Re: Biting Gerbil

[Janet Morrow]

Parents can be very protective of their children.  What she calls playing the gerbil may consider too rough.  For the first week or so that we have a new gerbil we do not pick them up and "play" with them.  They need time to develop trust and adjust to a new environment.  Three to four times a day we put our hands in to the gerbils tank.  We give then nice little snacks.  Once the start sitting on our hands we will lift them slowly up a few inches and then lower them back down.  With in a few days it becomes a fun game that the gerbils like.  Soon we can lift the up to our face level and speak to them for a few seconds...  We take it slow to develop a relationship of trust with the gerbils.   Just a few ideas.  She probable was moving too fast and the gerbil had not developed trust in her.  Then when she did something that startled the gerbil it reacted in a defensive way.   Janet & Elizabeth Mountain Ash's Gerbils Members of the American Gerbil Society http://home.maine.rr.com/mountainash