At 03:55 PM 2/7/00 +0000, Arabelle Sexton wrote:
>Hi list
>I wonder has anyone had success with pairing up an adult male gerbil with 2
>male babies? Could 3 adult males live together happily or is it better to
>have only 2?
>Thanks in advance for any advice.
>Arabelle
Well, let me tell you.
I have been having the worst time getting Oswald together with somebody.
First I put him in a split cage with a 7 week old female siamese (Oswald
was born 10-12-99), and they both did the horrified rubbing against the
bottom of the screen stuff to spread their scent, and then maybe 30 minutes
later the little female squeeeeezed between the wire mesh & the top of the
cage to try to go kill Oswald (only twice her size, mind you), and in the
ensuing scuffle he broke her right arm, which now, about 5 days later,
still hangs uselessly by her side, & she only eats with her left hand. I
have to say that I used an unwashed cage with fresh litter for that
introduction, and I do feel that may have caused some of the territorial
stress problems.
After that incident, I gave Oswald a few days to settle down in his clean
cage, & then I carefully duct taped the wire screen to a habitrail tank
topper (using extra pieces of wire mesh & an intricate design, because of
the odd hump on the tank topper hood.) I put a 7 1/2 week old male in one
side of a former fish aquarium with no other gerbil smell in it, & Oswald
in the other, and aside from the occassional sqeak from the baby boy, there
was no panic and no wild flinging of bodies against mesh, although Oswald
did try to climb over repeatedly, but was thwarted by tape.
On the 2nd day (no rush this time!), I switched sides, and somehow fouled
the duct tape, so Oswald was able to creep over one end of a sort of shelf
of mesh and down the other side. He explored the area, lowered his head to
the baby (who was inside a small flower pot, sqeaking vigorously), and then
went on his way, BACK over the mesh. He has since gone over the mesh
whenever he feels like it, but his favorite place is on the flat shelf up
top, under a purple triangular area the habitrail people saw fit to put
there. I've moved the baby back to the other side, and Oswald has also
figured out how to get from one side to the other by pulling the mesh aside
(toward him) and squeezing through. They finally slept together in a pile
last night. It took them several days, & I took very little part in their
getting to know one another, since Oswald was acting like an adult, instead
of a psychopathic homicidal maniac like he did with the little girl.
I did a lot of introductions when I was first getting my (male/female)
pairs together, and they seemed to all go really smoothly, but I think that
probably had a lot to do with using containers that had NO previous gerbil
smells on them at all.
I am sure Gary could help you with the "how to's" of this, as he has
experience with male colonies and a wonderful web site full of interesting
stories about his gerbils, but as I understand it, male colonies are the
way to go if you want a lot of gerbils interacting and being cute together.
Females in pairs are pushing your luck, but males are fine. I am not sure
how I would introduce a third male to Oswald & his new bud (who now needs a
name): maybe treat them as one gerbil on one side of the divider, and have
the new guy on the other, and switch them back & forth like that?
Thanks for listening to my little saga. I did learn never to use anything
besides a clean cage for introductions, and I will never break that rule
again!
Rebecca...
