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Post by RitzieAnn on Jun 19, 2005 22:09:16 GMT -8
I adopted a spotted male agouti from PetCo a few weeks back. The reason he was up for adoption is because he was a bully. The gal told me that they'd tried several times to pair him up with the rest of their (new) gerbils, and h gave them blood baths! She told me not to house him with anyone. (I named him CJ by the way...)
I was at PetCo today with my boyfriend's little sister (14) putting her (STINKY) mouse up for adoption, and I told the lady that I had adopted the gerbil, and she remembered me. I also told her that he is HAPPILY living with a young male. Just a little bit of screaming, a few laps in the cage, and a gerbil-pile nap, and they were best of buds! (She was super excited!)
CJ's buddy is a young agouti male whom I got from Sandy. (Looks like Eric picked out the perfect gerbil, huh Sandy!?) ;D
Gerbils are like people... they're not going to get along with everybody, and I've found that if you "stage" it, like you over-anticipate a fight or something, the gerbils seem to know it, and I think it puts them on super allert. I just put my "gerbil seperating tool" next to the cage, closed the cage doors, put in the pup, and added cardboard. I haven't had a problem pairing him with a female either. (Thought he's only actually been bred with one, as Kandice wasn't in heat at the time.)
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Post by gerbilsrgreat on Jun 19, 2005 22:18:08 GMT -8
Great story!!! What is your "gerbil seperating tool"? Just curious -Jeremiah
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Post by RitzieAnn on Jun 19, 2005 22:37:35 GMT -8
I tried to make a shelf for a wire cage I had by wraping hardware cloth around to wooden pieces. (didn't work, I just ended up cutting the hardware cloth larger and wraping it around the wires....) but so I had this THING left over, and it works great for seperating gerbils. I just bent it so it's more of a U shape, and when it's straight it's only like 5 inches, and it's about that tall. I just hold the wooden parts. Works really well!
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Post by sandy on Jun 20, 2005 22:09:57 GMT -8
That sounds like a successful intro. The trouble with pet stores is they have no idea about gerbil intros, split-caging, putting gerbils in neutral territory etc. So no wonder blood baths happen. The pet store I go to in town here has a whole bunch of gerbils all seperate, one per 10 gallon aquarium, because of a de-clanning. Silly people.
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Post by malabui on Jun 21, 2005 8:16:49 GMT -8
Just shoving a gerbil with another one only really works when the gerbils in question have only just left their mothers (and fathers) but in genral you have to introduce them. One of my gerbils wasn't accepted back into his group by his half brother (but his brother accepted him) so after a blood bath and taking both of the fighting gerbils to the vets (They had to have the bloody bits of fur shaved and one of them only really had a line of fur down his back left... it did look amusing, though gerbil shaving as a hobby isn't something I suggest) they had to be separated. The one was wasn't accepted had to live alone for the rest of his life and the other stayed in his cage. The separated one was fine about being on his own since I gave him alot of attention, but there was no way I would have reintroduced them.
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