Well...this past Saturday on the 29th I tried another intro.
It went a little better. I managed to keep them together for about 1 1/2 hours before they wanted to hurt each other. I really thought it might work today. The split tank was cleaned out. It had to be cleaned. A tiny bug problem. There are wheels on both sides of the 20 gallon split now.
They seem to want to be together. They sleep in each others beds. They like the scent of the other gerbil but when face to face. Nope. They are both dominant type gerbils. One of their fights, I got bit hard with the gloves on from Bud. I think Bud got bit in the rump. No blood but it is tender to the touch.
The neutral territory seems to work for the short term. What do think? If anything, the split can be permanent so at least they won't be totally alone. I will still do the flip flopping and the butt sniffing.
Will keep on trying every weekend. I have never had failure of putting two gerbils together.
2009-08-31
2009-08-25
Gerbil Updates
It's been awhile since I posted. A bunch has happened over the month. A couple of days after this last post, Trixie passed on. She developed pneumonia.
We didn't want Bud to be left alone. So we got three wonderful 8 week old pups on July 24th.. We thought we might make a foursome. It wasn't to be. The pups were all too old to be put together. So we left two pups together. The other pup we are split caging with Bud. The pups names are Dexter (after the tv show), Toby, and Sam.
Bud and Sam have been in a split cage for almost 4 weeks. I swap sides regularly. I tried an intro last week. They ended up in a gerbil ball. No blood drawn. Alot of back arching and shoving and
tense nose to nose sniffing. Lucky I was wearing gloves. These two want to be dominate gerbil. Sam is over 12 weeks old now and Bud about 2 years old.
I know they want to be together but someone has to be the boss. Bud needs the company of another gerbil. Bud started purring in my hand when I take him out now. He really wants company. Even little Sam sometimes purrs when I take him out to hold.
I try using "hand" intros but they seem to don't want to really interact in my hand. There is plenty of butt sniffing though. They are both sleeping near the wire almost everyday now.
Any suggestions to help? By now, they have to smell alike. I want to try again this weekend. Would doing brief intros at night for a few minutes help? I have never had a split cage go this long.
We didn't want Bud to be left alone. So we got three wonderful 8 week old pups on July 24th.. We thought we might make a foursome. It wasn't to be. The pups were all too old to be put together. So we left two pups together. The other pup we are split caging with Bud. The pups names are Dexter (after the tv show), Toby, and Sam.
Bud and Sam have been in a split cage for almost 4 weeks. I swap sides regularly. I tried an intro last week. They ended up in a gerbil ball. No blood drawn. Alot of back arching and shoving and
tense nose to nose sniffing. Lucky I was wearing gloves. These two want to be dominate gerbil. Sam is over 12 weeks old now and Bud about 2 years old.
I know they want to be together but someone has to be the boss. Bud needs the company of another gerbil. Bud started purring in my hand when I take him out now. He really wants company. Even little Sam sometimes purrs when I take him out to hold.
I try using "hand" intros but they seem to don't want to really interact in my hand. There is plenty of butt sniffing though. They are both sleeping near the wire almost everyday now.
Any suggestions to help? By now, they have to smell alike. I want to try again this weekend. Would doing brief intros at night for a few minutes help? I have never had a split cage go this long.
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