R.I.P Gene :(

Last night, when Colin & I arrived home from my mother's house, we went upstairs to get some bedsheets for the bed (also the room where we keep the gerbils, Gene & the three new dwarf hamsters we bought).

When I walked in I went to play with the three little hamsters & realised that there was NO movement whatsoever in their cage. Colin reached in for their little house that they shared & when he pulled it out, it was just awful. One of the small hamsters had more or less been eaten by the others, one had it's face covered in blood (dead) & the other one was also lying there, dead. From what we gather, the two that always seemed to be picking on one another had fought to the death & we have no idea how the other one died.. but the saddest part of last night was finding Gene.. our little Grizzly Bear :(

I walked over to Gene's cage - the gerbils were fine btw - & when I went to get HIM out of his cage, he was also lifeless. He was curled up tightly in a ball with his eyes closed, at first we thought he might have been hibernated. The temperature outside HAS been colder than usual the last few days & I recently moved Gene's cage further from the radiator.. so Colin tried to see if he'd wake up or if he was breathing, but he wasn't. I'd fed him yesterday & he seemed absolutely fine. He's crawled out of his bed & had his eyes half closed (he just looked tired as he always did when he woke up), but apart from that he looked normal. I was devastated with the whole thing :(

Going to crank the heating up in that room for the gerbils tonight.