# One of my gerbils passed away, how do I keep my other one happy?



## Gwen Roman (May 5, 2017)

I owned two gerbils and one of them passed away a couple of days ago. Since his brothers death, my gerbil has seemed normal, he eats, drinks and interacts with me like normal, except I've noticed him sitting very still with his eyes slightly closed a couple of times. When I notice this I either take him out of his cage for a bit or give him a treat to cheer him up. I'm worried because his brother displayed the same symptoms (without the eating or drinking) shortly before he died. Should I clean out the cage? I don't know if it's the smell of his brother that's making him upset or he's just lonely. He's 2 and half years old and I don't want to buy another gerbil because I don't want to get into the cycle of buying more gerbils each time one dies. I want to make him as happy as possible though and I hope he lives on for a long time. Any advice is appreciated thankyou.


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## Jackie C (Feb 16, 2016)

Sorry for the loss of your little gerbil. x I don't know much (anything really, TBH) about gerbils, so I don't know what is an abnormal behaviour for them, but you obviously know your little man and that he is acting strange. His brother has died, and it's obviously disturbed his routine, and it sounds like he might still be able to smell him. I don't know if cleaning his cage will help or not, as I have no experience, but keep giving the little poppet fuss, it's lovely that you have such a nice relationship with your gerbil. x 

I don't know if you can get relaxing plug-ins for gerbils or not, I know you can get them for cats. x


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## Gwen Roman (May 5, 2017)

Jackie C said:


> Sorry for the loss of your little gerbil. x I don't know much (anything really, TBH) about gerbils, so I don't know what is an abnormal behaviour for them, but you obviously know your little man and that he is acting strange. His brother has died, and it's obviously disturbed his routine, and it sounds like he might still be able to smell him. I don't know if cleaning his cage will help or not, as I have no experience, but keep giving the little poppet fuss, it's lovely that you have such a nice relationship with your gerbil. x
> 
> I don't know if you can get relaxing plug-ins for gerbils or not, I know you can get them for cats. x


Thankyou for your kind words! I'll look into to plug-ins and see if that will help. In the meantime, I've bought some new toys for him and am going to clean out his cage tomorrow (it's due a clean anyway haha) hopefully he'll be back to his old self soon x


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## Jackie C (Feb 16, 2016)

I'd like to see them when they were happy together, before he died, if you're able. I think gerbils are really cute. x


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## Gwen Roman (May 5, 2017)

Jackie C said:


> I'd like to see them when they were happy together, before he died, if you're able. I think gerbils are really cute. x


Sure, I found a couple from when I first got them x












(I was slightly unsure on how to attach these haha took me a while to figure it out￼￼ :Banghead)


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## Jackie C (Feb 16, 2016)

Cute boys x


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## ForestWomble (May 2, 2013)

Hi this happened with my gerbils.

One died then the other became depressed, got ill but as he didn't have his brother he just gave up  Some Gerbils really don't get on on their own 
Some manage fine, but need you, the human, to be an honorary gerbil in a way, you have to groom, interact etc with the lonely gerbil, give him lots of toys, get him out, brush him, all that kinda thing.


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