I’m sad to report that little Hazel has passed away; I’m not entirely sure of her age but I think she was only just over two, so this is a very early death for me as I’ve only had a couple of others die before their third birthdays previously.

She was found looking fluffed and listless, I grabbed her straight out to see if she was cold. I kept her in my hands for a good while to warm her up and set up a hospital tank with heat mat. Sadly she didn’t pull through.

Hazel when she first arrived home

Hazel

Hazel

Hazel

And more recently, only around a week before she and Isi also declanned…

… Jirdy might be leaving us in a little while.

Over the past few days I’ve barely seen her, at all. Normally I’d see her out and about a fair bit; usually popping out for a pee and so on but today I think I’ve only seen her up and about once and I haven’t seen her go up into her topper for a sandbath in a good while now. We’ve also been noticing over the past couple of weeks that she isn’t eating all her food – she’s leaving quite a few things when normally all of it would be quickly scoffed – there’s been times when we went to feed and she still seemed to have so much around that we didn’t bother putting any more in.

It’s probably just old age because when I see her she doesn’t seem to have visibly lost any weight, I think she’ll be coming up to 3 just before my birthday in a couple of weeks.

Gerbils need plenty of substrate…

I noticed a lovely long tunnel along the girls’ tank today and a tiny little hole going into one of their ceramic plant pots… I kept an eye on them thinking I might see them digging away and looking cute.

Sure enough along came Skye and starts digging. Then, after a little while; as I’d anticipated, Sienab and Kobette are most likely dug, or kicked out of the plant pot

The videos aren’t great as the battery for my camera was on charge so I had to use my phone instead… But I think you can get the picture, regardless.

I love in this one how Skye appears to kick Kobette out! Teehee.

So, Hazel and Isi also fought.
I’m at a loss to the trigger and both times I’ve seen no warnings of anything going on. In fact, recently they’ve been sleeping on the top of their substrate in a happy little pile looking all cute and cuddly. Mind, the same thing happened with Cole and Tye – they too slept up top and looked perfectly happy; we were even able to lift the lid quietly and stroke them whilst they slept then one day they suddenly fought.

On Monday I saw Isi was in their sleeping spot, I moved a little closer to her to see if Hazel was hidden underneath (she’s a big girl) and I noticed her fur around her side looked a bit scruffy and I thought perhaps it was greasy. I moved to a different side of the tank for a better view and sure enough could clearly see her chin fur had a reddy tinge to it.

They’re now both in hospital tanks with a heat mat to keep them warm so they can put energy into healing.

I haven’t really taken any photos of their injuries; it’s a bit macabre really. But I have managed a few cute sleeping videos of Hazel.

I’ve recently been playing around making some movies, and as I’d just cleaned the girls out and they were busy digging and kicking around it seemed like a good opportunity to take some short movies…

Sadly I ran out of substrate when cleaning their tank, so levels are a bit low – need to pick up some more this weekend.

There’s lots to update on…

Skye fought with Isi and Hazel in December, and had lived alone for 7 months until I picked up two new girls for her…

One, is a collared Black who we’ve called Kobette after the late Kobe:

And then there’s a REH, who we named Sienab after the late Siena:

And after a week or so they were happily introduced… Here they are all together:

Recently I had to split some Gerbils up through bullying.

I’d seen them displaying stereotypical bullying behaviour but was unable to pin-point just exactly who the culprets were. I assumed it was mum – REH and a daughter but could never tell just exactly who it was.

After checking their rumps I could see no sign of scabs from fur plucking – ‘bullying’.

Eventually I happened to be looking because I was certain my time would be up pretty soon and we’d see real fighting and noticed the fur around the beta’s mouth was somewhat ‘messy’. I pulled her out and yep, there were the scabs from fur being plucked.

I removed her and two younger siblings, then I noticed her litter sister also had the scabs. So she came out too and I put a younger sibling back in with mum to keep the split at 3 and 4.

I sat and watched the new ‘clan’  for around 20/3o minutes and noticed the beta and her sister being somewhat anxious around each other.

Oh dear, urm. So was it  mum bullying or these two?

After placing the sister back in with mum yet again and taking out another younger sibling and watching mum with the older daughter everyone seemed to be happy. And I’ve eventually come to the conclusion it must’ve been the litter sister trying to overthrow the beta, or even mum.

I now wish I’d left in the beta and removed the other sister, but they all seem happy enough for now.

I did think it was odd that the alpha and beta would be arguing and should’ve known straight away it must’ve been a different scenario.

Anyway, I took some photos of the new clan a few days after enjoying some millet which also show the scabs which can so easily go unnoticed to an inexperienced owner.

The beta Gerbil in question - you can just see scruffy fur around her cheek/neck

Beta again, no signs of issues in this shot.

Beta - see scabs on her paw, chin and a patch on her chest above her right arm

And again

Just make out her injuries

Beta

Beta

Beta

N.B – the reason I have no names for these Gerbils is because they do not belong to me, so I have not named them.

For those of you who didn’t see this on the eGerbil website… Some updated photos of my trio of girls form Ed, I assume they must’ve turned 1 sometime towards the middle of September??

Isi is a little madam still, I lost count of the number of times she ran up my arm to perch on my shoulder

A more typical shot of Isi…

Skye is stunning as always

Hazel snuggles into the comfort of my hand before relaxing enough to explore

Now, let’s see how long this one lasts the beasts:

Within minutes they were chewing at it already…

It’s amazing how little 2 bags of substrate goes… When will I learn that they need more? Got some more in the freezer waiting to put in.

I haven’t really taken any shots of the three girls for a while… I will try to soon though… I *might* just have ordered myself a new lens… Or maybe I didn’t… Mmmm.

Something interesting is going on down there...

I think Skye has lightened...

Something, very interesting!