ABCgerbils wrote:
> You may remember my "rescue gerbil" of a couple months
> back. This is a dove male about 10 month who after
> his cage mates and he were placed in a bin that had
> held other clans all got into a fight. The other two
> were killed and he was torn up.
>
> Now "Bite-Bite" (as my children call him) is just
> fine. But I don't know what to do about re-clanning or
> placing him??
>
> I tried an experiment of putting him in my boy tank.
> My three males are so mellow and friendly. They all
> accepted him and he seemed very relaxed with them. I
> watched carefully wearing gloves. After about an hour
> my most-mellow boy must have done something to set off
> Bite-Bite because Alan was tearing around the tank
> running for his life with Bite-Bite in hot pursuit. I
> had a hard time getting Bite-Bite away from Alan and
> out of there (but no one was hurt).
>
> Should I try him with a young pup? I am thinking if
> his dominance was well established he might be okay.
> With a same aged male I am afraid he'd take a minor
> squabble too far.
>
> Also, I don't know how I'm going to place this one.
> He has a bad habit of giving anyone he doesn't know a
> nip. If you just ignore it and pick him up a dozen or
> so times then he becomes your buddy and doesn't do it
> (perhaps I need to build a human-gerbil split cage???)
>
> Donna
> ABC Gerbils
> www.abcgerbils.com
>
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Never try to introduce a gerbil into an established group, unless they
are pups. If your "boy tank" had been pups it might have worked, but I
take it they weren't. I'm not at all surprised it didn't work. Try
introducing him to a male pup but use the split cage.
--
Tana and The Little Rascals
http://members.home.net/tlr-gerbilry
