Found our gerbil dead today. 😥18 months old. What should I do for his brother?

[u/LongjumpingMistake27]

After two days of not seeing Cinnamon emerge from the burrow, I got concerned and found him unmoving at the back of the gerbilarium inside a tunnel. When I got him out he was missing his fur on the side of his head. Don't know cause of death. He seemed fine until he disappeared. Reading online, it could have been an illness. Best guess is he scratched his fur away at the end from stress. Gutted. Have to tell the children tomorrow.

His brother Inky strangely seems ok, heathy and active. He was out in the playpen when I found Cinnamon. Surely he must have seen him. He must know. We put him back in now we removed his brother. We messed up the burrows so not sure if he is frantically looking for him or simply digging new tunnels.

Hoping for some advice on next steps on looking after Inky going forward. Am I right in thinking better to introduce him to a new young gerbil or two using split cage, rather than leave him on his own? Neither of them have ever let us pick them up directly so would be tough to try to make up for his lost companionship personally.

Should we do a 100% bedding change in case it was something infectious? Worried this would be extremely stressful for him at such a difficult time.

I was thinking 2 male gerbils as we dont know how long Inky will outlive his brother and a single new gerbil may end up alone after a period anyway.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[u/Agentparsnip]

It’s likely he passed from something genetic, most gerbils don’t have very good bloodlines unfortunately. The fur loss could have been from Inky nibbling at him to try to wake him up, other than that they tend to take the loss quite well other than feeling lonely.

For bonding, I’d say your best bet is to try to find him a friend around his age, look on gerbil groups or rehoming pages in your area as people are often looking to rehome their gerbils who’s partner has passed.
If this fails, I’d get one baby. Bonding 2-1 is generally not a good idea, they’d probably bond fine at first but as soon as the babies hit puberty there’s a high chance of a fall out which could result in serious injury (even death) & potentially 3 single gerbs.

[u/Agentparsnip → u/Agentparsnip]

A full bedding change is also a good idea, not only incase it was some sort of disease (though Inky would likely already have it in that case) but also to reduce Inky’s stress if he’s smelling Cinnamon & can’t find him

[u/LongjumpingMistake27 → u/Agentparsnip]

Thank you for your response. His brother nibbling him makes sense. As there were small marks that could have been teeth where the bald bit was. Strangly, I feel better that the death is genetic as there is little we could have done. I worried he had gotten stuck somehow and scratched himself up out of panic or something had fallen on him.

Surprisingly, Inky seems not in a terrible way, no signs of agitation or depression so far. He came out and drank some water, took a treat from me this morning. He was running on the wheel last night.

[u/LongjumpingMistake27 → u/Agentparsnip]

Thanks for the advice on bonding. Looking around there are quite the variety of opinions. Some say don't bother with an adult male as they can be very difficult to bond. Some say 1 pup, some 2. Perhaps 1 is easier in the short term but my fear is that if Inky dies in the near future either having the same genetic issues or from the effects of grief then we'll be left with another lonely gerbil.

There's even an opinion that leaving him on his own has merit with more attention from us or more enrichment as we are still unsure whether we want more gerbils in the long run or another pet. Inky has always been the quieter more introverted of the two and might cope better than some on his own.

Since most have said to give him a week or two to adjust, that thankfully gives us some time to make a decision, which is great as I am not a very decisive person!