----- Original Message -----
From: <David> <Lasnick>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 12:54 PM
Subject: Death of a Gerbil
My son has had two black gerbils for about 3 1/2 years. One of them died
yesterday. There were no signs of bad health or stress. It appeared to
have
died in its sleep. Perhaps this is how long gerbils live.
Hi David,
Yes gerbils usually live between 3 and 4 years, so yours died of old age.
There is nothing to worry about.
So now the big
question is can we get some new gerbils (after an appropriate mourning
period, of course). Does anyone have thoughts on this. I have heard that
it
is difficult adding new gerbils to old ones. The original two were brothers
that slept on top of each other since they were pups.
To be honest I would not introduce a new gerbil to your remaining one.
Males are considerably easier to introduce than females, but even so there
is always a risk. Your senior citizen would probably be happier to live out
his life by himself and with lots of human attention and toilet rolls to
chew. By all means get some new gerbils, but keep them separately.
Cheers
Sue
Thanks for your help.
Sitting Shiva in Connecticut
