Whitmoregirl's Wombles

The only way I can describe Donnie at the moment.

From this scrawny orange furball:

To this big handsome lad:

.. one very happy Rudy!

Meet his two new little pals, Donnie the nutmeg and Benson the whitepaw slate. They’re roughly the same age at 6 weeks, from different litters, but Donnie is a bit runty so there is quite a bit of size difference; he looks around the size of a 3-4 week old pup. And the size difference between Rudy and both lads is quite obviously massive – little Donnie can fit on Rooder’s head!

Donnie needs to grow into his eyes, and Benson needs to grow into his balls – they’re huge!

You can see Rudy is absolutely delighted at his new pals though, he’s done nothing but show off his digging skills and smile since being introduced. Donnie absolutely loves his new dad, he follows him about and copies him. Benson is a little more independant, but I’ve still seen him trying to wrestle and snuggle with his new dad and brother!

Here are a couple more photos of the new boys.

And one more of the happy new “dad”!

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.