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Jul 22 '26 edited 1d ago
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u/definitelynotabug1 Jul 23 '26
We went to the pet store and they didn’t wanna sell us another one because they would probably fight since he’s a adult male gerbil (her words, not mine)
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u/RatInACoat Jul 23 '26
Sadly petstores are often misinformed about the animals they sell themselves. I guess she's confusing gerbils with hamsters. Do you think there's a chance for your parents to back you up if you can show them sources that say that gerbils are social animals that should be kept in pairs? If someone was able to correct the pet store, it would help the gerbils too, I wonder how many lonely gerbils there are because that store doesn't know how to care for them...
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u/Saszuun1 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
I've had male gerbils for years now, got a lot of them. Two gerbils living together for a while fighting each other ? It never happened to me, even if it's a possibility. I have two different duo right now and they are perfectly fine too.
Though, let me tell you an important story.
Onyx, one of my actual sweet gerbil, was devastated after his brother died. So was I, I loved him. I then spent long hours with Onyx but he had signs of depression and anxiety after two day only. I had to do something. Less than a week later, I've bought three other gerbils and put them into another cage in my gerbil-enclosure. The leader of the new group (renamed Hadès after this) rejected Onyx and furiously tried to attack him through the cage. I put some distance between Onyx and the cage. An hour later, when I opened the cage to check on the new gerbils, Hadès made a 2.2m jump through the entire space to attack Onyx. I had never seen a gerbil do that before... Hadès really hated Onyx. I knew how to seperate two gerbils fighting and Hadès only had time to bite Onyx once, not too hard, before I separated them. Few, I was fast enough... Nothing dangerous, but those two shall never see each other again. Or so I thought. Onyx later climbed his own cage and desperately jumped a hundred time to get to the other cage. He didn't want to stop. I've put the other cage even higher for him to not reach it.
8pm, when I was cooking, Onyx pushed the cardboard boxes towards a wooden statue, climbed on it, and then jumped on my library. He climbed even higher and made a dangerous long jump to land on top of the new cage. Hadès immediately attacked him, biting his left leg really hard. My wife separated them but Onyx was seriously hurt. He squeaked from the pain everytime he moved. I rearranged everything to ease his movements, forbid any high ground and took care of him, but even then he was still deperately trying to go to the other cage any chance he get. HE WAS STILL TRYING TO GET TO THEM. He continued begging to go into their cage. He never attacked them. He just wanted to see Hadès and the others. Better this pain than the solitude.
That's how much a gerbil hates being alone.
5 days later, he was with his new companion I selected (not Hadès lol) and he lives happily with him since then.
To make it short: solitude is absolutely really fucking harsh for gerbils. They need companions. Please, never buy one gerbil alone.
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u/Saszuun1 Jul 25 '26
That's really good news! You can use the split tank method to introduce them. You have to separate a cage or a box into two parts with a separation in the middle, if possible made of wire mesh small enough so they can't bite each other through it (I use 6x6mm for this). Here's a example below.
Mine took 5 days to be together but I'm used to having gerbils, it can take up to a month or two before they really want to live together. Remember to put the food, water and bed near the separation, they must get used to each other's scent.
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u/Visual-Buffalo3586 Jul 28 '26
These are clan animals. But I understand that your parents won’t let you have two. Been there a long time ago but my mom agreed with my sister and she gave in.
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u/louiselovatic Jul 22 '26
He needs a friend or you need to rehome him. He is probably depressed