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by The Chief on September 16th, 2008
Yep. My wife and I had pet gerbils many years ago. Two females, one male.
Make sure they have plenty of room, plenty of bedding material, and plenty of food/water, just like normal.
You may notice that one female gerbil will take care of the other's babies sometimes. We noticed this several times with ours.
Do be aware that whether you separate them or not, sometimes a mother gerbil may kill/eat some of her babies. There may be no apparent reason, either, and it won't matter if she is alone or with the other mother gerbil. (They are rodents, and sometimes rodents do this) It happened twice with ours...but that was after MANY litters and may have had something to do with the sheer size of the litters they were having the last couple times we allowed them to breed.
Try not to disturb them much until the babies are getting out and about on their own. (They're cute little buggers, too!)
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Comments
I have 2 females and 2 males. Originally with the same genders.
But it seems that only one male is the father of the two females.
If I have to remove the unrelated male, it's bad to let it live alone. If I remove the father, it'd be hard on the females.
Would the unrelated male disturb the babies?
by Kumiko on September 17th, 2008
It's not likely the unrelated male woud disturb the babies.
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You can separate both the males if you want. Especially if they're already acclimated to each other and live together without fighting. Just keep them in the same cage together and they'll be happy little campers.
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In fact, if you don't want to be up to your ears in baby gerbils every time the females go into heat, you will need to do this anyway. My wife and I eventually decided enough was enough after thirty some babies and separated the male from the two females.
by The Chief on September 18th, 2008
If yo wish to keep any of the babies, and want to keep any of them with the males, then it would be better if you raised them all together. But sex them and separate them into male/female groups BEFORE they reach sexual maturity. Otherwise you'll soon be over run with the little buggers!
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Raising them together will allow them to bond and not see each other as strangers and will keep them from fighting. Especially the males. It also makes finding them homes easier, since it's better to get them as pairs (they are social critters) and combining two from different litters who are strangers will likely lead to fighting...at least for a while.
by The Chief on September 18th, 2008
And a little word to the wise. My experience is that the females, who live together, synch up on their cycles and go into heat at the same time. Which means if ONE is pregnant, they BOTH are likely pregnant.
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And the poor male who was the father of them is plumb wore out from servicing BOTH the entire time they are in heat. (Our male would go at it for so long he litterally couldn't move after a while. But after a short rest, he'd be right back at it until he dropped again.)
by The Chief on September 18th, 2008
It's not my female in heat.
Because my male was mounting the other male.
And the male being mounted by another MALE seemed to be disturbed.
So I mixed in the females.
I saw him mounting both the females.
Most likely I intend to keep a few of the litter separate genders.
And the rest, to the pet shop.
by Kumiko on September 18th, 2008
Good plan. But you should get with the pet shop first and ask if they will take them. You can work a deal, probably a buck apiece or so.
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Be aware that there is a market in some shops for "pinkys". These are very young gerbils that are sold as food for young pet snakes. My wife and I did not give any gerbils away to anybody, including pet shops, until they were weaned. And NONE to be sold as pinkys.
