Pet Chat

Rodent chat - My gerbil has died... this'll make you cry!
GerbilPunk - Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:50 pm
Post subject: My gerbil has died... this'll make you cry!
Crying or Very sad it was late at night and i heard Bruce (mt gerbil) making a loud banging noise with his water bottle so i went to go push it in properly.
i hadn't seen Retro in a few days. (i check on them at the same time every day) i presumed he'd got into a funny routine and was asleep when i checked on them.
Crying or Very sad i wanted to see Retro so i peered inside thier little house, and took off the lid. There he was. He was alive. Just about breathing. he was so skinny i could see evey bone on his spine. i put fod in front of him and he reached for it but it was too late. he was too weak and could hardly move.
Crying or Very sad i held him in my hands and he curled into a half ball, but he couldnt move any more. he was too weak.
:cry:it was about 11.30 and i watched as his breathing got less and less frequent. i watched as he nuzzled into me and his eyes slowly closed as he fought for his life... it was too late. he was gone.
Crying or Very sad he was about 4 months old and i adored him like i didnt know i could. i've been crying non stop sinse we buried him. we put him in a litle box with lots of bedding. His brother Bruce looks so lonely.
the next day we went to the pet shop and asked if we should get another gerbil to sooth Bruce's sorrows. they said that even with a split cage method, Bruce would just kill the stranger. he now sits on his own as he munches his food. he sleeps in his bed alone. he is alone, and i'm the only one he's got... i still havent stopped crying. I WANT MY RETRO BACK! Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad
honeydlc - Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:54 pm
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So sorry to hear of your sad loss, Run Free Retro XX
VJH - Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:45 pm
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how very sad so sorry run free little retro xxxx
clareabella - Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:17 pm
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sorry to hear that. im sure retro is at peace now Crying or Very sad
littlelab - Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:25 pm
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I am so sorry (((((((((HUGS)))))))))))

run free little fella
Twig - Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:27 pm
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I am very sorry for your loss! Sad
It is possible using the spilt cage method to introduce another boy, however, I would be very concerned about getting another due to the sad passing of Retro. He was a young and otherwise healthy gerbil, and therefore his death is strange. I don't want to worry you, but the loss of weight Retro had worries me, and I honestly think you should contact a vet for further advice incase his brother is now also at risk.
It sounds a bit like Tyzzers disease, so please keep an eye on the other gerbil and seek medical advice ASAP. I would also clean out the cage very thoroughly and get rid off all bedding and food, both used and used. Go out and buy new food and carefresh.

Again, really sorry for your loss, hope your other gerbil is okay! Crying or Very sad
GerbilPunk - Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:07 pm
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i know i was confused about my little Retro's death too ( Crying or Very sad ) but Bruce seems fine. he is eating his food, drinking, and runs around, coming up to the glass whenever i walk in the room. however, i will keep an eye on him. i cleaned him out yesterday and put in new food and bedding. i still keep crying though! Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad
Twig - Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:47 pm
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He may seem fine, but Retro seemed fine as well didn't he? If it is Tyzzers or Ecoli which is most likely, chances are Bruce is harbouring the disease. You need to seek advice from your vet incase theres a chance Bruce is effected as well. Considering your recent posts, it may well explain his lethargy. Sad

