Why did my gerbil kill his cage-mate?

Question

I always feed them, so I know hunger wasn't the issue. They were always very tame with each other, more so than my female pair (the male pair is what I'm addressing). They slept together, played, etc. etc. Even this morning, they were up playing in the wheel and eating. I came home from work this evening, looked up getting ready to feed them again and the larger male lay dead on his side with a massive hole from about his neck to about 3/4 down his body, and his guts missing. There was minimal blood on the cage floor, and the smaller male didn't seem to be injured. I don't know what went wrong, anyone have any answers? Neither have ever seemed sick, so I don't want to assume that one died and the other was just getting rid of it.

Answer 1

It actually sounds like the dead gerbil died of natural causes, and the living one tried to eat him.

It sounds terrible, but it is natural.

In the wild, gerbils eat their dead to mask the smell from predators.

Your larger gerbil may well have been sick, gerbils will hide sickness as long as they can, sometimes until they die.

Two years is on the short end of a natural lifespan.

I know you don't want to assume that, but that is what it sounds like to me.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss.

Answer 2

well they are both males so clearly the one that killed the other felt threatened by the other.  so it was a dominence issue. the best combination would be two females like you mentioned that you previously had.

Answer 3

well because you should never keep 2 adualts in the same cage they might of been good friends then but sometimes it changes in a flash I am sorry for your loss and good luck and agian I am very sorry

Answer 4

That's really weird..they shouldn't do that.

Were they littermates? Have they already reached sexual maturity? If they weren't born together, and they were young, then they probably reached sexual maturity, and the smaller one became dominant over the bigger one and they fought to the death.

I really don't know...sorry about your loss :(

Answer 5

The one who passed could have died from whatever reason, and the other just starting to.. well.. munch away.

Try giving them a couple of pieces of dogfood.  That is a super tip for hamsters, too.. it gives them extra protien they crave which can cause those lil psychos to eat each other alive..

Sometimes they can just snap, and it is really sad.  I have seen the dogfood method help greatly.  I'm so sorry you had to learn about it this way.

Answer 6

Male gerbils are territorial. There is no real reason to why they would kill eachother, but it may be that one felt threatened by the others prescence. Perhaps because your cage is too small or they were just irritated by some small factor.

Answer 7

o.o

were they from the smae litter?

if not, did you introduce them properly?

if the answer to either of those were yes, I have no clue what went wrojng im so sorry.  but if they were both no, thats why.

Answer 8

If the gerbils were not together there hole life since they were born then they can't be put in the same cage.

Answer 9

Females fight over territory for breeding, males fight for dominance.  Chances are that they grew up together fine until they hit "gerbil puberty" and suddenly they felt like they had to challenge each other for the territory to mate with females (wild instinct, not saying it had anything to do with an actual one) and to show dominance.  Testosterone plays a big part in that.  Unfortunately, some gerbils have this problem while others do not and there is no way of really foreseeing this type of event unless you catch them acting funky before the fight.  I had two hamsters that did the same thing.  ):