Gerbil Depression?

Question
Our 2 gerbils, Buzz and Woody, were littermates born in June 2004. Woody is albino and Buzz is black and white. We got them in July and they shared a cage until Woody started tormenting Buzz (boxing him, picking at him, dominating him in every activity). We found Buzz one day near death, and the pet store told us he was very stressed out and needed his own cage. We separated the two gerbils about three months ago.

Since then, Buzz has recovered, thankfully. He understands how to run around in his plastic gerbil ball, so we let him do that daily for exercise. Woody never figured that out the ball, so he runs around on the couch or floor, but not as often because he tends to poop and/or pee wherever he pleases.

Woody, however, recently stopped shredding cardboard as much as he used to, his fur is more scruffy than it used to be, he grinds his teeth, scratches his nose, and is generally a lot less active than before.  Could he be depressed or stressed out? We thought he might not like his bedding so we switched it to CareFresh. We think the albinism makes him a bit psycho; does he have different needs than his brother? How can we help him? Thank you!

Answer
Being Pink-eyed-white/Red-eyed-white won't hurt them. There isn't a known true "albino" in gerbils but the PEW do look
like it.

If he's lathergic and inactive then try making sure his teeth haven't overgrown and that he doesn't have an upper respiratory infection. If the nose is red and/or you hear a clicking sound then he might have an upper respiratory infection.

Try visiting this website to narrow down your gerb's problem and how to treat it...
http://www.gerbilsanonymous.com/Medicalindex.htm

Ashley