BITSY gerbil is no more...ALFIE the bengal is in the serious bad books!

[katkin]

I think the thread title says it all...

 

Sad to report Bitsy met an untimely end last night, when she peeped out of the inner tank lid (through a hole she and her sister had made bigger than it originally was) just as I'd taken the outer lid off to feed them both.

Despite all efforts to keep her safe and to persuade her back down into the tank, Alfie spotted her with his eagle eye and pounced from across the other side of the room - one giant leap, one effortless lunge and poor BITSY was no more. Demise was instant- not even a squeak and we had the devil of a job prising Alf's jaws open.

 

In his defence, I know it's only his instinct, but I'm always so careful and it's such a shame. I've owned gerbils and cats all my life and they've co-existed happily until now, until, that is, we got prolific hunter breeds like the barmy Bungle and our Norwegian Forest Cat Ashia...

 

Question now is: what do I do about our one surviving gerbil ITSY? Gerbils are not solitary critters, they prefer to be in pairs or in colonies and I'm not convinced we could introduce another...

[pinklady]

my cat had a couple of my sons hamsters, i had to lie and tell him they died of heart attacks .... you cant blame the cat, like you said, its instinct.

 

havent a clue about the lone gerbil, sorry

[ami_j]

ive never done an introduction but the steps should be on the internet somewhere. what i did was i didnt clean the cage out entirely and my gerbil was fine as he could still smell his brother after he had died. had a few gerbils pine to death after their mate is gone just a case of keeping an eye on her.

[eeejay174]

hi

you are right they do prefer company, however, we had 5 gerbils in one very large tank full of peat sawdust and hay for tunnelling and they all fell out and chose to live on their own - lots of smaller tanks!!! And all my gerbils have lived their full 4 yrs in this environment, perfectly happy.

 

however, it is possible to intergrate gerbils but you need to have a tank or similar, divide it with appropriate chicken wire from corner to corner - diagonally, then they live , aside each other for a few weeks, then you spend a cpl of days transferring from ones territory to the other every hour or 2 so they get used to each others scent do this for a day or 2 (obviously not through the night), then try and remove the mesh, wear thick leather gloves!!! just in case you need to split them up. If they do fall out you can try again, but id give up if they fight a second time.

 

hth

 

emma

[Moonbird]

Aww poor Bitzy, at least he didn't suffer at all and like you say it is just instinct for a cat, you must feel awful.... sometimes accidents do happen, and you did all you could to prevent it.

I don't know about the Gerbil problem I never had any, but good luck with it, I'm sure that yours would like a new friend.

[neeeeeeeeeek]

In the interest of fairness you should probably give him to the other cat.

[katkin]

In the interest of fairness you should probably give him to the other cat.

 

That's helpful, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks neeeeeeeek (not)

[katkin]

...and Alfie's STILL sulking. Bloomin cheek- anyone would think he was the injured party, not poor Bitsy!

[xxhunniixx]

rehome the rodent.. and get a parrot the cats dnt bother with my grey cos they know who would win hahahahahha

[katkin]

rehome the rodent.. and get a parrot the cats dnt bother with my grey cos they know who would win hahahahahha

 

He hasnt met Alfie yet. Our lot spend enough time hassling our elderly cockatiel!