How long should gerbil introductions take?

Question

I have 2 brother gerbils who are probably under 5 months, I don't know for sure. I also have a really young gerbil, under 3 months. I'm using a split cage method to introduce them.

The tank is brand new, so it's neutral. I put all 3 in (separated, of course) and the 2 older ones immediately started trying to groom the young one. Now, they're all just ignoring each other, but the baby periodically tries to dig under and get to them.

How long should I wait to introduce them all together? I don't want to do it too soon, as if the bigger boys fought the little one they could probably seriously injure him before I broke it up.

Answer 1

It is not a good idea to try and put a new gerbil into a working group and in most times it ends in death,

The young one is trying to get to them for company,

Introduce is up to the gerbils in question I have done it in 2 days and right not I have two gerbils in the split cage for 3 weeks and put them together and started to fight after a few minutes so it hard to say,

one on one is a week most of the time.

Have a read of this link and check that your doing it right better safe not sorry!

http://www.gerbilbreeding.com/intro.htm

I hope your move them around the spilts

Answer 2

Well about 6 months ago i introduced a year old male with 2 younger males and it worked out perfectly!

I used the split cage for about a week(switching them from side to side about 2-3 times a day), then after about a week i put all 3 of them on neutral territory in the bathtub and sat there with them for about 20 minutes to break up any fights they might have. They had very few and only squabbled a little but no serious fights. Then i put them in the tank together and monitored them for a little while and they seemed fine.

Once they start grooming each other, and sleeping together you know it's successful :)

They are still best friends to this day!

Good luck!