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- Mar 1, 2005
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I haven't had gerbils since I was a kid and now I am foster mommy to a sweet little male gerbil from the local humane society. He is 2 years old and lives by himself.
I just got him yesterday and now I'm trying to figure out how to tame him. He isn't terrorized of me, but not very friendly either. He is really jumpy when I move suddenly and wont eat from my hands. I know he had been at the humane society since March 3 and probably has had limited interaction with people (there are lots of volunteers, but also lots of animals... so I guess time to socialize the animals is limited). I'm not sure of his background but hopefully I will find out more soon.
Does anyone have any tricks to taming gerbils?
So far, my plan is to steal all the sunflower seeds from his food (before giving it to him) and feed those to him by hand.
I have tamed rats before... which involved holding them for over half an hour at a time (the reason being that if nothing bad happens, rats can't stay scared for more than 20-30 minutes.) but I am really not sure if the same is true of gerbils. If it's not, I could end up doing more harm than good that way.
I just got him yesterday and now I'm trying to figure out how to tame him. He isn't terrorized of me, but not very friendly either. He is really jumpy when I move suddenly and wont eat from my hands. I know he had been at the humane society since March 3 and probably has had limited interaction with people (there are lots of volunteers, but also lots of animals... so I guess time to socialize the animals is limited). I'm not sure of his background but hopefully I will find out more soon.
Does anyone have any tricks to taming gerbils?
So far, my plan is to steal all the sunflower seeds from his food (before giving it to him) and feed those to him by hand.
I have tamed rats before... which involved holding them for over half an hour at a time (the reason being that if nothing bad happens, rats can't stay scared for more than 20-30 minutes.) but I am really not sure if the same is true of gerbils. If it's not, I could end up doing more harm than good that way.