I have found my dead gerbil with half of his face ripped off. My other gerbil is fine but at one point he looked as if he was gnawing at the dead one? Is it possible they had a fight to the death or that "Parsnip" just died of old age and my other gerbil was feeling peckish? All answers welcome
2007-01-18 21:20:06 · 14 answers · asked by Jamsames 2 in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
He was just over two years old and there was only two in the cage, including him.
2007-01-18 22:01:46 · update #1
How old was "Parsnip"? Is it just he and the other in together or was there more?
Gerbils -ARE- social animals and do not typically engage in cannabalistic behavior out of the blue. Occasionally small animals will kill sicker/weaker animals whom they believe are a threat to the colony but that is fairly rare. They will also kill those they deem as 'rivals'...but that's only relevant if there was more than the 2 or if Parsnip and his cagemate were only recently placed in a cage together.
It seems more likely to me that Parsnip simply passed on due to age or that Parsnip was ill (or weak from age), and thus a liability, from his cagemates' viewpoint, to his own well-being and his cagemate disposed of him.
Gerbils are not highly territorial as Syrians (Teddy Bear) hamsters are, which are known for killing their own kind if housed together. As I mentioned Gerbils are social animals that live in colonies, usually consisting of a couple of females and a male. 2 males housed together do just fine together, and is actually recommended for the gerbils' well-being.
EDIT: If Parsnip was over 2 years of age then it is 99% likely that he passed from old age (Gerbils generally only live 2-3 years of age---2 years is a more realistic time frame, especially if he was purchased from a pet store where longetivity was not the goal of his breeding). His cagemates' subsequent consuming of his body is normal---lots of nourishment to be had there. Why let it go to waste?
2007-01-18 21:54:38 · answer #1 · answered by strayd0g 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Gerbils will fight, they can kill eachother. We has two that would get into little spats all the time. I think it's the close quarters. We had to seperate them when Merry bit Samwise's finger off (I know, we should have named them Frodo and Gollum). I think that fitght would have gotten to the point of killing if we hadn't. I think the face eating is a kind of mourning, like they can't stand to see the other ones face and them not really be there to interact. It's fairly common with Gerbils. They will bury their dead too.
2007-01-19 01:55:06 · answer #2 · answered by The Faery of P 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I know because this happen to me ALTO!!!!!
I raised 19 dwarf hamsters all at once (LONG STORY) anyway. When a hamster dies or in my case a hamster, The others will then eat it. Mine did the same thing you gerbil did. It must be normal. IT IS QUITE GRUESOME. But its nature I guess. They could just be trying to get rid of the dead body to prevent infection from growing. But anyway... its possible they got in a fight but if you had it a while and it just died Id bet money that's what happen.
2007-01-18 22:00:45 · answer #3 · answered by I <3 Animals 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1) Sniper 2) Bomb 3) Drowning 4) Suffocation 5) Falling Off A Cliff 6) Blunt Force Trauma 7) Pierced By A Sharp Object (knife, icepick, screwdriver, crowbar, etc.) 8) Beaten To Death With A Crowbar Yeah, see, I've put a lot of thought into this.....
2016-05-24 06:22:25 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I honestly have no idea, but that is maybe the most traumatic thing I've ever read on here! I don't think I would get over something like that.
Anyway, I don't think gerbils are carnivores, but they do fight. So maybe Parsnip was murdered...
2007-01-18 21:24:30 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's unlikely they were fighting, especially if they're used to being kept together. Maybe your surviving gerbil was just curious as to what happened and was just gnawing at him in curiosity. They only have their teeth and sense of smell to find things out.
2007-01-19 06:26:48 · answer #6 · answered by debzc 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gerbils can fight if it was a male and a female and the male tries to get busy but the female doesnt want it to then they can fight and if there are two males it is common for them to fight.
2007-01-18 21:26:36 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like one died and the other was gnawing. I've seen this before a few times.
2007-01-19 00:12:34 · answer #8 · answered by KathyS 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I used to raise hamsters and they did the same thing. Never once did they chew on anything other than the head though. It was really weird. It got to the point that we had to seperate them completly away from each other except for when we were breeding them. I don't think they are very nice unless you only have one. I wouldn't raise them again if I had the choice.
2007-01-18 22:30:40 · answer #9 · answered by Torey♥ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I used to have hamsters and when my hamster had babys one of them died and the mother started eating it so it is quite common
2007-01-18 21:23:21 · answer #10 · answered by very proud mummy :) 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