What Are The Signs Of A Gerbil Declan?

Gerbil declanning is a very frightening thing – and often it seems to happen overnight with no warning.

This is because gerbils are the masters of psychology and can perform feats of extreme determination while still looking all lovely and cute.

Just like – behind the public face of a happy family – there can be troubles bubbling up behind the scenes that only that family get to see.

Luckily for us humans, there are ways to peek into this hidden world – only if you know what to look for and you look real hard.

The key to spotting a declan is in the subtleties – and you should be prepared to act on what you see as soon as you see it – otherwise there is no point looking for it.

Why the secrecy?

Gerbils communicate in ways we don’t use as such – but you could compare if to office politics. You can watch what is going on with everyone and know whether they are on the way up or on the way down. You can see their weak points and their strengths – and you can act on them if you want.

You can set people up for a fall – you can help them achieve their goals – you can sit on the sidelines – or you can plan to take their job yourself.

This is what gerbils clans do.

It is the latter gerbils that are going to trigger the declan and they do it in a very obvious way – they hound out the gerbil they want to get rid of (usually the existing Boss but you can’t always tell who that it in a clan).

They start by: being mean to them; stopping them doing things; excluding them and chasing them.

Yes, I know.  The first two of these things are what an ordinary Boss does in a stable clan anyway – so you need to see all 4 of these signs to be sure a declan is on the horizon.

Why doesn’t the one being bullied fight back?

Quite often, the one being bullied is the existing Boss – and the reason they were stable before now was because this Boss DID fight back. Whenever one of the lesser gerbils tried anything funny – they would have told them what for. That is why it was stable this whole time.

However, as now something has changed – their power over the others isn’t working anymore. Either they has become weaker or one of the others is sure that they are now stronger.

The old Boss may well know that their time is up and they would be happy to step down and leave the clan – but of course they can’t leave the clan as they are trapped in a tank.

At this point you probably won’t notice anything has changed.

They know that they are outstaying their welcome and they try to appease the situation – usually with grooming – but a clan can’t have two Bosses and so the new Boss has to keep telling the old Boss to leave and the old Boss keeps apologising for still being there.

They may well still sleep together and eat together and chew tubes and things as normal.

At this point you may see more face-to-face grooming in the tank as they keep meeting at focal points like food and water and in connecting tunnels etc, and each time there is a bit of tension.

Eventually the old Boss will start to avoid being seen at these meeting points – especially if the new Boss is there. It is just a hassle to be told off again and have to do some apologetic grooming every time. They may choose different times to eat or drink now and not be seen out with the new Boss. They may eventually choose a different place to sleep.

At this point you may start to see the old Boss alone at times. Sitting up on a shelf or ledge just waiting. Often they are high up so they can see the new Boss coming so they can avoid a face-off.

The new Boss is being really patient at this time – nothing up to now has invoked violence – it has all been done with body language and positioning. But at some point the new Boss is going to want them gone, and you need to spot the trouble before it happens.

This is when the chasing begins.

My motto is it is never too soon to divide up a clan. Having experienced plenty of declans, I would rather split up some potentially declanning gerbils way ahead of any trouble. Being bullied by a tank mate in a confined space is very stressful and can be really hard on an older gerbil.

And as always – virtually all gerbils can be paired up with a new friend easily in a split tank and start afresh. No stress – and a new beginning.

Anyway, once the chasing starts – you should really be able to see what is going on. This chasing is so fast that often the first thing you hear around your gerbils is one of them hitting the side of the tank they are running so fast.

Basically they are running for their life.

The new Boss means business now and is prepared to start hurting the old Boss – and the old Boss knows it.

So whenever there is the chance of a bite – the old Boss flies off in whatever direction is safest – usually hitting the side.

At this point you should have heard one or two unexpected bangs. Often you won’t see the chasing – just hear the bangs.

They sound different to other ordinary bangs like cardboard boxing hitting the glass, or houses being dug under. And if you get to the tank just after a bang – you will see one or both gerbils just standing in different places – sort of startled-looking.

Add this banging to noticing a single gerbil often sitting alone – and you need to consider splitting them up into separate tanks real soon.

If they haven’t started biting each other already – it won’t be far behind.

Often this chasing is so stressful, that the bullied gerbil will be seen with their mouth open – they can become so stressed that they increase their breathing and get really hot and fired up through fear. They really can become exhausted during this process – and often when you finally take out the bullied gerbil and put them in a clean new fresh tank – the first thing they do once they know they are safe is fall asleep.

Then you wish you had separated them sooner…