# How do I stop gerbils fighting? (Not play fighting)



## Derbyr1 (Sep 22, 2011)

Hi all,

I've had my gerbils for nearly 2 years now and they've suddenly started to fight quite seriously... one has had a quite bad cut to its eye but they seemed to stop fighting for a while after that.. now today I've had to separate them by splitting their cage into two halfs after I came home to find the other hiding/crying inside one of their toys. I've been used to them play fighting and this is definately a lot more.. any ideas on what I can do? I've attached an image to show what's happened to her tail








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## Snippet (Apr 14, 2011)

Gerbils are prone to declanning. As sad as it is, they may never be able to be reintroduced and they may have to spend the rest of their lives by themselves. You say you've got females, and if I remember correctly they are harder to intro and more prone to falling out.


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## Jarhead (Jul 11, 2011)

Poor thing. I wish I had the answer to that not fighting question


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## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

I would remove them to seperate tanks, give them time to calm down ( a couple of weeks) then start split cage intros as if they were strangers. With my lot I split a tank, swapped the gerbils sides over a couple of times a day so their scent was in both sides, then after about a month (I waited this long because Im a wuss  but a couple of weeks should do), I removed the divider. If they fight then I would assume they are probably never going to be able to live together again and keep them seperately unfortunately.


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## Guest (Sep 29, 2011)

I agree with TDM your best bet is to split them completely for a couple of weeks so that they get chance to calm down and forget the fight.


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## GerbilNik (Apr 1, 2011)

As has been said it's definitely in the best interests of the Gerbils to be split for at least 3-4 weeks, before trying an introduction. This will give them time to heal and calm down and perhaps long for Gerbil company again. If you do a proper split (here is a guide on my website - Gerbil Introductions « Indy&#039;s Rascals Gerbil Rehome )
I would be very careful however as by the sounds of it there are some hierarchy problems going on which if it is the case, they are likely to fight further on down the line.


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