It’s funny Coco used to run this way with her mom and now taught one of her young nieces (Cream). Cookie could not be bothered 🙄. Any one else’s gerbs like to run together?
The younger darker ones are the sisters who we named Cookie and Cream. You may remember me posting pictures of them as babies. When they were around 8 weeks old I bonded them with their aunt Coco (the lighter one) who had been alone for a few months following the passing of her mom. Coco was not necessarily depressed but she was always very active and without a partner she didn’t have much to keep her occupied, just running on the wheel for hours.
I am aware there is some risk to keeping three females together, and I’m expecting some drama as the sisters get older, but for now I’m quite happy that Coco has some company again. Since Coco is getting older (I adopted her about a year ago and don’t know exact age but around 2 years old now), I figured the sisters will keep her company until she passes, and then they will still have each other.
Coco has always been so sweet so hopefully she takes care of her nieces and they of them. I am monitoring them all the time (as you can tell) and watching for signs of fights and declanning, but for now they seem to be very happy, playing, sharing the wheel, and sniffing butt like gerbils should! Any gerbil experts want to analyze their behavior together and tell me what they think?
Hi guys, really need your help here. I bonded these two over two weeks in split cage and they’ve been in their new tank for the past four days. Since then they have been chasing and doing this kind of behavior on and off. The lighter gal is over 1 year old and the darker baby is about 10 weeks. It’s always the little one chasing after and trying to groom the older. The older mostly just looks annoyed or boxes back before separating. Im pretty sure I got the genders right and this does not quite look like mating to me but could be wrong 🤷. I have not seen any death balls and def no blood and they seem to be pretty happy overall exploring their new tank. I think I even saw the little one popcorning earlier. Just looking for some reassurance that this is normal playing and/or dominance behavior and not something I should worry about.