Brain the untame.

[Espi]

Alright, I own a gerbil, her name's Brain, and she is, as I said, untame! I'm nice to her, or consider myself to be, but she really hates me, I've had gallons of blood lost due to her random attacks. I want to get her behaving as cute as she looks.

Is there anything I can do to make friends with her? She even gives me these looks where she squints her eyes and grits her teeth at you, it's quite scary. I try rewarding her good behaviour, but she doesn't accept treats from me, and would rather have a bit of my flesh. :eek:

[dbl120902]

She might prefer a friend of her own species, for starters. Maybe she's cranky because she's lonely. Have you ever thought about getting her a same sex cage mate?

[Espi]

Oh, she does, she has two sisters who are quite a delight to look after and wouldn't raise a tooth, but I don't know what the hell happened to Brain, because she's constantly looking for a juicey bit of flesh to tear off.

[Espi]

Whoops. I double posted, just changing this post.

[me02 original]

Looks like you have a bad case on your hands.
What exacily has brain done? apart from her random attacks? anything serious?

[Espi]

Well, she's managed to tear bits of flesh off, making me bleed for hours and even days after I can make blood come out, I have a few scars on my thumb from where she sevvered it, and she's basically a hazard, when we have our neighbour's toddler come round, she has bit her on more than one occasion.

[ratbrat21]

I have had my fair share of evil gerbils in my life. All you can really do is try to give her attention and see if that calms her down. How long have you had her and her sisters? How old is she? Some gerbils are just like that. I had a gerbil named angel...although she wasnt lol. And she would jump and attack me. With time and patience she got better though. Does she bite and latch onto your finger and not let go? I have had that happen to me alot. I have seen it happen more with female gerbils though. If you don't wanna try anymore then the only advice i have is to leave her alone. Give her sisters attention and not her if shes gonna be like that. Gerbils arent like rats who crave attention and time with you. Gerbils just want food, water and toys to play with and thats all they really seem to care for. The only other thing I can think of is maybe shes in pain?? Although I don't think the vet I go to would wanna handle a biter like that. I am really sorry shes like this. Most gerbils are sweet like your other girls.

[Espi]

These are my first gerbils, we got them as a pal for the degu, the others got along like mother and daughter with her, but Brain, being the little scoundrel she is, she bubbled up trouble, I would of personally gone for a rat, because like you said, they're friendly. They are about 7 months old? If not, a bit less. I have heard that gerbils are notorious for their bad behaviour, but my mum insisted on gerbs.

I still love her, even though it's difficult, the vet's had some nips, but nothing like what I've gone through. Maybe I just have to accept her unscrupulous gerbly ways, lol? :rolleyes:

[ratbrat21]

Well mixing different animals is never a good idea. I would never put gerbils in with degus.

They are really young gerbils. I was thinking maybe an old grumpy gerb. It might just be her personality. How much do you handle her? Are you picking her up by her tail? Its never good to pick up gerbils by their tail. I have had to do that from time to time just to quickly get a biter. But i would never hold them like that. Yeah it might just be her personality too. Where did you get her? If you got her and her sisters from a pet store I can understand why shes mean. Most pet stores get their animals from mills or backyard breeders. And if you got her from a breeder they might wanna look into not breeding more because they dont wanna be selling mean gerbs. Anyways i am sorry i cant be much help.