Gerbil Behvaior

[RigelFrank04]

I'm having trouble figuring something out about gerbils that you folks may be able to help me with: In the gerbil world,are males or females the dominant gender? I know that in hamsters,the females are,and in mice,males are. At first I thought that males were dominant,because on Animal Diversity Web it said that in wild gerbil colonies,the alpha is male. But I've read where several gerbil owners said that females were dominant. I'm a little confused here. Perhaps it depends on the individual gerbil?

[flogging_molly]

In my past experience it doesn't particularly matter what sex but in each pair or trio there's a dominant and a submissive, I always found males more chilled out for having in pairs and groups or indeed when doing introductions but every gerbil is different and they make fantastic pets.

[chulasweetchica]

I was told its best to keep them in same sex pairs so I got two male gerbils and they were so much fun to play with and they way they played together. They were same age and from differnt pet stores. They didn't seem dominate lol they were mush in my hands. Warm and friendly.

[BrainGirl]

That's a good question, wish I could remember from my (now ancient) gerbil days! I know it's the females in chinchilla colonies (in case you ever wanted to know!) but I'll be interested to learn which it is for gerbils. I'd be tempted to say it's the females based on what I remember about them but that's hardly scientific

[racinghamster]

Females are generally less tolerant of intruders or even co-habiting with another female. Which is why females are best kept in sister pairs and if one dies, the female that survives her sister is then better left on her own because female gerbils are notoriously difficult to re-pair with a strange female.

Males can live in pairs or small groups, but for the sake of de-clanning, I would never keep anymore than a pair of males for this reason and for reasons of allowing them enough space in a habitat. At one time I had four males in one tank and ended up with a pair and two singles due to a de-clan (a dominance flare up).

An adult male can sometimes be introduced to a baby male under 10 weeks of age as they tend to `father` youngsters and don`t see them as an immediate threat, but I would only ever try this if a male lost a partner and you knew his character. If he`s laid back and gentle, chances are he would love a baby male as company. But if he is more on the dominance side and has a proven record of being a bully, I would leave him on his own for that reason.

Split, secure tanks should always be used in any introductions. x

[RigelFrank04]

Thank you,everyone. I appreciate the information.

[SinNyx]

I've never owned a male gerbil, although I have rescued one and she was very protective of her space and prone to biting, then again, she was a rescue so it may just be her.

It is interesting to hear about all of this information though