Could She be a He

[DarkSorceress]

I have three gerbils, all supposedly female. Recently, I have seen one of my gerbils, Zulu, doing something with my other gerbil, Sassa, which can only be described as sex like. She (or he) was on top of Sassa, preforming a certain motion which looked very much like sex. In the past, Sassa has taken on very "housewifeish" roles...chewing up the paper, and cleaning house, while Zulu sits back and does nothing.

Is Zulu a he? Or is my female gerbil in heat, and desperate?

Thanks

[Zouave]

It is obvious in adult gerbils which is a male and which a female.

All gerbils sometimes engage in dominance "mounting" behavior, especially when they do not know each other that well.

[DarkSorceress]

I don't know how old they are exactly. We've had Sassa since beginning of September, and we got Smokey and Zulu and week later. They have been together since then...for the first two weeks they fought all the time, but now things have calmed down...

I heard it is easy to tell...just that I have an embarrasing problem.

I can't hold my gerbils. They aren't tame enough...they will approach me when I come to the cage...See, I am afraid I will hurt them, so I havent taken taming beyond "approaching"...

Thanks for the reply

[TTGerbils]

If you can't hold your gerbils to sex them, try putting them, one at a time, into a clear plastic container and look at them from underneath. You can give them a sunflower seed or two and they should sit still enough while eating them for you to get a good look at their bottoms. Here's a good site showing the difference between male and female:

http://www.gerbils.co.uk/gerbils/gender.htm

Looking from above, older males will be "pointier" on either side of their tail. Females have rounder rumps.

[Cenn]

After seeing male gerbils running around their cage in a pet store I had no longer any doubts that both my grils were really girls (I had tried sexing them before but was still wondering at times).
How about dropping by a pet store and observing the males running? You'll notice males have much more proeminent features (balls) that females don't have. Then you can observe your own gerbils running around and things should be clearer.

About the taming... If you are scared of hurting them by picking them up, then how about just resting your hand on the floor of the container so that they can get used to your hand and smell? If you are scared they'll bite you can wear gloves. Small beginnings...

[DarkSorceress]

Thanks for your suggestions...About taming...I am more encouraged to do it now, thanks to your suggestions...

I don't know of any petstores around here with males...most sell all female, but I will try to find one anyways...

We are pretty sure Zulu is a girl now...She has stopped the humping behaviour, and my mom said that when she was observing it, it did not look like Zulu was trying to connect with any of Sassa's body parts...but we will still sex them for good measure...

Thanks...