I'd also strongly reccomend you get totally NEW bedding, besides the hay you are using isn't appropiate for gerbils anyway, and new food. Clean out the cage really well with petsafe disinfectant as if its Tyzzers, there will be spores everywhere.
GerbilPunk - Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:59 pm
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i really want to get him checked out ASAP but my mum says i have to wait for a few days and see how he is. i made an agreement that if he has even the slightest change, we get him checked out. (you may have noticed im not the oldest member of PetChat... hence me living with my parents!) he still totters around like he's the healthiest, happiest gerbil around, but when i pick him up he bites. at first its just little nibbles but then he bites harder. he hasn't drawn blood... yet. not only am i getting over Retro dying but now i've got him to worry about! I hate P@H! why dont they sell healthy pets?! Yesterday, i saw a beautiful all black girl gerbil, and her eyes was all dull , wilted, and half closed. i didnt say anything because the assistant didnt lke me (long story) and no-one listens to kids... Crying or Very sad :
poppydog83 - Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:25 am
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I must say ive never had a problem with animals ive got from p@h. Ive had gerbils,rats and now my hamster have all come from there. I used to have rats a few years ago and they were both very friendly,and i had to have one pts because she developed a massive tumor on her face (it didnt take long for it to come up) and at first her sister was ok with me,but she gradually didnt like being handle,she used to bite me,run away from me. I think your other gerbil might be grieving and unfortunately some animals show this by being agressive with their owners,well thats what i have found with all my pets ive had in pairs anyway. I have managed once to introduce a new rat to another one i had,and they bonded so well,but it might not always happen like that with other animals.
The only thing i dont like about p@h is the fact they have rabbits and guniea pigs in together,and not always in the biggest of runs either
Twig - Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:38 pm
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P@H did have a problem with E-coli last year which killed many gerbils! Shocked Keep an eye on him, and prehaps even ask your mum to phone the vet to enquire if theres any other reports of gerbils dying suddenly.
GerbilPunk - Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:25 pm
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omg my poor little gerbil(s)! Shocked !!!!!! how long do you think he would be grieving for? i dont want him to be upset! Crying or Very sad i talk to him everyday almost all night, and i hold him for hours, and still he bites me. i want to introduce a new gerbil but i dont. i want a new one to make him happy and because there so cute! but i dont want a new one because he might kill it and i couldnt ever bare that... Sad i wish everything was better again! Crying or Very sad
poppydog83 - Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:06 pm
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Big hug!!! Ive lost alot of pets over the years,and it never gets any easier when they pass away. I guess it like humans,you can never tell how long animals will grieve for. My mum had 2 cats right from when they were kittens (a brother and sister) The sister had to be put down due to a tumor on her tongue,and the brother was grieving for a gd month,walking around the house meowing alot etc...for the first couple of weeks he would only sleep where they slept together. But he gradually started sleeping on my mums bed,but right up until he was put down last year he would occassionally wonder round the house meowing,so it really impossible to tell how long he will grieve if thats what he is doing
GerbilPunk - Sat Jun 09, 2007 7:25 am
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oh im so sorry about your cats... both were put down? i thought he might be grieveing. i dont mind too much when he bites me because i know he doesnt mean to. i am just concerned about when my friends look at him and hold him. (especially one. i dont like her anymore but she dropped retro a few times, and she squeezed and shook bruce the poor little fellas! now she wants gerbils herself! Sad ) i dont want him to be unhappy. if i hld him lots and lots, will it calm him down a bit? Sad
poppydog83 - Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:15 am
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I tried handling my rat alot,but unfortunately she wouldnt let me near her very often. But i just made sure i spent time with her etc....Yeah the first cat the sister (pinny) was put down due to having a tumor on her tongue which was unable to be operated on and if they did operate it wouldnt have left her which much of a tongue. And her brother (victor) was put down a week before my mums birthday last year because his kidneys had started failing and my mum was offered by the vet to give victor a treatment similar to dialasis,but there was no guarentee it would work. So mum made the decision to have him put down Crying or Very sad
GerbilPunk - Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:18 pm
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i just want him to be happy... is it possible to do that by not holding him much? i have several bite marks now, since he has started drawing blood. Crying or Very sad im sorry about your mums cats thats so sad.
Twig - Mon Jun 11, 2007 5:17 pm
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You haven't had him long, so unless you have covered the taming basics, he certainly isn't going to want to be held, and gerbils are not a pet you can cuddle anyway...too active. Also cuddling him isn't going to help him in anyway, they aren't domesticated like cats and dogs.

The fact he is biting would suggest to me you are scaring him and not letting him make the first moves. If you were to approach him slowly and were at the stage were he was more confident he certainly wouldn't be biting.

I suggest you read up on some taming articles. Wink
poppydog83 - Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:22 pm
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I agree with twig there,read up on taming basics and then start from scratch with taming him and him getting used to you again
GerbilPunk - Tue Jun 12, 2007 3:47 pm
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thanks for the advice. i have also got him into a routine too. i go and just talk to him every day at the same time, i fill his water if it needs doing at the same time, and i feed him from my hand at the same time every day. ive heard thats a good way to tame them. i have also been doing the putting-your-hand-in-the-cage-and-letting-him-crawl-on-it thing. he hasnt drawn blood in a few days now. in fact, he only nipped me once yesterday! in some ways im glad Retro died while he was so young so he can get used to it. (i do wish he'd stayed longer though... is that mean to say im half glad? my emotions are still all over the place even though its been a whole week!) i read a post about rainbow bridge and it was really moving... i reccomend it to anyone who's lost thier best friend. it made me cry but i felt better for it. Smile
GerbilPunk - Thu Jun 14, 2007 3:54 pm
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oh sorry its been a few day so heres a little update...
Bruce is getting alot better but he still bites a few times. he's getting used to his routine and now goes wild when its 10pm (when he gets his food!) Laughing i was reading up on taming techniques like you said, but then i got sidetracked and found another american forum which was dead so i didnt join but it had loads of cool little ideas to make your gerbils house more interesting, then that lead to another topic which had someone in the same situation as me, and they suggested doing a permenant split tank method, with two young pups, so they could go and say hello through the glass if he got lonely. Confused this sounded a bit pointless to me but something about it stuck in my mind. i was wondering what you guys thought of it. do you think its the right thing to do for him? or will it make him more depressed at put us back as square 1? Confused Question

