>I'm curious about something regarding fighting gerbils.
>
>I know that hamsters and gerbils are different but something that
>happened to me with some hamsters has me scared about putting another
>gerbil in with Duncan. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on
>this.
I raise both, and of hamsters, three different kinds.
>Years ago I bought 3 hamsters and kept them together for about a year.
>They seemed to get along fine. I never saw them fight.
What kind were they? Syrian (get about the length of your hand)
or dwarf campbell (get about the length of your palm, and all kinds
have a black dorsal stripe except the albinos) or chinese dwarf
(sleek and slim, have a more pronounced 'mouse like' tail that
seems chopped off, and the males have huge gonads at the rear)
>One day I came home (after they had been together for a year w/ no
>problems) and I found one dead and half of his body chewed off, another
>was laying there dying and the third was just walking around like he
>hadn't even noticed.
There could be many reasons. First of all, what kind were they?
Syrians are by nature solitary, although when young will tolerate
each other, and I know that some for a time will tolerate others
that they've grown up with...but will eventually turn and literally
fight to the death.
Dwarf campbells, are social, can be kept in groupings as long
as they are grouped young (or it is offspring kept with the parents)
and also may sometimes fight.
>I never knew the sexes of these hamsters, but I didn't have any babies
>so maybe they were all the same sex.
Probably, if they were dwarf campbells. Otherwise you would
have noticed a sudden weight loss on an animal even if you
never did find the babies (and the mother destroyed them).
>Does anyone have any insight into what may have happened
>to cause them to kill each other like that after having lived
>together for so long?
If you can tell me what kind they were, I can probably help.
>It was a pretty scary experience.
It usually is to suddenly find carnage in a cage.
Gerbils, can also turn suddenly, but it isn't often. They are
a social animal and usually do better with a pal or more.
There are ways to introduce animals to each other to
prevent fighting and other problems, and I have generally
found that it is easier to introduce gerbils at any age to
any other age than hamsters to other hamsters most of
the time (there are exceptions, but).
Deb
Rebel's Rodent Ranch
