Persky, Hilary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
>Once when the animal was very frightened by being caught in something, and
>in another instance we had a gerbil who liked to nip to play; he would nip,
>and then run off. We began to say "NO!" quite loudly when he would nip, and
>he would then sort of wriggle and run away. (All of this happened when he
>was out to play in the living room.) He soon stopped altogether.
This is similar to the tap on the nose approach.
If exceptionally a gerbil acts very aggressively all the time, it can be
taught not to by immediately tapping it on the nose with the pad on the
end of your index finger. Not hard enough to hurt. But the tap will
surprise the gerbil. It usual soon learns that aggressive behaviour gets
an immediate and unpleasant response.
This isn't cruel. It is just to show the gerbil that if it is
aggressive, it will get surprise.
--
Julian
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* Jackie and Julian *
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* National Gerbil Society *
* http://www.gerbils.co.uk/ *
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