Hmm ya think this will work ok?

[j]

I have 5 females in 2 connected 10 gallon tanks. I want them to get their scents evenly distributed in them.

10 days from now I have to have surgery..so I'll probably be gone for about a day and a half. (2 if I'm unlucky..but I doubt it) And I don't really have anyone that can watch them, check on them yeah..but they won't know if they're fighting or not. And even though my 5 females get along.. I'm kind of scared to because I catch the mother picking on the smallest one every now and then. So I'm planning on seperating them into 3 and 2.. then putting them back together when I get back.

Should work..their scents will still be in the tanks. I've seperated them like that before overnight..which was like 10 hours. I once seperated a male and female pair for a week and that was too easy.

Only scary thing is I have 1 dominant gerbil and 1 semidominant. I'm planning on seperating these 2.. (also the little one with the semidominant...) I'll probably put 3 with the semidominant.. I just hope she doesn't take over her tank and get pissed when I put her back with the mother. She hasn't when I did it for a few hours, but guess I'll see. And obviously, I'll watch them for a while to make sure.

So what do you guys think?

[sweetie]

Hey J,

I think it should work out okay. If you have some one that can transfer some bedding while you are in the hospital, it might also help. You are doing a great job ensuring no fighting while you are gone!! Great job with the prevention. It is better than finding bloddy tanks on your return home!

I hope things go well. Keep us posted on both!!

[j]

Great idea. Didn't think of having someone transfer some shavings around to mix it up a little. I have people throwing toilet paper rolls and things in to make sure they're kept busy.
I don't want to have them switch the females..only one tank has a spot for the wheel, and only one gerbil really uses it.. She's going in the trio since she'll probably run on the wheel most of the time and not bother with the others much. She's not much of a problem anyways though.

Thanks ;D

[sweetie]

Hope everything works for you. Let us know!

[j]

I don't know how the hell people split females so easily. I can't.

The original split I had planned isn't going to work. I tried it today, wanted to make sure I put the right ones together. Mother was being a bych again and attacking and boxing with everyone. I tried her with everyone, she boxed all of them. lol. And as usual.. 2 of them pick on the tiniest one.

Plus they have mites again, and as I've noticed from before.. they box and fight with eachother when they have mites. I guess cause it's annoying and uncomfortalbe and itchy. (I ran out of stuff for them..)

I think the mother is going to end up alone. The other 4..maybe split caged or I'll leave them together..unless I see any more problems. Ugh.

[sweetie]

J,

How did your gerbs get mites? Did you figure out if it was from the bedding or the food? It sounds like you are doing a great job planning before you leave. It is frustrating trying to pair up gerbs.

[j]

Now the pairs I split them into ..... they're fine. I did it differently though. I woke them up and put 2 in the other tank which was rearranged with new toys. Suckers.

I still blame the food I bought in bulk at Petsuppliespluss on the mites. Only the 2 tanks I used the food in have the mites. I'm still using the same bag of bedding in all my tanks too..all tanks 5ft apart from eachother. They were going away, it's only back because I ran out of Ivermectin.

[sweetie]

Is ivermectin the medicine? Is it an ointment or an ingested type?

[j]

Ivermetcin is the medicine to get rid of mites. Orally.

And in case you were wondering..
I had them seperated for a day and half.
Switched the tanks so they'd get a fresher scent of the ones they were split from.
Put them in a big box for about 10 minutes.
Not one problem.
All back together now. ;D