Tamability add

[mafff]

Is tamability Speacies related??

[lydia]

To a degree,yes.Some species are easier to tame than others,but there will always be exceptions to this.
Personally,I think pets or animals that ppl have problems with taming, is often made worse by ppl's incorrect or lack of understanding of that species requirements.

Lyd

[Ritzie/Admin]

Ability of taming is often related to the extent of domestication! The first gerbil pets were much more stressed than the ones we currently have as pets! The longer a species is kept by humans, the more domesticed it will be and so more able to be tamed!

The species that can be tamed best are social animals! They have often a similar structure in societies as we humans have. They need to be with others!

Solitair (alone living) are usually hard to tame! And can get used to us!

It also depends if they are prey animals or predator and how many enemies!

I know most island species were "extremely tame", because they had no predators and were not used to man! This has sadly caused many extinction during the Polonesian and European colonisation in the world! Many of these recently extinct animals would have been fantastic pets, like the Laughing owl, dodo, Falkland Island Wolf, etc.! www.petermaas.nl/extinct.

[mafff]

Again Ty for your reply's.

I have two Siamese Gerbils.

Are they easy or difficult to tame?

do you have any Siamese Gerbils if so what is your experiance with them?

btw witch speacies are easy 2 tame as in comming to you?

[doomgerbiluk]

now your talkign co;lour variety
a more debatable and interesrig issue
Pied are more laid back that selfs and agoutis
blacks often have a vicious streak (but by no means always)
but their background has a bigger influence than theyre colour so the nature/nurture debate could make this a VERY complex subject.

[sweetie]

I agree with doom, color is a very unresearched area in relation to tamability.

I do know that personally, I have 2 Blacks, 1 Agouti, 1 Nutmeg, 1 DEH, 1 Sapphire, 1 Burmese, &1 SP Burmese.

I have found the Blacks to be the quickest to bite and the most skittish, the Agouti is laid back and quite tame, the Sapphire is ultra tame, the Burmese is also ultra tame, the SP burmese is tame but not to the extreme, the Nutmeg and DEH are tame but would rather not be handled for long periods of time.

There is also the petstore vs bred discussion. It goes on and on.

Are yours tame? How would you define tame? Every ones interpretation of tame is different so the question may need a little more definition. I feel tame is when they don't hide from you and don't bite you. I think tame is when they seek to interact with you. If they come to the front of the tank when you talk take food from your hand and eat it there instead of running off.

[doomgerbiluk]

exactly sweetie
tame is subjective
If I get my dipodils to sit on my hand without running off thats tame
for a gerbil tame is climbing all over me
for a pallid its sitting on my head or nestling cuddled up ont he back of my neck wrapped in my hair

[Ritzie/Admin]

I cannot say either that I have seen major differences between the colours I've had! I don't think it is colour related!

There could be a difference in gerbils if there were different breeds, however the different colours are not breeds.

[mafff]

Peter said:

I cannot say either that I have seen major differences between the colours I've had! I don't think it is colour related!

There could be a difference in gerbils if there were different breeds, however the different colours are not breeds.

I don't meen diffrent collor but speacies(race) (Siamese/Egyptische)Gerbil

[Ritzie/Admin]

Ohh, than there is a difference! Some are more tame naturally, like the fat-tailed gerbils (duprasi). Only within this speices there is also a difference. The smaller Egyptian subspecies can be somewhat nippy! They are known of that you can pick them out of their trap in the wild, and that they won't bite. I have to say, that they hardly ever bite, even untamed. But not all some do, agian in my own case (I've 11 of them) these were the smaller ones, probably the Egyptian subspeices or Algerian/Egyptian hybrids.

I've never had any other gerbil species, but I know some can be handled easier than others. Also probably because the Mongolian gerbil has been kept as pets the longest! So it might be more domesticated than other species!