# Please read: Gerbils had a fight



## kat04kt (Sep 11, 2011)

Hi, 

Tonight I've come home and two of my gerbils have had a fight. There is blood all over them. I have 3 female gerbils.

I've separated one off. I'm not sure what to do. For two years they've been very close to one another. I wrote here the other night that I'd noticed they were looking thinner. 

Other than that though, I've not seen anything to cause alarm. 

I'm not sure what to do. I don't know who started the argument. I don't know if the two together are safe. I just had to separate one of them off. 


Can you give any advice. I'm totally bewildered.


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## GerbilNik (Apr 1, 2011)

How many of them have blood on them? It's likely the ones who have injuries were fighting and the other probably hid away. You could put either of the fighting ones with the one who doesn't have injuries (if that is the case) Bathe the wounds in a saline solution and give them time to recover a bit before handling etc as it may unsettle them further. Is it just one of them who is thinner or all of them? If they were all getting thinner, it may just be that they weren't getting as much food as they needed - this in itself could cause tension.


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## kat04kt (Sep 11, 2011)

Hey,

I wrote the other post the other day about the food. About maybe needing a new mix? Since then I've been putting double the amount of food down and extra treats. We hit the internet last night and read this: Fighting Gerbils

We didn't know this before.

The blood was over their faces and upper chest area, and yep one had nothing on her at all. I separated the one that looked most injured. This morning she is much brighter - phew. We bathed with a watered down hibiscrub solution. I didn't have any saline solution in. But this article suggests the one who wasn't injured probably did the attacks?

We had heard some squeaking this last week, we just didn't know that it was because they weren't happy. We feel so bad 

What do we do now? I have a few questions:

1) My gerbils all enjoy their wheel, is a 6 inch wheel ok for gerbils as I can't fit an 8inch in the perfecto? My gerbils are small girls.

2) I'm not sure if we separated the right one but I guess we have to wait that one out and see? If the other two fight I don't know what I will do as I don't have a third tank.

3) What do we do about the loan gerbil?

My OH and I had agreed we need to downsize on pets (I have rats, guinea pigs and a hamster) we're not rehoming any of them but we agreed we need to downsize naturally as we will be likely to move next year into an apartment in London and won't have the same space we do now.

4) Can males be neutered? I've read males and females usually go together very easily, maybe we could adopt an adult male? We really don't know if this is possible.

Also the way the tanks are - they would be impossible to do split living. They both have lots of glass shelves built in.

I'm so upset I don't know what to do. Poor Gerbils 

xx


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## GerbilNik (Apr 1, 2011)

kat04kt said:


> Hey,
> 
> I wrote the other post the other day about the food. About maybe needing a new mix? Since then I've been putting double the amount of food down and extra treats. We hit the internet last night and read this: Fighting Gerbils
> 
> ...


Firstly the article is a bit outdated as was written a good number of years ago. In general if there are three and one is unharmed it tends to be the one who has kept out of the way. If Gerbils fight, it's highly unlikely that one of the ones fighting wouldn't have a mark on them.

6 inch wheel is too small really. If you want them to have a wheel would need to be large so they don't get back problems from being curved.

For now it's best to leave the lone Gerbil to recover. YOu could try and introduce to another at some point later, but of course that's if it's something that's feesable. Yes male Gerbils can be neutered if needed.


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## kat04kt (Sep 11, 2011)

Ok, thanks. 

Unfortunately, the perfecto can't fit a bigger wheel in because of the shelves. I will try and look for other tanks. I always find this difficult because for gerbils you're stuck with tiny tanks with toppers, or just fish tanks where you can't get the depth of substrate if you want to place a wheel in there. The gerbil marker seriously needs a revamp. I did see an excellent cage on zooplus but unfortunately it's way out of my price league at the moment. 

Thanks for your help. Certainly for the moment she does need to recoup. I feel so sorry for her but she actually looks pretty happy at the moment by herself. Probably just feeling pleased she isn't being bullied for the time being!


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## GerbilNik (Apr 1, 2011)

kat04kt said:


> Ok, thanks.
> 
> Unfortunately, the perfecto can't fit a bigger wheel in because of the shelves. I will try and look for other tanks. I always find this difficult because for gerbils you're stuck with tiny tanks with toppers, or just fish tanks where you can't get the depth of substrate if you want to place a wheel in there. The gerbil marker seriously needs a revamp. I did see an excellent cage on zooplus but unfortunately it's way out of my price league at the moment.
> 
> Thanks for your help. Certainly for the moment she does need to recoup. I feel so sorry for her but she actually looks pretty happy at the moment by herself. Probably just feeling pleased she isn't being bullied for the time being!


IN general a wheel isn't necessary if there's plenty of digging room, but if you do want to provide one you can get one for playtime or construct a topper for your tank either home-made, bought or even an old part of a cage on top.

She's probably enjoying the lack of tension and worry now. She will get lonely being on her own though unfortunately


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