Hi,
I have gotten some good advice from you guys before, so I am turning to you again with
a rather big problem. I was letting my two female gerbils run loose for about half an
hour on my bedroom floor yesterday evening. When I tried to catch the other one in the
same fashion as I usually do, i.e. I formed a cup of my hands and grabbed her like
that. As she had gotten fond of running loose like she always does, she was rather
wild in my hand (usually I manage with that) and then she tried to leap back to the
ground. I must have tried to re-grab her in a careless manner that either hurt or or
frightened her, because she sank her teeth into my fingertip and made a very nasty
cut. When I tried to catch her again a few minutes after that, she bit me again when I
had just formed the cup on top of her again. I tricked her to a cardboard box and got
her back to her terrarium without having to touch her again. This morning I fed her
some sunflower seeds by holding the seed between two f!
ingers and letting her grab it from there. I thought that might be a good idea to try
to regain her trust because it is evident that she is terrified of my hands at the
moment. When I let her smell my finger (from the other hand than the one I fed her the
seeds with), she sniffed it for a few seconds and went for another bite, but this time
I was fast enough to take my hand away from the terrarium so she didn't manage to bite
me too hard.
I just don't know what to do now... I don't dare touch her or try to take her out of
the terrarium because I'm not too keen on being bitten again. Is it a good idea to let
her be in peace in the terrarium for a couple of days? Will she forget? Or what could
I do to regain her trust? I'm just feeling very worried and rather desperate because
of the situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
- Sari
