Introducing my gerbils

Beryl said:
Hope all goes well and the babies will thrive.

Do you know anything about duprasi?
Breeders who advertise them say they can live alone or in pairs but a rodent rescue i know says they need to live in pairs like other gerbils.
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I know a bit about duprasi. I've never owned one but have cared for one. They are very different to Mongolian gerbils and more similar in character and care requirements to hamsters. People who like Syrian hamsters tend to find duprasi appealing.

As they are fairly newly kept as pets, people are still working out the best way to keep them and that includes experimenting with keeping them alone or in pairs. However they do seem to do fine alone so I wouldn't think it's essential to have them in pairs. Sometimes rescues conflate different species and assume they are similar. I would trust breeders' advice over rescues' when it comes to duprasi because most rescues have little to no experience with them as they so rarely end up in rescues.
 
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The pups are 2 weeks old now. All 6 are boys! I'm going to wait until the second litter to choose as ideally I would like girls. But boys would be fine too, except I would have to think of a whole new set of names because I haven't had to name a male animal for over 14 years! All my hamsters have been female apart from Kebab who came to me already named, and all my gerbils in the past 14 years have been female apart from Storm, who also came already named.

3 of the boys are the same colour as my Wispa was which is nice.
 
Do boys have different traits to girls? I know in some animals there are differences.
 
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RainbowBrite said:
Do boys have different traits to girls? I know in some animals there are differences.
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On average they're a little bit calmer but there isn't much difference. I just got into the habit of keeping females and it's easier for practical reasons to have all one sex as if one gerbil from each pair of girls were to die, I could pair up the survivors.
 
Daisy said:
On average they're a little bit calmer but there isn't much difference. I just got into the habit of keeping females and it's easier for practical reasons to have all one sex as if one gerbil from each pair of girls were to die, I could pair up the survivors.
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I can understand that. It reminds me of guinea pigs as it is very hard to pair males and most people get males neutered to pair with a female.
 
RainbowBrite said:
I can understand that. It reminds me of guinea pigs as it is very hard to pair males and most people get males neutered to pair with a female.
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Gerbils have a different social structure to other rodents (more similar to hamster social structure, except, more social) which means neutering isn't such a good option for them. Female gerbils are dominant over males, and sometimes they will accept a neutered male, but not always. In any case, a neutered male falls to the very bottom of the social hierarchy and is often slightly bullied and harried by a female even if she has accepted him! It is unfortunately increasingly common for rescues to routinely neuter gerbils because they don't understand the difference between gerbils, and guinea pigs/mice/rats.
 
Daisy said:
Gerbils have a different social structure to other rodents (more similar to hamster social structure, except, more social) which means neutering isn't such a good option for them. Female gerbils are dominant over males, and sometimes they will accept a neutered male, but not always. In any case, a neutered male falls to the very bottom of the social hierarchy and is often slightly bullied and harried by a female even if she has accepted him! It is unfortunately increasingly common for rescues to routinely neuter gerbils because they don't understand the difference between gerbils, and guinea pigs/mice/rats.
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That is very interesting. What a shame some rescues do not realise it is best not to neuter the males.

Actually, I have found some rescues do not understand guinea pigs either and will often rehome more then two males which is not a good idea as more then two leads to terrible fighting.
 
Lovely the pups are now two weeks :-).
 
The gerbils are still doing well generally and nearly a year old now. There has been a bit of tension between them recently. In every gerbil pair there's a dominant gerbil, almost always the bigger gerbil, and currently that's Twiglet but Astra has occasionally been challenging Twiglet. I've had to simplify their enclosure because the shelves and platforms were making it worse. I'm hoping this will pass and I won't have to separate them. Twiglet is significantly bigger than Astra, but Astra has much more self-confidence. Twiglet dislikes confrontation and is probably too appeasing with Astra.

Here they are looking adorable:

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This is Astra looking very pleased with herself:

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Oh they really do look adorable! I have never seen gerbils looking relaxed and content like that. You tend to only see pictures of them looking alert and active!
 
Gerbils are much more likely to be seen napping or relaxing above ground than hamsters are. I don't think most hamsters like being seen asleep but gerbils don't seem to mind! They like sunbathing too if there's a sun spot in the enclosure (like cats).
 
They are very cute. Are they tame? Can you get them out to free roam like hamsters?
 
Albert the Dwarf Hamster said:
They are very cute. Are they tame? Can you get them out to free roam like hamsters?
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Mine are very tame. Gerbils in general aren't afraid of people but are skittish and very fast. They calm down with age.

Most of my gerbils have enjoyed free roaming. Of my current pair, Astra is very adventurous and likes to be out but Twiglet prefers to stay in the enclosure. I tried free roaming her twice. Both times she hid in a corner and went wild every time I tried to catch her. It was an ordeal for us both, so now she stays at home where she's happy!
 
Daisy said:
Mine are very tame. Gerbils in general aren't afraid of people but are skittish and very fast. They calm down with age.

Most of my gerbils have enjoyed free roaming. Of my current pair, Astra is very adventurous and likes to be out but Twiglet prefers to stay in the enclosure. I tried free roaming her twice. Both times she hid in a corner and went wild every time I tried to catch her. It was an ordeal for us both, so now she stays at home where she's happy!
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I have always wondered if gerbils could be tamed. Thank you for getting back to me.
 
What is it like when they're free roaming? My sister (aged about 9 at the time) had a friend's gerbil to stay with us once (I can't actually remember what happened to it). This was a very long time ago and gerbil care probably wasn't what it is now. All I can remember was it was like having a mini kangaroo hopping around and unfortunately it got into some unsuitable places. And lost his tail - he went behind the boiler and we worried he would fry - his tail was sticking out and my sister pulled him by his tail and it came off. We were told it was normal for them to shed their tails. But I am sure gerbil owners today would cringe hearing that. He then got in some kitchen cupboards and through to another room. We had garden netting all over the room to try and catch him.

My one and only experience of a gerbil. Poor thing must have been terrified. He was caught and put back in his cage and returned to his owner at some point.
 
Yes, I probably should have mentioned, it's not really a good idea to free roam gerbils in a large space until they're tame, because getting them back again afterwards can be difficult otherwise. They can be quite wild, and even more so when they're scared. It's better to use a playpen until they're tame, with tall sides because they can jump up to 50cm.

They can lose their tail if it's trapped or grabbed. It's a defence mechanism against predators who might try to catch them by the tail. It's not uncommon to find gerbils in rescues with stumpy tails due to this type of injury.
 
I made myself some mashed sweet potato for lunch and gave some to the gerbils since they were awake and they've never had it before.

I think it was a hit! I glanced at their cage while eating and they were watching me eat like this:

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So of course I had to give them some more.

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I think I'm going to be eating sweet potato more often from now on.
 
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