gardenmum
01-11-2005, 11:57 AM
I purchased a trio of gerbils, a mother and her grown daughter who have always lived together and an unrelated male. Well, they all took to each other very well and i have had my first two litters of babies born. Each one had 7 babies, one three weeks ago and the other this week. I took 5 out of each clutch and froze them. I thawed them and gave them to all absolute non feeders that have refused every way of offering a pinky there is and I have been force feeding them righ along. I will say, I always allow the babies a couple hours opportunity to decide to eat on their own before I force feed them the pink. Anyway, I offered these 9 babies (yeah, I know, I said I had 5 from each. Well my siamese cat thought it would be a tasty treat to snitch one as it was thawing and eat it...lol), so I offered 9 babies out. Four the first time and then the five the second time. The babies scarfed these pinks down within a minute of putting them in. So.....to say the least, I am getting a couple more boys to add to the little girls I kept from these litters and am going to stock up on these "magic balls" for next breeding season. Once these that get used to eating the gerbil pinks on their own eat a couple more times, I will start to switch them over to mouse pinks.
And another plus!! I have NO problem with odors as they have a lot less dropping and urin than mice & rats. You can't put a harem together as these rodents are menogamous and mate for life. Actually it is not easy to get a trio together since the dominate female will usually try to kill the lesser female when she becomes pregnant, but I got lucky in getting a mother/daughter that were bonded and are having no problems raising both sets of babies together. The next ones I set up will be single pairs.
Here are pictures of the trio. The male is the dark gray with darker gray points (he had siamese colored siblings). The older female is the light gray. And also here are pictures taken today of both sets of babies I left with the moms. The older ones are the original mothes babies and they are both female. The younger babies are too small right yet to tell what their sexes are.
And another plus!! I have NO problem with odors as they have a lot less dropping and urin than mice & rats. You can't put a harem together as these rodents are menogamous and mate for life. Actually it is not easy to get a trio together since the dominate female will usually try to kill the lesser female when she becomes pregnant, but I got lucky in getting a mother/daughter that were bonded and are having no problems raising both sets of babies together. The next ones I set up will be single pairs.
Here are pictures of the trio. The male is the dark gray with darker gray points (he had siamese colored siblings). The older female is the light gray. And also here are pictures taken today of both sets of babies I left with the moms. The older ones are the original mothes babies and they are both female. The younger babies are too small right yet to tell what their sexes are.