# one of my gerbils passed away what to do?



## 2littlegerbils (Feb 4, 2014)

Hi, i adopted a pair of gerbils both females and one day very quickly one got very sick, it was hard to eat and move was wobbly trying to stand up and ended up passing away in the night early morning today. 

What should i do with her cage mate? should i clean cage to get rid of the smell should i show her cage mate she passed away. Any advice is great, except i am not prepared to have new gerbil enter her life. I will give her tons of TLC and treat her like the princes she is but any extra advice would be great


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## Fluffydd (Jul 28, 2013)

I'm sorry that your gerbil died. Do you know how old she was? How is her cage mate coping with the loss? There are different opinions on whether you should clean the cage straight away or not. Some gerbils are comforted by still being able to smell their friend for a few days but other gerbils prefer it if you clean them straight away.

Some times gerbils stop eating when they are bereaved and they don't do well on their own. They become very withdrawn and lose lost of weight. Other gerbils get on fine with out a cage mate and are sometimes even happier. Bart was on his own for 9 months after Homer died (aged 3yrs 3 months). Bart was really happy on his own and I gave him lots of attention, he had 2 hours playtime out of his tank everyday and lots of things to chew on.


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## 2littlegerbils (Feb 4, 2014)

I was told that they were both approximately year when we adopted them their previous owners were unable to care for them any more, so I would place her at 1 1/2 but they really weren't sure them selves. 

We ended up leaving the cage for the day and showed her the body for some closure, she did seem to look around the cage sniff the wheel and some of the toys in there. But we have given her tons of tlc we take her out multiple times a day give her new toys seeds and fresh fruit. We have been letting her play on new things for example we have a box where they both played and now we let her run around on my bed with some toys on there so new scents and new textures.

In all she seems to be happy especially when someone talks to her and is around she is a little less active and isnt stuffing her face like she did before but she is still defiantly eating and drinking still.

And today she was cleaning herself and she squeaked a couple times she did that sometimes when her cagemate cleaned her but i hear thats just from being to rough. Im sure its nothing but is that anything to be concerned about:?

Thanks for your post


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## Fluffydd (Jul 28, 2013)

I'm glad she is doing ok and is coping with the loss of her cage mate. I'm not sure about the squeaking when grooming though. I've not had any gerbils that do that. It might be a good idea to give her a bit of an check over to make sure she doesn't have any problems e.g. scent gland tumour or other tumours. Is she grooming a particular area more than any other? If so it would be a good idea to check that area to make sure it's ok.


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