Gardening...don't know anything about gardening, but I would describe my hands as medium, and I bought the medium/large pair based on what I'd read in the other reviews, and the pair I received is comfortably snug, nice and stretchy, and I imagine gardening with them would be quite nice. But this is not a story about gardening. This is a story about gerbils. I've been an amateur gerbil keeper my whole life. For pleasure, just because I love the little EFF-HEADS and enjoy keeping them as pets. I bred once, when I was a teenager, it was a tremendous success and I loved every teeny fuzzy beady-eyed baby bean, but adult life gets in the way and I don't breed anymore. Gerbils do not last long. 3 years, if you're very lucky and keep a clean tank hou *can* get a max of 5 years, maybe. I don't really track it. But recently had a gerbil pair pass, Duchess was white with ruby eyes, and Sylvie was agouti with a white belly. So I went and got new ones. They looked great in the tank, a lovely little blonde and white spotted girl and a sweet little sleek dove grey with ruby eyes. I named the blonde Daisy and the grey Jacinta. It wasn't until I got them home and settled and was observing them in MY tank that I realized that Jacinta was sufficiently smaller than Daisy as to indicate to me that it wasn't possible for them to have come from the same litter. Uh oh. Let me explain to you a gerbil's temperament and why I prefer them. Gerbils are unlike any other small rodent. Hamsters (not robo hamsters, normal ones) are generally very docile but they are also ugly, I hate their tiny eyes and tail stump, and they smell like pee. Rats are extremely friendly, treated well they can form strong bonds with their handlers, and they are very handsome, but I can't deal with their tails because they are gross and look like worms. Mice I don't know much about besides the fact that they are highly intelligent, they are just a hair too small for me to find them appealing as a pet. I can't form a bond with them. But GERBILS. A healthy gerbil should have a temperament just like a Jack Russel Terrier. Alert, confident, suspicious little spitfires. I love it. They should look back at you with obvious intelligence and it should be clear that they consider themselves superior to you. You can see it in their eyes. They have adorable little paws with tiny claws, and they will use them to take treats from your hand and grasp them while they eat. Their tails are very long, fully furred, and TUFTED AT THE END. LIKE A LION'S TAIL. Awesome. Their fur should be sleek, not poofy like a hamster (blech. Smelly little pee-balls). They are also extremely territorial, which brings me back to my problem. Jacinta and Daisy are clearly not from the same litter. They were, however, getting along, it seemed, both when I inspected them before buying them and when I got them home into my habitat for them. So, I continued observing them through the day and when everything seemed fine, I went to bed. When I got up, the first thing I did was check on them. Jacinta was in the corner and there were tiny blood spatters all around the glass tank. Disaster. Normal behavior for gerbils, but disaster. Daisy was trying to kill Jacinta. I took Jacinta out and put her in a temporary tank and went out and bought a second cage for her. Now I have two gerbils in two tanks. I will not attempt to acclimate either of them to a new tank mate. Daisy is highly unlikely to accept a new gerbil, and Jacinta will only feel unsafe. Then I will end up with either three gerbils in three tanks, or four gerbils in four tanks. At this point, for both of them, it's better if they are left alone. Daisy is friendly...with ME. I can handle her successfully, and she's calm and outgoing. Jacinta has become literally the most aggressive and fearful gerbil I've literally ever owned. She will likely never be able to be handled. She attacks my hand when I feed her, and if I try to just allow her to sniff just the tip of my finger, just place it far from her and let her approach and sniff and see what's going on, she adopts a fearful attack posture. She slits her eyes, holds her paws up, and approaches with her body down and head up, with no intention to sniff, she just goes in for the attack. Even if I hold a treat through her cage bars, she comes at it with the same terrified posture. Those terrified, slitted eyes. It's heartbreaking. She's SO scared. Now I NEED to be able to feed her, and I NEED to be able, if she becomes ill or injured, to handle her in order to evaluate her health and whether she needs to go to the gerbil vet. That means I need gloves. Utility gloves, the leather workman's kind are great, she won't bite through them, but the gloves have to be snug, not loose like those things are, because I have to be able to feel her. If I can't feel her, then I could unintentionally squeeze her too hard with the gloves, or I may hold her too loose and let her go or DROP her. So I had to go with these, coated stretchy gardening gloves. Alright. Daisy is in a TANK, and Jacinta is in a CAGE. This was deliberate. I wanted to be able to allow Jacinta to feel safe in the cage and still approach her frequently, meaning, I WAS trying to calm her down and acclimate her to my hands. Let her sniff my fingertip through the bars, or hand her a treat through the bars. It is not working. She is just too terrified. So, I have to switch them out. Jacinta is going into the tank indefinitely in the hopes that it will help her feel safer, Daisy is coming into the cage because she's friendly and gives no effs already, she's hardy. Gerbils are very resilient, I've rehabbed scared gerbils before, so I have hope for Jacinta, but mostly right now she needs a hands OFF approach so that she will be allowed to feel safe and recover, she's just traumatized. She may never come around, but at least I'll have the gloves to care for her and handle her if she gets sick and it becomes necessary. I received the gloves and immediately ripped into them and tried to approach Jacinta. And she is, of course, attacking them. So I'll be cleaning their cages and switching them out today so Jacinta can calm down, hopefully.