P.S. sorry for double posting, that was a strict thing to NOT do in my past forums... is that the same here? Wink
poppydog83 - Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:25 pm
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hey,ive double posted on here before and not been told off so i assume its ok to do so.
Violette - Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:26 pm
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What is double-posting?
poppydog83 - Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:28 pm
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two posts in a row in the same topic
GerbilPunk - Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:39 pm
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not meaning to be rude, but what about the split cage thing... Embarassed
honeydlc - Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:53 pm
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ok, I'm the first to admit that I know little about gerbils, but if your remaining one is still young, surely it wouldn't do any harm to try the split cage thing, and maybe try to get them used to each other that way so eventually they can live together? Perhaps you could keep them in the cage like this and let them spend their out of cage time together, under supervision, as I assume any aggression they might show would be territiorial?
As I said, I'm no expert, but perhaps someone else will come along and say whether this is a good idea or not.
Good luck XX
GerbilPunk - Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:57 pm
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thats what i thought but then isnt there a risk of them killing eachother, or if the new ones lives, then what if he got lonely? i dont want to get a new gerbil if the rest of its life will be unhappy. know what i mean? Confused
honeydlc - Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:02 pm
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Right ok, ignore everything I just said, I've just dug out my 'Veterinary Nursing of Exotic Pets' book and here is what it says on the social grouping of gerbils-
'Gerbils are best housed singly, as a female pair or a neutered male and female pair....males housed together though will fight, inflicting severe wounds'.
Now having read that, I would suggest that your single male gerbil will be happier by himself!
Hope that helps, I would definately carry on trying to tame him though, then you won't need to worry about him being lonely.
GerbilPunk - Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:19 pm
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ok thanks fot all your advise! i really appriciate it! i thought he might be ok but ever since Retro went to the heavens above, i've been a little over protective... im always worrying about him in some way! i'll continue to tame him.
thanks again everyone for everything! Smile
Twig - Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:15 pm
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Actually its female gerbils who are far more likely to fight, in gerbils, it is the females who are territorial, not the males! Wink Unfortunatly most books are full of a lot of crap.

Really its up to you if you want to try bonding him with another gerbil, how old is he?
GerbilPunk - Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:29 pm
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wow thank you so much everyone. i love the way everyone cares about eachother so much here! Smile by the way i had a snoop around and from the video of fudge, i can say he's one lucky bunny! he reminds me of twitchy! Laughing always on the go!

i had a little google search my self to find out just how old he was when i bought him, and i found out he was about he was probably about 5 weeks old. that makes him... uh oh maths... uh... 13 weeks! thats over 10 months so i guess its maybe best to stop worrying and accept the way things are... Sad
Lucy360 - Fri Jun 15, 2007 6:04 pm
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Sorry to hear the sad news gerbilpunk, You sound really grown up for only 13! I've had gerbils since I was 6 and im 20 now, thats 14 years of gerbil experience lol. My second pair of gerbils were gorgeous little girls who were very shy as they had never been handled in thier previous home. When I was away on holiday I recieved a phone call from my mother explaining to me that one of my gerbies had died suddenly ( they were about 3 though), when I got home my other girl was so quiet and looked depressed for about a week, she hardly ate, never played and slept all day. I tried everything, but I found that letting her have some quiet time to get used to the idea worked best and then i gradually started to talk to her daily and feed her treats off my hand, after about a month she was much more friendlier than she had ever been!
GerbilPunk - Sat Jun 16, 2007 7:42 am
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oh thank you. thats the second time someone has mentioned my age Smile that must have been a real shock to hear when she was dead... Sad i must say, i have been re-taming him and he is looking much better! (his fur's getting a little greasy though! better get the chinchilla powder out!) i was really worried about him at first, because they're my fisrt pair of gerbees, but now he's looking happier, ive relaxed (well a tiny bit anyway!) Laughing
Josh - Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:36 am
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Run free retro ! x
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