as possible with my elderly Mongolian males. I would love just watching her. I read somewhere that fat-tailed gerbils are very sensitive for odors and that the odor of Mongolian gerbils makes them aggressive. Is this true? I know she is kept in a room where Mongolians live too and I would like to do the same at my home. Would this be a bad idea? I would not want her to be stressed all the time.. Her cage would approximately be at a distance of 3 or 4 meters from the Mongolians in a room which is 20m2. I think they will smell each other.

The other way around I am not sure if my males will smell her. I read that the odor of females can cause males to fight, had anybody experience with this? Of course it is difficult to know the reason of fights.. I am not sure if the males will recognize / react to her odor as she is a different kind of gerbil. I think the female odor will be recognized anyway?

[ulrike]

Peter ( admin) would you have an opinion about this? I would like to make sure that I am doing the right thing before picking her up at the rescue center. I would love to hear from people who are heaving both kinds of gerbils.

[Ritzie/Admin]

In my opinion you can keep fat-tailed gerbils and Mongolian gerbils in the same room! I've done that for years and never had any problems. As far as I know it is not different from keeping several tanks with Mongolian gerbils in one room.

I would say: go and take her from the rescue center and give her a new home! ;D

[ulrike]

Peter thank you so much for your answer!!! It is great to be able to get information from somebody who knows so much about gerbils. I will certainly take her home and care for her as good as I can. I have another scent related question. The duprasi I am about to take home is very aggressive at this moment. She appears to run to your hands and bite them if this is possible in anyway. I have read on another forum that this is scent related and that some people have this problem and other people don't, depending on their body odour. Do you know anything about this? It would be great if anybody could advise me if you can prevent this problem, maybe with gloves or a special kind of natural soap or ... maybe in another way?

[Ritzie/Admin]

It might be the case, but personally I think that this is not always the case, some are just more aggressive than others. I think it is different in each gerbil.

What I sometimes do to hide my personal odour (with handling pups, etc.) is to wash my hand with their own bedding.