Greetings Lisa,
Lisa Paleczny wrote:
> My gerbils had no water in one cage and sadly one gerbil died. His name
> was Cody, and he was black with the white strips. He was the gerbil I had
My condolances on the loss of your Cody :(! It is never an easy thing, losing a
friend (whether fuzzy or not).
How long did they have no water? Gerbils can go without water for a time, and
the fact his brother is fine makes me wonder if that would really be the cause...
> always bred for. He would have been 5 months in about 2 weeks. He left behind
> his litter mate brother. I feel bad because that gerbil might have to spend
> the rest of his life alone. There is a small chance a might get a new gerbil
> tomorrow. I cant do split cage because they are in a habatrail. any
> suggestions?
I have introduced adult gerbils (male to male, female to female and male to
female) with little difficulty. I did have one sad introduction, but I believe
that to be an abberation and not "the norm" (the male pounced on the female and
bit her spine. being a baby she had no chance of survival. However, the male
died about a week later, which leads me to believe something was amiss with him,
whether ill or too old to have a new friend.).
I would suggest getting another cage if you are going to get another gerbil.
Introduce them in the bathtub or some neutral territory (kitchen sink, any secure
location where they can't escape). If all goes well in the introduction, put
them in the same cage where you can watch them. When you are going to leave or
need to do something else, put them back in their separate cages, but keep the
cages close so they can smell eachother and get accustomed to eachother's scent..
If there is no sign at all of agression and signs of grooming and sleeping
together, I put them together after a couple days watching.
If there is -=any=- agression at all, I would continue with supervised visits
only a longer period. You might try switching their cages after a couple days
(don't clean the shavings, put the gerbil in the other's cage) so they both smell
of the other.
In my experience (I currently have eight gerbils, all but two were introduced to
eachother as adults), gerbils by and large are easy to introduce. The key is to
not have either gerbil in their "home turf" so they feel the need to defend it.
Good luck!
with a smile,
Deborah
