2 replies to this topic

[lil BIG dwarf]

As some do you may know, I adopted 2 male gerbils (I hope) about a month or two ago. All I know is that they were with the previous owners for over a year (so they could be 5 years or two, who knows) and from a pet store. Are there any ways to try and get a more accurate age or find out if their siblings? I figured id ask just in case. Thank you!

[Lils]

Hi! I’m not exactly sure how, but I can ask on the gerbil forum for you. Would you be happy with that, and I’ll PM you the responses (if you do not have an account or can’t make one).

[daisy~]

Unfortunately between about 6 months and 2.5 years, it's very difficult or impossible to tell how old a gerbil is within that range. Under about 8 months, they will be smaller and slighter. Older than around 2 years and many gerbils will gain weight or change body shape, and will often become calmer and easier to handle. However it is difficult to use these things as guidelines for guessing age unless you are very familiar with gerbils in general, as otherwise you have nothing to compare them too.

 

Black and slate (dark grey) gerbils usually get white hairs in their coat as they get older. I think actually all gerbils get these, it's just more visible on the darker ones. A black gerbil with lots of white hairs is likely to be older than one without any, but it's not a reliable method of aging at all. Some black or slate gerbils, due to genetics presumably, might not get white hairs at all.

 

My gerbil Rocket (black) with white hairs around her neck:

 

If their previous owner got them from a pet store, they would have been at least two months old, which would make them a minimum of 14 months old when you got them. I would assume they're probably around 18 months now just going from the timeline.

 

As to whether they are siblings, on the balance of probability they are, because pet stores tend to sell them in sibling pairs or groups most often, and the chance that they were actually introduced as unrelated gerbils is not impossible but low (just because most people don't know how to do that). Colour is not a good predictor because gerbil litters can contain a wide range of colours. In fact, breeders will sometimes intentionally choose gerbils with certain genes to produce very colourful litters because buyers like gerbils they can easily tell apart. You can have almost any colour from black, white, ginger, brown, grey etc in the same litter. Practically, it doesn't really matter because unrelated pairs that have been living together from a young age have a similar declan rate to sibling pairs.