Hi all.
Sorry I haven't been on the forum for so long - I have only just seen your replies, thank you. The reason why I haven't been online much recently is because I have been going through a really rough patch. My job has been really stressful and it has really been affecting me, I've had other stresses to deal with aswell, but the first thing was the loss of one of our small family members.
Six days after I posted this thread - Brownie passed on.
It was very sudden and unexpected. He didn't seem to be ill at all, the day before he passed away he was eating normally, playing around the living room floor in his exercise ball, he seemed perfectly fine. It was a shock to loose him so unexpectedly like that and it really affected me and my boyfriend. I couldn't believe it for several hours. It was so sudden and random that it just didn't seem real.
The only comfort I have is that, as our vet pointed out to us, at least he was happy and comfortable right up until the end of his life, and didn't suffer for long.
As he seemed to be completely healthy, the only thing that we can think of is that is must have just been his age. As I mentioned before, we adopted Brownie, and we never knew his real age. We knew he was a fully grown adult when we adopted him, but we didn't know exactly how mature he was, as it is often quite hard to tell with gerbils.
Part of me always had a feeling he was older than we thought, as he had such a gentle laid back mature personality. He was so lovely.
Gerbils are very sociable animals, and they often get stressed and depressed if they don't have a companion to eat/sleep/groom with - so I was really worried about Parker.
So a few days after Brownie passed on, I started to call around my nearest Pet's At Home stores (the same place where we adopted Brownie and bought Parker) to see if they had any gerbils who were up for adoption. We were told about two brothers who were about to be put out onto the shop floor for adoption. We went there and adopted them the next day.
So now we have two more little gerbies, who I will introduce properly a little later on. They are lovely. When we tried to introduce the new brothers to Parker, one of them didn't hit it off very well with Parker (dominance issues), so for now we have two cages set up next to each other, and I am very slowly attempting to do a "split-cage" introduction method. But even though they are in separate cages, the 3 of them can still see, hear, and smell each other, and I think that they all appreciate each other's company.
Thank you again for your replies, I am very proud of Brownie and Parker. And of course, my two new little ones aswell.
Janay
.
Sorry I haven't been on the forum for so long - I have only just seen your replies, thank you. The reason why I haven't been online much recently is because I have been going through a really rough patch. My job has been really stressful and it has really been affecting me, I've had other stresses to deal with aswell, but the first thing was the loss of one of our small family members.
Six days after I posted this thread - Brownie passed on.
It was very sudden and unexpected. He didn't seem to be ill at all, the day before he passed away he was eating normally, playing around the living room floor in his exercise ball, he seemed perfectly fine. It was a shock to loose him so unexpectedly like that and it really affected me and my boyfriend. I couldn't believe it for several hours. It was so sudden and random that it just didn't seem real.
The only comfort I have is that, as our vet pointed out to us, at least he was happy and comfortable right up until the end of his life, and didn't suffer for long.
As he seemed to be completely healthy, the only thing that we can think of is that is must have just been his age. As I mentioned before, we adopted Brownie, and we never knew his real age. We knew he was a fully grown adult when we adopted him, but we didn't know exactly how mature he was, as it is often quite hard to tell with gerbils.
Part of me always had a feeling he was older than we thought, as he had such a gentle laid back mature personality. He was so lovely.
Gerbils are very sociable animals, and they often get stressed and depressed if they don't have a companion to eat/sleep/groom with - so I was really worried about Parker.
So a few days after Brownie passed on, I started to call around my nearest Pet's At Home stores (the same place where we adopted Brownie and bought Parker) to see if they had any gerbils who were up for adoption. We were told about two brothers who were about to be put out onto the shop floor for adoption. We went there and adopted them the next day.
So now we have two more little gerbies, who I will introduce properly a little later on. They are lovely. When we tried to introduce the new brothers to Parker, one of them didn't hit it off very well with Parker (dominance issues), so for now we have two cages set up next to each other, and I am very slowly attempting to do a "split-cage" introduction method. But even though they are in separate cages, the 3 of them can still see, hear, and smell each other, and I think that they all appreciate each other's company.
Thank you again for your replies, I am very proud of Brownie and Parker. And of course, my two new little ones aswell.
Janay
.
"And ye harm none, do what ye will" ~ Wiccan Rede
