Post by ladylinds on Dec 20, 2006 14:18:18 GMT -8
Wilhelm is our 3 year old grey gerbil... he is a hoot and a half. We currently have him in a very large aquarium after his multiple escapes from his old abode. He would push out the end caps of the cage and come on out. He's a bit on the crazy side. He'll let me hold him, but anyone else he'll bite right away. Which means my 2.5 yr old daughter has a cow whenever I hold him because "I do it mama..." when we all know she is too little to do that anyhow. So I let her feed him. My 16 month olds first 2-sylable word was gerbil.. this guy definetely has a good loving spot in our family. Even our dog (who chases anything small) loves this guy- she gives him kisses and the loves sniffing eachother. Anyhow, about half a year ago, we had him and his brother in the aquarium.. as we were cleaning the the regular cage. Keep in mind the lid was on the aquarium and it's a 30 gal tank. Leif jumps out of the cage and scurries as fast as he can into the kitchen- bad idea as our house was infested with mice so we had mouse traps everywhere. He got caught in one before I could get him.. my dog was frantically licking after Leif. We put him back in the cage (after a trip to the vet to take off the remainder of his tail). And his brother, Wilhelm went CRAZY! He starting marking his territory on him.. all I know is the next morning Leif was no more.. We don't think Wilhelm attacked him or anything like that. He just couldn't handle the trama of being caught in the mouse trap. He's less crazy now- minus the occational bite to my hubby's hands. Sometimes they can be selective like that. We had gerbil before them.. Bosco and Finch... and Finch would bite me whenever I picked him up (except he actually drew blood) but didn't care if my husband did. They died of old age- after we had them for about 4 years- that's rather long for a gerbil, isn't it?