Keebler's Lost His Rank!

[RitzieAnn]

Keebler is doing much better now. He still looks a little thin, but he does eat. I tried to stick him back into his cage with his buddy and his son Sparky, but Gizmo just wouldn't have it. He thought it would be cool to attack poor little Keebs. I've tried it twice, and it doesn't matter, Gizmo sees Keebler, and just attacks. Forget about sniffing him first.

I find this strange and sad, because when I introduced Gizmo and Keebler the first time (along with Gizmo's petstore buddy Blitz) there was NO fighting or screaming. They sniffed each other, tried to climb out of the tank, and then piled into a gerbil mound and took a nap. Sparky didn't seem to mind having his dad back, and he flew to the other end of the tank when Gizmo attacked his dad. Sparky looked rather confused.

I guess part of it may be because Keebler used to mount Gizmo (but he never bit or attacked the way Gizmo is right now) and so now that Giz has rank, he's not willing to give it it. But he had no problem giving it up the 1st time to Keebler. So right now my poor little Keebs is inside of a Critter Trail all by himself, and he has a bitten tail, a swollen hind foot, and a sore nose. This all happened in on ly 1 minute of being with Gizmo last night. Seriously, it was only a minute or maybe less that they were together, and then I saw blood. That was the end of that!

[pixytwinkle]

hi ;D
Do you just put him back in the tank or do you introduce them first. you could always try split caging them to see if theres still a chance they could be friens again as gerbils forget each other after 72 hour i think.
good luck

[imnotagerbil]

That's really sad!!
Oh well i hope you get over it..... gerbils can be so selfish!
Anyways im not sure if my gerbils are fighting... ever since they made love James(male) has been chasing tom making her squeak and run off..... Any other time there fine
I hope when i seperate James before the babies come i won't have the same problem reintroducing his son
This may be a dumb question but what is mounting? Mating???
Anyways good luck

[RitzieAnn]

"made love" that's cute! Yes, mounting is him climbing up on top of her. Not always mating. Sometimes animals do it to show dominance. (Ever seen 2 dogs of the same sex climb on top of each other's butts?) I solved the problem by putting little Kandice with Keebler. Partly because he's really sad to be alone, and I don't have another boy to put him with, and partly because he has great babies, and I got scared after he got sick. He was my first gerbie. Also, when I got Kandice, Sandy said she'd have nice pups with a burmese, or maybe even a siamese. She met Keebler, and thinks he's a really dark siamese with the color point gene and the hymilaian gene.

Oh, and when I stuck Keebler back in the cage.... the cage had just been cleaned, and some of Keebler's litter was in there too. Gizmo just threw a fit anyway!