Introducing my gerbils

Daisy said:
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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Aww, I love how they were both watching you! 😍
 
The gerbils are quite obsessed with food right now, especially Twiglet, because they're in hoarding mode. Not all gerbils hoard but those who do are often seasonal hoarders. They tend to suddenly start hoarding in October when the days start getting shorter and stop some time in the spring. I'm feeding them at least double the usual amount and they still constantly want food! I think it's a very deeply ingrained instinct to seek out as much food as possible before winter. I think of it like a switch that flicks in their brain.

This is a video of Twiglet collecting sorghum from a large spray. They don't have cheek pouches but they will still use their mouths to carry seeds.

 
Really going for that spray!

That’s really interesting, I do love to see natural instincts coming to the fore like that & also seeing those instincts recognised & allowed for.
I think some hamsters tend to hoard more in winter too & it’s the shorter days rather than cold weather they react to.
 
Love the gerbil photos when wanting your mashed sweet potato! That is clearly a hit! Twiglet is absolutely gorgeous on that video :-) She is very beautiful. I had to think twice when she disappeared and came back again - if it was the same gerbil! Exit right, enter left :)
 
elusive said:
Really going for that spray!

That’s really interesting, I do love to see natural instincts coming to the fore like that & also seeing those instincts recognised & allowed for.
I think some hamsters tend to hoard more in winter too & it’s the shorter days rather than cold weather they react to.
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Yes, I think it's important to let them act out these natural instincts so they feel safe and secure. I know they're not going to starve over winter but they don't know that.

The spray vanished eventually so I think she might have just dragged the whole thing underground. It's unfortunate that they don't have cheek pouches as they can't carry nearly as much food as a hamster can!
 
The gerbils are adorable.
I inspected the gerbils at petsmart the day I bought my ham and found the two in the enclosure to be super excited to come out of their hide and see me. I tapped my finger on the cage and they both bolted :[
 
Daisy said:
Yes, I think it's important to let them act out these natural instincts so they feel safe and secure. I know they're not going to starve over winter but they don't know that.

The spray vanished eventually so I think she might have just dragged the whole thing underground. It's unfortunate that they don't have cheek pouches as they can't carry nearly as much food as a hamster can!
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Yeah, thats something I waswondering is how much of their natural world is known through instinct that can be brought into their enclosure to make them happier. Do they recognize pictures of meadows and deserts and forests?
 
Coderedfield47 said:
Yeah, thats something I waswondering is how much of their natural world is known through instinct that can be brought into their enclosure to make them happier. Do they recognize pictures of meadows and deserts and forests?
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Rodents have fairly poor eyesight (compared to humans) and pictures don't mean anything to them, just shapes and lines really.

The best way to bring the natural world into their enclosure is to enable them to perform natural behaviours such as burrowing, nesting, chewing, running long distances (on a wheel in captivity), hoarding etc.
 
Last month I unfortunately had to separate my gerbils Astra and Twiglet. They had been having on-and-off issues for about a year. I had previously been able to resolve each episode of tension by temporarily reducing their space and enrichment. However, every time they would be fine for a few months, and then it would flare up again. And every time the tension flared up, it would be worse than the last time and occur with less warning. One day last month they had a couple of physical scuffles. When gerbils declan, it usually happens as a process with multiple stages, and physical scuffles are the second-to-last stage before actual bloodshed. So the only safe option was to separate them permanently.

I believe the root cause of the declan was a simple disagreement over dominance. Every gerbil pair/group has a dominant gerbil, usually the biggest one. Twiglet is a very large gerbil with a meek personality. Astra is a very small gerbil with a bossy personality. Due to her size, Twiglet ended up dominant by default, but as they got older, Astra became dissatisfied with this and that's what caused the episodes of tension. In the beginning, I thought it might be related to them maturing, and thought that if I could get them through the tricky young adult months, Astra would settle down and accept her position as the subordinate gerbil. But she was evidently very determined. So although the gerbils had some good times together, I think they're fundamentally incompatible.

However, every cloud has a silver lining. After I separated Astra and Twiglet, I reserved two young pups at a local rescue, so that I could introduce one pup to each of them. I collected them on Saturday and put them in split tanks with Astra and Twiglet. While I was at the rescue, I also collected two brothers of my pups, to introduce to somebody else's lone male gerbil (Otis).

