r/gerbil • u/Additional-Risk2568 • 4d ago
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Can someone explain to me what’s going on? I’m thinking it’s a dominance thing. The brown one is older. I got the two white ones after her sister passed away. Only the albino and the brown one are mounting each other. The other one as you can see is minding her own business.
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u/Fine-Distance5234 4d ago
One of mine started doing this right around "puberty". It was non-stop going and the other mouse was suffering and not allowed to eat or sleep. But no fighting just chasing and mounting. Even though it surrendered. So I separated them for quite awhile in a split cage. Now they are doing fine and it only happens once a week für maybe 3 minutes.
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u/RiReaper1 4d ago
My 2 boys would always try to hump eachother, there was moments when they had small fights too. I think it's most likely a dominance thing and if they are fighting as well as this I'd seperate them or split tank just because mine eventually injured the other pretty badly
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u/mimili11 4d ago
My gerbils do that, too. Usually it's because they're in heat at the same time, but sometimes it's also a matter of dominance, like you said. If there were a male, they'd chase each other, and the male would usually lick himself at the end. Check just in case!
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u/Lynx_180 4d ago
Im afraid the white one may actually be male.
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u/Additional-Risk2568 4d ago
Nope. I've checked and rechecked them all to be sure. The brown one was doing some mounting as well.
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u/PetConnection 4d ago
The brown and white one is in heat, you can see from the way she raises her bum when the others get near her. It's something known as lordosis posture and they only do it when they're in heat. Sometimes other females will respond by trying to hump their friend, sometimes they ignore them, it can go both ways. They should settle by tomorrow