Why Are My Gerbils Suddenly Fighting?

It is most likely that they are in the process of de-clanning.

De-clanning is where two gerbils are trying to decide on who should be the Boss in their tank and they are now having to resort to violence. One is usually the original or existing Boss and the other one wants to be the Boss instead.

It is a very bold move to make in gerbil terms – you need to know you can win – as it is an all or nothing situation.

Whether they were eating the same piece of spaghetti over dinner last night or whether they loved each other over breakfast this morning, that has gone forever. They are no longer friends and never will be again.

Once a declan is serious – where blood has been drawn – it is best to consider moving them apart – at least temporarily – but most likely permanently.

It is quite hard to believe when it happens to your for the first time – but it is just the way of the gerbil. Most often there is nothing you can do about it once it has happened – well, apart from stopping it from happening again – by splitting these two gerbils up.

So, what actually happened?

Basically if there are two gerbils having a fight – then you know that the one that wasn’t the Boss before – now wants to be the Boss.

As a result there are two situations you may come across with this fighting – either the two gerbils are challenging each other and are both equally matched and so are fighting face to face; or one of the gerbils doesn’t really want to carry on with the challenge anymore and is trying to run away – but can’t get out of the tank.

You can tell which way around it is by the injuries on the gerbils themselves.

If they are equally matched and are fighting face to face – they will have injuries to the faces, necks and chests and they battle it out – often in what is called ‘rolling into a ball’. This is where they grab each other with their front legs, dive into each other forsaking all else and both roll around in a tangled frenzy – not good at all.

If they aren’t equally matched, one gives up and is happy to get as far away from here as possible – however, they can’t actually get away as they are trapped in the same tank. This poor gerbil will have bites all over the back, rump, tail and tummy – i.e. where the other one is attacking him as he runs away.

What do I do next then?

This depends on the gerbils involved, any other tank mates, your set-up at home, your carpentry skills and how many more gerbils you want to acquire?

There is no right answer as such – there are just plenty of options available to you depending on your own opinion of the gerbils involved and your options at home.

Unfortunately, no-one knows these things as well as yourself – so the following is all just advice for you to choose the best option for you from.

I will use the wording Winner and Loser here as this is the most likely fight-inducing situation in a clan. If yours was more of an equal matching – then just swap the word Winner for one of your gerbil’s names and Loser for the other. The outcomes below will still be the same.

Were there just two gerbils in the clan? If there were only the two gerbils in the clan – then you have two choices.

Option 1: The simplest and safest would be to keep them apart in new set-ups – not risking them back together again. Depending on their age you could give them both a young pup or two in their new tanks at some point.

Option 2: The longer and more involved version would be too see if they could be friends again after a long split tank introduction – however, you would need to build the split tank first. If you do it properly it could work – but if it doesn’t, then a month down the line you will back in the same place you started in with Option 1.

Were there 3 gerbils in the clan? This involves a bit more effort on your part and you need to ‘guess’ which gerbils are likely to be the best friends outside of their original clan.

Option 1: If there was a clear ‘Winner’ of the fight (ie the Loser had blood all over his bum and tail) then probably best to leave the third gerbil in with the Winner. He has shown through the fighting that the Loser (the original Boss) was weak and could be overthrown – therefore the third gerbil may have plans themselves to try it at a later date.

This third gerbil is currently submissive to the Winner so this could be the most stable.

Option 2: However, some people leave the Loser in with the third gerbil – as not only have they fallen out with the Winner (the one who caused all the trouble in the first place) but they think that the third gerbil will help to comfort the injured gerbil and help them recover.

Option 3: Try to re-split together all three by use of a split tank. This is very complicated and I don’t think anyone would suggest this as there are too many factors involved based on who you would put on each side of the divide? It would need to be a short split with lots of mixing up otherwise you may turn one of them into an ‘outsider’ – and that means your split tank introduction will fail.

Were there more than 4 gerbils in the clan? This opens up all sorts of options for you – but you have to watch this lot closely for a few days after the split to be sure you have got it right and everyone is now settled.

Option 1: The easiest option here in terms of after effects is to just take out either the Winner or the Loser and leave the rest in one clan. This way, the larger clan will most likely remain stable and you just have one gerbil alone to put in a split at some point. Not always though…

Option 2: Split them up into two groups – one group with the Winner and one group with the Loser. Do try to have both new groups in even numbers – or at least don’t give both uneven numbers for stability and ease down the line.

This option is risky of course – but often successful. Ideally you would have to make sure that you haven’t put the Winner’s sidekick in with the Loser – but sometimes you just don’t know – so by watching them closely in the few hours afterwards, you can move them between the groups and see who settles where.

If you have trouble outside of the first few hours when they have all been apart for ages so can’t go back together anyway – you could end up having to set up three set-ups as they are all at each other’s throats. Large group declans quite often end up fragmented even further over time unfortunately.

You may initially find both new groups get on fine – but a few months down the line – there could be more trouble. That is where you will be glad for your even numbers – basically if one group were left as a two – they could well be the most stable – but if you split into two threes and they both broke up – you are then left with 2 new singles and 4 tanks now instead of the original 1.

Declans are never fun – but don’t lose hope.

It can feel terrible at the time and like it is an endless battle as I hear you cry once more “Why are my gerbils fighting? Again!”.

You will see your tank numbers increasing and your surfaces disappearing under them, but it will all settle down eventually and you will have happy gerbil clans once more – with possibly some new pups in the mix…

Photo by Neil T