Here are the boy pups playing on a wheel:


(I actually call those little plastic wheels "baby wheels", because I only ever use them for baby gerbils!)

I set up three split tanks with the adults on one side of each, and the pups on the other.

This was Twiglet's first meeting with her pup:


As you can see, there was a little bit of possible aggression, which is common during these first meetings. They can be quite shocked and frightened when they first see another gerbil. The divider allows gerbils to get used to each other without getting hurt. In the past people often used to introduce adults and pups directly without a divider and it sometimes resulted in terrible injuries to the pup, so I always use a split tank, even if only for a few hours.

I swapped the gerbils round (so that the adult is now on the side the pup was on before, and vice versa) on Saturday evening, and then three times on Sunday. The purpose of this is to get them used to each other's scent, and to assess their behaviour. There shouldn't be too much scent marking or agitated behaviour, and they should ideally be sleeping in each other's nests. When introducing two adults, you have to do this swapping for at least a week or two so that the scents are well-distributed on both sides, but adult to pup introductions can be much shorter since it's mostly just about making sure the adult isn't going to be aggressive.

This morning I removed the dividers from each split tank (spaced about 30 minutes apart).

Here is Astra being introduced to her pup:


I didn't film the other intros, but they went well too. With Otis and the two boys, during my first attempted introduction he was really nervous about something, and the pups were picking up on atmosphere and being very jumpy, which only made him more nervous. So I put the divider back in, gave Otis some cardboard to chew, and waited an hour until he had calmed down. Then I tried again, and it went much better.

So I have two happy pairs and one trio (which will be going home to their owner in a few days).

Here is Astra giving her pup a very thorough groom, to make sure she smells just like her:


Here is Twiglet building a nest while her pup doesn't really help:


Here is Otis with one of his pups. The other one is underneath him somewhere.

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I haven't named the pups yet. I've been too busy with the introductions to think about it much. But hopefully I'll think of something soon.
 
Sorry to hear about the falling out. How wonderful you were able to resolve things by adopting from a rescue to give Astra and Twiglet companions. The pups are so tiny! They look so little next to their older friends.

How lovely Otis has two new friends now too. You have done so well with all the bonding. I am looking forward to hearing the names of your two babies.
 
Socks Mum said:
They really do make sure the pups have cleaned behind their ears! Hamsters are so much easier, no fights because they are solitary. Social rodents must be a steep learning curve!
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It's definitely a bit more complicated owning social rodents because you always have to think about what happens when one of a pair dies (or as in this case, they fight).
 
Really great videos - it was completely fascinating to watch them :). So is the baby like an adopted child to Twiglet? I had to smile at one point seeing the white baby trying to make a break for it and being dragged back for more washing!

How big is Twiglet because either she is huge or the baby is tiny!

It’s nice that someone respects your experience enough to ask you to do her gerbil introductions as well.
 
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Daisy said:
It's definitely a bit more complicated owning social rodents because you always have to think about what happens when one of a pair dies (or as in this case, they fight).
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It must be a dilemma if the owner works. To separate them, and risk complete alienation, or to risk their fighting while you are out for the day. I suppose you get warning signs and in that situation might have to separate them for good sooner. Hamsters are so much easier if you work.
 
Daisy said:
Unfortunately I very unexpectedly lost Tilly yesterday. She got very ill over the course of a few hours and had to be put to sleep. She was only a few days away from her first birthday.

I'm finding it quite hard. When an elderly pet dies, it's always sad but I find I can accept it as the natural end to a full and happy life. But when they die so young, it feels so unnatural and wrong.
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Sorry for your loss. It’s a shame they live such short little lives 😞
 
Maz said:
Really great videos - it was completely fascinating to watch them :). So is the baby like an adopted child to Twiglet? I had tosnuke at one point seeing the white baby trying to make a break for it and being dragged back for more washing!

How big is Twigker because either she is huge or the baby is tiny!

It’s nice that someone respects your experience enough to ask you to do her gerbil introductions as well.
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It's both - Twiglet is huge for a female. At 108g she'd big on the big side even if she were male! The baby is also tiny though, weighing 25g.

I'm not quite sure how the adults view the babies. The grooming is more about making the pups smell like the adult so they know who's boss, than about keeping them clean. I think the pups certainly view the adults as a substitute parent though. I have noticed sometimes when I touch the babies, the adult will come over and see what I'm doing, so maybe they are a bit protective.
 
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