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Any gerbil people here, need some advice

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just wanting a bit of advice, came home yesterday to find one of our gerbils had died, I am now worried the other one is going to be really lonely and is there anything I can do, I know you cant introduce another one and I am not really wanting to do that anyway. maybe its just me being over emotional worrying about the one left on its own :(

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When one of my rats died, I put a balled up pair of socks in her cage for her to cuddle up to. She seemed happier. Not sure if his would work for gerbils too.

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thanks angel22 for reply, I think she would prob just eat the sock, gerbils tend to just chew everything up.

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you can re bond , i have never had a problem , but wait a little while in case the one you have left develops an illness ! as you don't know why your other one passed away

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ooh glad to hear they can be rebonded Teeny - Ive never dared try because twice I've had siblings attack their own and kill so wouldnt risk introducing a total stranger gerbil. This time round we've gone for a gang of 4 (hopefully all same sex, lol, in theory, we've sexed them) because one of our pair of girls died several months before the other one and she was alone for a while. we gave her lots of kitchen roll and loo roll tubes to play with (some tied together with safe twice to create a pyramid) and lots of willow twigs and other safe things to chew/keep her entertained.

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ooh glad to hear they can be rebonded Teeny - Ive never dared try because twice I've had siblings attack their own and kill so wouldnt risk introducing a total stranger gerbil. This time round we've gone for a gang of 4 (hopefully all same sex, lol, in theory, we've sexed them) because one of our pair of girls died several months before the other one and she was alone for a while. we gave her lots of kitchen roll and loo roll tubes to play with (some tied together with safe twice to create a pyramid) and lots of willow twigs and other safe things to chew/keep her entertained.

 

yes we begin very carefully to begin with , and that seems to work

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i have had quite a few gerbils,and if i got a new one i just tended to put to in with the others of the same sex and ive never had a problem . You will get a bit of squeeking and chasing till they get use to each other but thats about it, in a couple of days they should be getting on just fine.

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Not sure if the same goes for gerbils, but with rats, if introducing a new one it's always best to keep the new one in a separate cage next the existing cage. That way they can see and smell each other and get used to being around one another without actually being able to get to each other for a while. Then it's not such a big shock for them when they're put together in the same cage.

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just wanting a bit of advice, came home yesterday to find one of our gerbils had died, I am now worried the other one is going to be really lonely and is there anything I can do, I know you cant introduce another one and I am not really wanting to do that anyway. maybe its just me being over emotional worrying about the one left on its own :(

 

We had three sisters when I was young.

One sadly had to be PTS, and then there were two for a while.

Eventually another died, and one got old. We never re-introduced or re-bonded. Eventually the last one died, and that was that.

I wouldn't worry about it being on it's own - from my experience they were okay from what we could tell. Just give them lots of stimulation. If they like to be handled, keep it up.

 

I wouldn't say gerbils are like rats, in terms of I think from having both that rats are a lot more pair bonded than gerbils.

So if you don't want anymore, then don't get anymore. I think that's the simple answer :)

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thanks for all the replys, don't think we going to introduce another, will see how she gets on, we (my self, partner and daughter)are all making more effort to talk to her and handle her. cant bear to think of her being sad. funny how even the little critters find away into your heart

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