Gerbils fighting...please help

Blue Butterfly

Gold Member
I have 5 gerbils in all. 2 girls and 3 boys,the girls are no trouble at all but Im having a major problem with the 3 boys.

This problem only started today so I really dont know whats happened. Ive had the boys (Chester,Oscar and Dillon) for about 8 months now so they are about 1 year old.
They have a huge cage which is 2 massive rotastaks all joined together with some extra bits,so I can keep them seperate if need be.

Here is the problem.....Chester has started fighting with oscar,not just the usual tumbling about that they do,he is really going for him and keeps chasing him and wont let him settle anywhere.
Now Dillon and chester are asleep together cuddled up in one part of the cage and poor oscar is asleep all on his own in one of his wooden houses.
He looks so sad that I feel really sorry for him. They usually all cuddle up together.
I know when chester wakes up he will start on oscar again. I did seperate them for a while but Im not sure if that was the right thing to do so I put them all back together.

So why all of a sudden has chester turned on oscar? Should I put oscar in a cage on his own? I really didn't want to seperate them but I dont want any of them to be unhappy. Why is chester being so evil all of a sudden??

Sorry that this is so long,I hope it all makes some sense.
Help would be greatly appreciated.

Claire x
 
I think it's obvious they can't live together anymore, there might be no reason for his sudden violence but if you don't move Oscar you might wake up one morning to see he's no longer with you. What's better? Having to move him to another cage or having to organise a pet funeral?
 
my children have hampsters and we were told by the petshop that they can not live together as they are solitury animals, they are syrian hampsters. i was told that they were only able to be together when very young butwhen they reach maturity they will fight. maybe this is the case with yours
 
I hope you've managed to seperate them by now, most pet shops and breeders give the advice that you shouldn't keep them together and that one might kill the other. It's just plain animal abuse to allow this to take place.
 
yes indeed, animals fight and often to the death. it is very sad and very wrong that petshops are not more responsible when selling animals. i know of a shop that was closed down and when it was investigated they found a dreadful state in the basement with animals kept there to breed until they were too weak to produce more babies.
 
Omgosh, that is exactly the same situation we had with our 3 male Roborovski hamsters! We have a large rotastak set up. When we first bought them they were fine, but soon the one hamster slept up one end and the other two slept down the other end. It was as if the one had made one end of the cage his territory as there was a few scuffles when one ventured a little too far over. One night the loner had a huge scrap with one of the other hammies and they both ended up covered in bites (which luckily healed really quickly afterwards).

We quickly seperated them and now one happily lives on his own and the other two happily live together.
 
Gerbils of any sex can usually live together quite happily-they're completely different to hamsters and prefer to live in a group. Of course problems will happen and it may be best for you to separate them so they don't injure each other. Do you have a spare cage or tank you can put the naughty one in?
If you need any more advice feel free to message me. I have a lot of experience in animal care and have kept gerbils for over 15 years now.
Kelly.x
 
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