My experience is the same as Kathleen's. I started
out with a sweet trio and my home breed gerbils are
extremely tame, and reliable with my young children.
But then...if you remember the gerbil rescue
incident... (This is a further generation from my
gerbils). Well the tank of three girls are sweet.
But the sole surviver boy is a nipper (it doesn't hurt
or break the skin, but is a bit unsettling to feel
those teeth make contact). I would not put him in the
categorie of "fanging" as Deb says. He's not drawing
blood or hanging on. He just runs up to you and gives
you a nip if you put your hand in his cage or scoop
him up to take him out.
I think it is a habit he developed to avoid rough
handling -- the prior owner say they never take him
out any more.
What I've been doing in this case is ignoring the nips
and not pulling away. I've been taking him out about
3 or 4 times a day and letting him run in my arms (but
not constraining him) -- once he's out and moving he
doesn't nip. Also I've been letting my hand linger in
the tank when I give him cardboard or food. Last two
days and six outings no nips.
So, we'll see.
Donna
ABC Gerbils
www.abcgerbils.com
--- Kathleen DiMaggio <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I had really good luck with gerbils so far; no
> fights and no biters...till
> recently.
> I foolishly acquired two young gerbils from a pet
> shop and they turned out to
> be wackos. Always, buy from a reputable breeder.
> I've been lucky twice in
> the past and gotten sweet gerbils from the same pet
> shop, but why leave it to
> luck. One of the wackos bit me real hard and latched
> on to my finger to where
> I had to pry her off with my other hand. And this
> was all of a sudden after
> she'd been living here for two weeks. I did nothing
> to provoke her or startle
> her either. After that she always would go to bite
> and then her companion
> started doing the same thing. Not knowing what to
> do, I returned them to the
> pet shop from where they came, warning the manager
> about their behavior.
> No more pet shop gerbils for me. I picked those
> geribls up for their colors.
> I don't care if it's a pink gerbil with blue spots,
> I will adopt from
> breeders only.
>
> Kathleen
>
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