Female sex/mating type mounting the other 2

[question]

I know females tend to mount eachother to rub their scent on them but lately I am noticing one female in particular mounting the others like she is trying to mate. The ones being mounted even lift their butt up a little like I've seen females do during mating. There is slight chasing and butt lifting and then mounting and the female doing the mounting even does the little leg lift. lol

AND YES THESE ARE NO DOUBT ALL 6 MONTH OLD FEMALES.

Maybe one or both the females are just in heat maybe and the other is proving domiance? Does this tend to turn into fighting? Because one of them won't let the mounter mount her. She gets pissy and does a little stand off with the mounter and blocks her from mounting her. Then they box and run their seperate ways going about their usual business

[doomgerbiluk]

I get that too
In my all female colony there's a lot of activity when they go on heat
and my male colony the old male, Vladimir, is always mounting one of his sons, Viper.

[Kenshin]

Yeah, lol I experianced that with my male Mice the other day, I was thinking one of them was homo-sexual but then I figured they were just in heat and couldn't control themselves, the other mouse was freaking out and running into walls..... weirdness, but yeah, it's a "Heat" thing it rev's there hormones outta control so they have to hump something I guess lol

[minnesota2121]

I have had the same thing happen with my two females, several times. And it is always the same one that is trying to get onto the other one. I don't know why this happens. Maybe there is some explanation for this.

[j]

Makes more sense for males to do it though.. at least there is a hole for it to go in..Females ain't got nothing..lol so what's with the leg lifting..

When any of my females are in heat, they seem to hide more and stay in their nesthouse. When I let them run around outside the tank and anyone's in heat, seems like they get chased and mounted..but never noticed any leg or but lifting.

[sweetie]

It is both a behavior that is related to both the cycle and dominance. If they are boxing and chasing, you may want to keep your eye on declanning. Many behaviors of gerbils both male and female are heightened during the adolescent period between 5-8 months. Your females are right in that range.

I would look for excessive fighting, boxing, squeaking, and chasing. If it is infrequent, then it should be okay. How many females do you have? It sounds like 2 or 3. Dynamics and behavior vary according to the amount of gerbils being housed together. If you have 2, keep and eye on it. If you have 3, the likelyhood of this behavior turning into declanning is increased.

I hope this has helped. Please keep us posted.

[minnesota2121]

Okay, I now have three female gerbils together. One of them is about One and a half years old and the other two are only about 4-5 months old. Today I noticed that the older of the three gerbils was mounting one of my younger ones. Only, she wasn't just mounting. She was sort of locking her arms around her and she would then kind of vibrate and grind her. This was VERY strange. The younger one would seem to accept it and she would raise up her butt. Then it would continue the same way.

THEN, I noticed about an hour later, that they were still going at it. Then I saw the younger one mount the older one. They have been mounting eachother and possibly mating for about an hour or so now. I am almost positive that they are females. I am not sure if I could be wrong.

Is it possible for the sexual organs of a male to be so small that he could be mistaken for a female?

By the way, I responded to this thread earlier about this same gerbil, and a different gerbil. Although, this interaction between these two seems to be much more intense and serious.

[queenofthenile]

I've observed the mounting, but never the butt-lift in same-sex pairings. Are you 100% sure they are all girls? You can check out my site for pictures...
www.gerbilbreeding.com/sexing.htm

If they are all girls, I would watch them closely. Sometimes, this display is just a normal behaviour, but it can sometimes escalate. Just observe them to see if the behaviour is obsessive (the other gerbil can't rest at all), or that there is lots of squeaking coming from the gerbil being mounted. Those were signs I've observed before my group of 4 boys declanned.

[minnesota2121]

Yes, I am 99% sure that they are all female. I just don't know what this could be. The wierd thing is, that they will each sort of "take turns". Each one will mount the other.

By the way, the younger one is only about 2-4 months old, so I am not even sure if it is possible to mate at this age.

These three have only been together for about a month. Is it possible that they are just simply rubbing their scent glands on each other? I know that their scent gland is on there belly. I hope this is the case.

[queenofthenile]

Yeah, if they are mounting each other, they are actually scent-marking with their bellies. I'd just keep an eye on it, and make sure it doesn't escalate.

[minnesota2121]

Ok,
I haven't seen them do that mounting thing in couple days now, so I think that they are fine. Thanks a lot.