# Been a while, need some help with my gerbil?



## RavenTheRat (May 28, 2015)

Hello everyone 
I doubt anyone on the forum remembers me, god knows the last time I came on here.

So for the past... year and a half, I guess you could say, I've had a terrible apathy towards my pets, my schoolwork, my art, really...... I just lost interest in everything I loved. 
I don't know what brought it on to be honest, but it was probably the worst year of my life.

As of late that apathy has finally, thank god, evaporated. And, as a result, concern for my pets social and emotional health (as well as a mountain of guilt over my lack of attention towards them) has been the #1 thing on my mind. 

I joined this forum when I first got my two rats, Raven and Onyx. To my dismay, Onyx passed away due to a respiratory infection last summer around this time. To my further dismay, I was forced by my mother to give up Raven and my newer rat, Magick, due to a move to a smaller house where we couldn't fit them. As a result, the only two babies I have left are my Beta fish Anubis and my beloved gerbil Ricky. 

So you're probably wondering why Ricky doesn't have a cagemate. Let me start off with this- Ricky is an old man gerbil. I got him when I was 12 years old, 4 years ago. As an exited twelve year old who knew nothing about gerbils and who bought said gerbil from a petsmart with employees who knew equally nothing about gerbils, I bought Ricky and no cagemate.

Of course now I know that I should have bought a cagemate for him, but... I was young and stupid I guess. So fast foreward about a year, and I found out how truly bad it was to keep gerbils alone. At that point in time however, I had just gotten my rats, so there was no way my mother was going to let me get another gerbil. And then after that was that year and a half of apathy I talked about before. 

So my question is this- is he too old to introduce another gerbil? If he is.. how can I make up for that lack of social interaction? I really do want to make his life as happy as possible...... I'll do anything to help him, I really will. 

I have started to take him out to run around and play again, and he seems quite happy about it, as he scampers around, bolting from one side of my bed to the other. He's even begun to let me pet him.... I'm hoping maybe if I take him out for a while every day, that could help? Any advice would be awesome. Thanks guys <3


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## Zoomom (Aug 1, 2016)

He is not too old for the right cage mate, you would just have to be very careful about introductions. You would want to find either an older female, at least two years old, so she is no longer fertile, or two young males, around 6 weeks old. You would want to get two babies because when the four year old does pass, you will have two same age ones and won't have to go through another introduction. I would recommend checking out www.agsgerbils.org for care instructions and to see if there are any breeders in your area. A breeder would definitely be the way to go for new gerbils. Pet store gerbils are poorly bred and may be unhealthy, which your old man couldn't handle at this point. The American Gerbil Society also has a Facebook page that is pretty active, you can post there for great advice as well.


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