# Gerbils, mice, and hamster interactions successful.



## silverdawn92 (Jan 13, 2013)

My gerbil female's first litter was a litter of experimentation. I allowed her barely weaned pups to intermingle with the *same-aged* pups of my hamster as well as a carefully selected handful of young mice. Allowing them to interact proved _beneficial_ for future litters and experiments. There were no fights or problems _whatsoever_ and the animals involved demonstrated a more friendly and accepting mien than those who did not. An example of the benefits of these trails presented itself a few days ago when my first-time mother mouse began to slowly eat her perfectly healthy pups at the age of almost two weeks old. The same mother gerbil happened to be nursing her slightly older litter at the time. It was decided that the mouse pups would be handed over to her. This turned out to be a very good choice, as the other mother mouse that would have fostered the babies ate all but one of her's as soon as they were born during the night. The gerbil immediately accepted the mice into her nest and allowed her to nurse alongside her own children. The gerbils from her previous litter (the ones from the first experiment) didn't even bother to follow the mice and sniff them like mad as she did at first and warmed them in the nest without question. Eventually, she found that the baby mice were being pushed away by the baby gerbils when they tried to nurse, so she developed the habit of separating them during feeding times. I feed all of my small animals the same sort of food (which has been carefully selected by process of trial and error, allowing me to see which food was the most beneficial and easily eaten and affordable for gerbils, hamsters, and mice alike) with supplements varying by species and group needs, so they are used to having the same diet. Gerbil milk appears to be beneficial for mice, as they have demonstrated immunity to the respiratory infections that assaulted many of my other mice that they were temporarily exposed to during cage cleaning when their mother decided that it was a good idea to dump her food and water into the corner and allow mold to grow. One of the pups, whom was partially eaten before I was able to separate him from his mother, had a large wound extending from the surface skin of the left side of his rump to parts of the muscle tissue and bone in his leg. It has healed nearly completely in the span of only three days without any infection or complication whatsoever. He is able to use the limb normally and appears to have no other damage other than a small bite on his face from the murderous mother. The hamsters became more aggressive over time despite careful and loving handling and petting and have thus had their inter-species visitation rights terminated. I hope this post does not contain too many characters, as I have lost count. I am posting this here because I wonder what others will think of these experiments performed for the benefit of my animals. (The reason that they were conducted in the first place is because I live in an area where flooding happens occasionally (once or twice a year, usually not above ankle level) in my house and wanted to know how many animals I could cram into one cage if I had to move them to safety quickly in the event of an emergency. The ferret has a harness that is easily attached and will sit on my shoulder as I walk, so I do not worry about his safety quite as much as I worry about the smaller animals.)

Note: No animals were harmed in the experimentation progress. Despite the fact that I may not sound like it, I DO love my animals more than my human family and would never subject them knowingly to any obviously harmful situations. All animals were carefully monitored for all hours of experimentation and returned to their mothers for nursing and warmth immediately afterwards. These animals still get along just as well as they did when they were young and visit each other on occasion with the exact same results each time.


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## blackbirdmice (Oct 27, 2012)

Very interesting, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Thank you for post these results.


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## silverdawn92 (Jan 13, 2013)

blackbirdmice said:


> Very interesting, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Thank you for post these results.


Thank you very much.


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## ThatCertainGlow (Jun 23, 2012)

Flooding, once or twice a year, in the house, and up to the ankles? Wow. I didn't know any flooring would stand up to that. Interesting reason for the experiment. I've read of people doing the foster method with ASF's, for similar reasons.


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## silverdawn92 (Jan 13, 2013)

I have to live in the basement, so there is not much to be done about the flooding. Having to live with other people is terrible for me. They are all trying to get my animals out of the house and my old mother's boyfriend tried to poison them once. I am not allowed to breed them anymore, apparently, or I will be kicked out.


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## ThatCertainGlow (Jun 23, 2012)

Goodness.  Sorry to hear that.


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## silverdawn92 (Jan 13, 2013)

Hm. I have noticed that the baby mice whom have been raised by the gerbils are now acting like gerbils. They essentially mimic their behavior now that they have opened their eyes. The wounded mouse is almost completely healed and still has no adverse effects from the wound. He was the first to open his eyes. The mice jump like gerbils, eat like gerbils, sleep in nests in the same positions as the gerbils (whom lay very differently from mice, on their sides instead of basically upright), and copy the baby gerbils' methods to mug milk from the mother.


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