Death of my Gerbil - help and advice

[Provenelk]

Hi everyone, i've looked around but i can't find anything that directly answers my questions so i thought it post here.

Sadly last night one (of two) of my gerbils died. I was placing a cardboard egg carton for them to chew when i noticed he was lying down on one of the levels of the cage underneath his climbing frame. He was very weak and his eyes were droppy and mostly closed, he looked really skinny and his fur was all matted as well. I tried giving him some water and he managed to pull himself away but he was very off balance and falling over. Later in the night he deterioated and he didnt even have the energy to stand on his legs, lying flat down, only breathing. I put him on some cotton wool to make him comfy and he didnt react at all, for the next hour or so he lay there just breathing before he passed away.

This came to a great shock to us, as hes not even a year old yet (august was his birthday). Over the past couple of weeks we noticed when we put him in is exercise ball his was less energetic than usual, and when he woke his eyes were closed for a few minutes. But after a few minutes he would be back to normal, running around his cage, and he was eating because i put in some biscuits a couple of days ago and he ate them all, and the chocolate treat i gave him, so i don't understand why he was so skinny. Also when i found him he was on a raised level which they need to jump up to to reach, so it must have happened while he was up there cuz he definatly didnt have the energy to jump at all. The only thing i thought of was that it has been a very hot weekend but my other Gerbil is fine so im not sure about heat exhaustion or something either. So we're really stuck on what could have gone wrong, it seemed to happen so fast.

Also im not sure what to do with my other Gerbil. Do i leave him on his own? or do i get a another gerbil? i heard gerbils dont take to kindely to new gerbils so im worried about anoher one getting hurt, but then i've heard that they can get really miserable on their own.

Thanks for all your help

Jon

[Provenelk]

no one can help?

[RenishaS]

I have no experience with gerbils so I can't help to answer your questions but I'm sorry for your loss.

[sarahh]

Hi Jon

It sounds like something in his brain went on, possible brain tumour that probably gave way and bled. I am so sorry, unfortunatly sometimes these things happen in young animals.

With regards to you other gerbil do you have any small animal rescues that have gerbils? We bought a gerbil recently she is lovely but was left on her own in the shop she was very depressed skinny hardly eating and would have died if we hadn't got her a friend. We went to a rescue who had gerbils we tried her with a few different ones before she got on with an older mother gerbil who had had a few litters with the previous owner. She loves the other gerbil treats her like a mum and vice versa. We also have the mums older babies 4 of them live together.

I would definatly got to a rescue that way you can try your gerbil with some others, otherwise you are going to have to buy some and hope for the best but atleast with rescues you can try them together.

Hope this helps

[RenishaS]

Quote: Originally Posted by Provenelk and he was eating because i put in some biscuits a couple of days ago and he ate them all, and the chocolate treat i gave him, so i don't understand why he was so skinny. Jon

I was reading over your post again and came across this. Do you feed your gerbils chocolate?

Chocolate is extremely dangerous for animals of all kinds and should never be fed to any pet much less small pet. If you're feeding them chocolate please stop. Look for small pet appropriate treats, I don't have gerbils so I can't suggest any but I'm sure the others have some great ideas.

[RodentzRule]

RenishaS is right, never feed chocolate to small animals. You can get chocolate made for small animals but personally I aviod that too, too much can be bad and too much is easy to reach, depending on each individual animal. Looks
like yours may have just reacted badly. My first thought was a brain tumor, they can take a while to show up so you may not have caught it anyway. Gerbils are very freindly creatures and will take kindly to a new freind if introduced and bonded properly, but if left without a freind your remaining gerbil may die of lonliness. I am sorry for your loss, RIP little gerbil

[xx Angelica<3]

Never, ever feed your animals chocolate. They may just say it's bad for Dogs, but it is bad for all animals. Sorry for your loss!