they probably smelled the other gerbies' scent on you and decided to check it out, did you handle them in the opposite order than usual? traci worked in a behavior lab when she was in college and it was very important to handle the animals in the same order because they recognized the smell of the animal(s) that were handled before them
the first pair you handled may have use their scent glands a bit more this time and the second pair weren't accustomed to that strong of a smell sometimes you just pick the right time to handle them and they feel more frisky and friendly we try to handle ours in a place where they won't readily jump onto something (i.e. not near their tank so they won't try to jump to it) if they miss the jump and fall even a short distance they can get hurt, then again we've had pets leap astonishing distances and not even lose their balance when they take off running as soon as they hit the ground! we like the sandbox! we're trying to set up a play area with sand in it for our gerbies -- ron & traci things-that-squeak > From: Blue <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: Blue <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 17:59:40 -0700 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Eager to come out.. Springing everywhere > > Hello list, > > I'm just wondering about the change in my gerbils' > behaviors.. > > I have two pairs of males, > > Cairo and Zerwin.. about seven months by now, I guess. > Soody and Juniper, a bit over a year. > > Well.. tonight, I was just handling them. The tanks > are right by each other and I switch from tank to tank > without changing my shirt or washing my hands.. (I > wash my hands before handling any gerbils, however) > > Juniper's always been eager to run up my arm onto my > shoulder to 'survey' everything. > > However, today, Cairo was quite interested and > actually climbed onto my shoulder too. A first. >^__^< > > Then, even more surprising, Zerwin decided to join in. > > I'm just baffled why they suddenly did this? Did they > just decide they liked me or was it something else? > *g* > > And the springing thing.. Juniper and Cairo will > suddenly leap into the air.. trying to reach the top > of the aquarium, I assume. Is there a high risk for > them to hurt themselves? I don't think I can do > anything to discourage it.. > > Today, I cleaned out the tanks and let them run around > in a playbox (in their pairs) if that would affect > their behavior. It has a digging sand box in the > playbox. > > Christina > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Listen to your Yahoo! Mail messages from any phone. > http://phone.yahoo.com
