Derek has been checking little Barleys mouth for the last couple of weeks to look for her new teeth and make sure she is okay. On our last check there was the sight of one little tooth regrowing, which is a great relief to us. Barley is getting fed up with the baby food, but now we are tempting her with broken up sunflower seeds.
Gerbils:
Barley went for her check up with the vets and unfortunately there was no improvement with her tooth, so they had to operate. We were very frightened for our little friend, it was a very long morning waiting to find out if she was okay.
Barley jumped from six inches above the ground and fell awkwardly on her face. On checking her over we noticed she had broken one of her teeth. We took her straight to the vet, we are very lucky that our vet gives small animals the same love and respect as a dog or cat. The tooth is wobbly and out of alignment but Barley is not in pain and is eating, though very carefully. The vet decided to leave the tooth, as to try and remove it would mean an aesthetic. We are to take her back in a couple of days, in the mean time we are to make sure she is still eating and not in any discomfort. Our fingers are very tightly crossed that she will be okay.
We knew our little Gerbil family wasn’t going to be the same without Rogue’s troublesome ways. Barley took the loss of her sister badly at first, she and Rogue used to spend a lot of time together tussling and getting into trouble. As Barley still wanted to play she took to harassing her other two sisters, chasing them round the room and making them squeak. It was upsetting to see our little gerbils unhappy. Fortunately Barley seems to have settled down again, she has decided that harassing us is more fun.
Sadly we lost little Rogue to a respiratory infection. She became very down, not wanting sunflower seeds and struggling to breath. We took her straight to the vets who gave her Baytril. As Rogue was very poorly we separated her from her sisters, we didn’t want them to get ill and Rogue wasn’t up to dealing with their fun and games. After a couple of days she seemed to pick up, her appetite returned and she even felt well enough to demolish a cardboard tube. Unfortunately the infection caught up with her and her little body couldn’t cope and she died in our hands, it is good to know she wasn’t alone.
Barley & Rogue
We have had pairs of gerbils in the past and thought four would be fun. We were very lucky at the pet shop, they only had four and they were all girls just what we wanted. They were also all different colours.
Having four gerbils is an incredible experience, they are all such characters. Barley has the biggest personality, always learning new tricks to get her into trouble. Barley can climb out of the cage when the door is open, somehow managing to pull herself up with those little hands. With two cats in the house we have to be very careful she doesn’t end up as a cat toy!
Our pair of grey agouti girls were complete opposites but they were very happy together. Lumpy was a chubby little quiet one and Bumpy was always trying to get into trouble. It is hard to believe looking at the pictures but we could tell them apart. As youngsters Lumpy had a sore nose, nothing serious but it was their one distinguishing mark. With age Lumpy also became a little rounder :-) and also became known as ‘Chunky’. Also if there was any doubt Bumpy was usually the one hanging off the furniture.
Fudge was my moment of weakness. Derek was away for the weekend and I had just popped into the pet shop for a little look. Fudge was all alone there were no other small animals in the shop, not even hamsters! It was love at first sight, the round little gerbil came up to the glass and pressed his little nose on it. We didn’t have any gerbils at the time, though we did have Crunchie our little rattie friend. I knew I shouldn’t get him, Derek and I always like to be together when we get additions to the family, but he was so lovely. The assistant at the pet shop was surprised anyone wanted Fudge, he wasn’t a baby gerbil and the assistant also said he bit who ever went near him. I didn’t care I had been bitten by gerbils before and there was something about Fudge, he didn’t look like the biting type to me. On seeing the travel box the assistant stuck in his tank Fudge went straight in, no kidding he was very keen to leave that pet shop.