Whitmoregirl's Wombles

I love watching my young’uns when they playfight, it’s so endearing to see them wrestle and box with one another, and ping around their tank looking for another playmate when one runs off!

This is a photo of Pandora and Izzie getting sprightly whilst having playtime!

And I also managed to get a video of them getting bolshy to one another!

Play fighting isn’t all just for fun though; this is how young gerbils establish their pecking order. By watching your gerbils play-fight as pups, and later on, seeing how they interact together when sleeping, grooming etc, you get to know who the dominant male or female in the group is.

Adults will also occasionally play fight but this isn’t as common as pups playing. Never confuse your gerbils fighting for play when it may be serious! A play fight will be easy to interrupt, and often involves the gerbils grooming one another in between boxing bouts, whilst during a serious fight the gerbils will completely ignore you and may bite you in confusion if you attempt to intervene. This is why we always encourage owners to wear or to have handy some thick gloves when introducing gerbils or breaking up a ball fight.

There is a video of a ball fight, as well as more play fighting videos, on eGerbil’s behaviour page.

Odd title for a post, isn’t it? I feel though, that a lot of the time, when myself and other gerbil owners warn people of buying from petshops, we do forget one vital part in it – the borderline mental retardation your gerbils may have.

The gerbil above is Lol, some of you will recognise her from my ‘My gerbils’ page. Her sister is Bonnie, and quite frankly they are a lovely pair, very friendly and happy. Except that they are both originally commercially bred animals, and it seems that Bonnie has a problem.
If she is on heat, or not kept busy by playtime out of the tank, or chewing up cardboard or burrowing, she will attack her sister.
(more…)

The amount of times over the years I have heard the cry of ‘my gerbil’s nails are too long!’ is amazing.

Yes, gerbils have long nails. But, they are long for a purpose! Yes, they might scratch your skin, catch in your clothes, and hurt your soft, girly hands (see left!), but without these claws, your gerbil would barely be a gerbil at all.

Have a look at their name, ‘meriones unguiculatus‘. Do you know what it effectively means?

‘clawed warrior’

(more…)