Again fighting father and son!

[Ritzie/Admin]

A while ago I had a problem of a father and a son fighting after a failed introduction of a third gerbil! They have always live together for since the son was born!

The father is now 4,5 years old and the son about 3,5! Both old!

Since two days they have started to fight again after they were allowed to walk around freely in my livingroom! They do that very often. Only this them the father attacked the son when I placed them back in their tank. He keeps attacking and won't accept his son anymore.

The son is almost all the time hiding in their nesting box (flowerpot with small hole). He will come out only when the old father is asleep, and he will be attacked when his father is awake. He is safe in the nestingbox, because the opening is very small. He defends the opening with his head and of course his teeth. Only fathers is scratching his nose once a while!

I'm not trying to introduce them again! Last time was very hard and took weeks! I began to think it wouldn't succeed at all. It caused also a lot of stress for them. Especially for the son!

They sleep apart.The son in their nesting box and the father in a corner. The son want to have contact with his father and don't understand why he is being attacked, so it seems.

It is like the father don't recognises his son anymore! And I really don't know why! Maybe he has some sort of gerbil alzmeimer (dementia), or something.

I'm now at school and when they will still fight I will seperate them. Than I will purchase a new gerbil mate for the son and the father may live alone for the rest of his live (will not be very long I think, because is looks very old and thin).

What do you think, is it the best solution?

[andrea]

If the son is now 3 and half I am not sure if you should get a friend as in 6 months time you may find you are again with a lonely gerbil.

might be good to buy the son a pair of young males he can boss around, then when he dies of old age you will have 2 males together.

Andrea

[Ritzie/Admin]

That is indeed better, Andrea! Thanx.
I will purchase two young male pups for the son!

[geikou]

I'm sorry to hear about the fights. I guess the introduction of a third gerbil to the established pair might have caused that.

Sometime ago, I was tempted to introduce a third gerbil to my female pair, because someone was putting a lone agouti up for adoption. But when I read about the advice against introducing gerbils to an established group or pair, I decided not to. Especially since my gerbils were females, and female gerbils are reportedly not good to be in more than pairs.

My theory is that a pair is most stable grouping, because there are no group dynamics. Each gerbil only has one other gerbil to "lord" over. So it's actually quite pointless and there are therefore little dominance issues. But when a third one is introduced, there is the issue of "who's boss over the other two?", so that fights could ensue over this.

My two females are currently very stable, with no clear dominance of one over the other. But I think if I add a third, fighting is likely to break out.

Anyway, I hope it works out fine for your "Son" gerbils with his new mates.

[andrea]

I would agree that gerbils are best in groups of 2. we do have one very soft male that loves o be in a big group and dominated! LOL. even his pups beat him up .. his female is very dominating and will not live with any other gerbil but him. But cos hes so laid back and she is so dominate most of the pups seem to be tempered equally which is good.

All the male pups we have kept from this pairing accept all strange gerbils, we kept the males I want to keep for showing in a batchelor pad and to date had no problems introducing and this makes an ideal babysitting group for young male pups waiting to be homed ;D

Andrea

[Ritzie/Admin]

geikou said:

I'm sorry to hear about the fights. I guess the introduction of a third gerbil to the established pair might have caused that.

It was about a halve year ago that I had tried that, and it was the last time I tried! Never again! Than I tried it because I needed some more space for other gerbils, but after that I bought just another cage for the new ones.

After a hard split cage introduction they accepted each other again, so I was very glad! However after about 6 months they started again fighting, the old one (4,5 years old) against his son after an hour running freely in my living room, which they do almost daily.

It could be that not everything was right after their first fight, but maybe it is his old age!

I agree with not placing a new gerbil into a already established group (certainly after that first fight). It will not work. And I also agree with that it is better to keep 2 females together and not more. However with males (all of young age) it is possible to have a larger group in my opinion.

But I have seperated them and they are doning fine right now. The old father will be alone for the rest of his live, and I'm looking for some nice young male pups for the old son!