News on our gerbils

We have been having a rough couple of months with our gorgeous little gerbils. It started back in December when we noticed that Cheddar was having problems eating, he had also lost some weight. We were not to concerned by his weight loss as Cheddar was always the chunkier of the brothers. But when we noticed he was having real problems eating we took him straight to our vets who had a look at his teeth for him. We found that his top teeth were almost non-existent and his bottom teeth had grown quite long because there was nothing for them to wear against. Our vets are very good with small animals and the vet expertly clipped Cheddars bottom teeth to prevent them becoming a problem for him.

Once home we tried to feed Cheddar up on mushy cereal and baby food, but he was having none of it. Fortunately within a few days of visiting the vets Cheddar was managing to eat some of his gerbil food, he was still struggling with large or particularly hard things, but he was obviously feeling a lot better.

A couple of weeks after Cheddar’s trip to the vets Chive started to look a little down. During his usual out of the cage time, he wasn’t very interested in running around and causing trouble, most unlike Chive. Our little guys are both well over two years old now, but having just nursed Cheddar through his teeth troubles we really weren’t prepared for anything to happen to Chive. Sadly as is often the way with little critters, Chive slowly deteriorated over the next few days until he passed away quietly in my hands.

Our sweet boys in happier times

We are pleased to report that Cheddar is still doing very well. He has been back to the vets and had his bottom teeth clipped again, so this is obviously something that is not going to go away. To compensate for Cheddar’s difficulty eating, we have started breaking all his food up into bite size pieces, which he certainly seems to appreciate. As well, we bought him a bag of mixed chopped nuts, which is a very naughty treat but he is most definitely worth it. For such a little guy Cheddar is unbelievably brave, coping with the loss of his brother and his teeth troubles. He is still heaps of fun to play with, if anything he is more demanding of our time than he was before, but if that’s what he needs to get over the loss of his brother then we are more than happy to be there for him.