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http://www.mombu.com/reptiles/reptile-exchange-offers-and-requests/t-fs-gerbils-pinky-perfect-for-difficult-eaters-via-auction-95925.html
http://www.perfectpet.net/prices.html
by The Chief on September 18th, 2008
i have had gerbils for over 2 years now, I've never had anything like this happen so here goes, recently one of my pairs, a male and his oe and only female mate,gave birth to 8 pups at the beginning of the month, well last week , on the day the pups were 20 days old, i looked in while feeding the and saw that one or both of the parents had chewed the back feet off all the pups, VERY TRAGIC, this shocked my husband and myself so much because they are the most perfect parents! But the pup were still very much alive despite their feet being gone and the vet said they wouldn't live so they were put down. while taking them from the cage it was saw that 2 pups were missing completely. why did they do this to their babies! i cant find one reasonable answer to this question and she is expecting another litter soon. i cant go through that again and i fear they may do it to the next litter. although she has had 3 litters prior to this with no deaths, accidental or not! i worry it was something we did to drive them to this but nothing had changed in their lifestyles or diets i just cant begin to explain how much this has shocked and scared me us. we are pretty informative when it comes to gerbils. We have always wanted to know how it deal with any situation. We aren't gerbils breeder and we dont sell them, every gerbils brought home or born into our home is kept as our families pet, we care for each one with love and care so i am wanting to know what happened for my own need to know basis. and after looking for days your post is the only one that i feel can offer me some kind of explanation. So please forgive me. And i look forward to hearing from you, if you would lie to write me back you can do so at
MoralesFS@cableone.net
by moralesfs on January 25th, 2010
i have had gerbils for over 2 years now, I've never had anything like this happen so here goes, recently one of my pairs, a male and his oe and only female mate,gave birth to 8 pups at the beginning of the month, well last week , on the day the pups were 20 days old, i looked in while feeding the and saw that one or both of the parents had chewed the back feet off all the pups, VERY TRAGIC, this shocked my husband and myself so much because they are the most perfect parents! But the pup were still very much alive despite their feet being gone and the vet said they wouldn't live so they were put down. while taking them from the cage it was saw that 2 pups were missing completely. why did they do this to their babies! i cant find one reasonable answer to this question and she is expecting another litter soon. i cant go through that again and i fear they may do it to the next litter. although she has had 3 litters prior to this with no deaths, accidental or not! i worry it was something we did to drive them to this but nothing had changed in their lifestyles or diets i just cant begin to explain how much this has shocked and scared me us. we are pretty informative when it comes to gerbils. We have always wanted to know how it deal with any situation. We aren't gerbils breeder and we dont sell them, every gerbils brought home or born into our home is kept as our families pet, we care for each one with love and care so i am wanting to know what happened for my own need to know basis. and after looking for days your post is the only one that i feel can offer me some kind of explanation. So please forgive me. And i look forward to hearing from you, if you would lie to write me back you can do so at
MoralesFS@cableone.net
by moralesfs on January 25th, 2010
We, too, had this happen.
A little background here: gerbils only live about 3 to 5 years, so keep this in mind as you read.
Our gerbils had several litters. Each one was larger than the previous. By the time the last few litters came along, we're talking a BUNCH of the little buggers between two females producing at the same time.
8 pups is a LOT. This puts a LOT of stress on the parents. Many factors may cause the parents to kill and eat their young. Inadequate food, not getting enough protein, not enough water, not being physically able to feed that many at once (due to too many or she is too old...remember, they only live 3 to 5 years), over crowding, excessive handling by humans, foreign scents on or around the babies, a new mommy who never had the experience of seeing babies raised. LOTS of reasons. Sometimes, they don't kill the babies at all...the babies have died and they eat the remains.
The fathers rarely attack the young. So unless this happens, do not remove them. In fact, removing the father MAY stress the mother and result in her attacking her young. If the fathers DO attack the young, don't breed them again, as this behavior isn't likely to change. (Or the mothers, for that matter.)
And once the mother starts killing her young, she may not stop. Which means you may have to remove her young to save them.
It is tragic...and perhaps more so because you may never really know WHY, and thus always feel somehow at fault.
Once it starts, you may have no choice but to separate the adult gerbil doing the killing from the rest. If it's the male (rarely), move him to another cage. If it's the female, separate the babies from her and start trying to feed them yourself.
If you're like my wife and I, if there are two females in the cage and the other is able to care for the babies, remove the one killing the babies until they are grown.
A word here...gerbils who aren't raised together do not socialize well with each other. Especially the males. So once you have removed a gerbil from a cage because of the babies, it is unlikely that you will ever be able to put the gerbil back after the young are grown without fighting. Most expecially the males. Males not raised together are more agressive...and will often fight (pretty bloody, too) until one establishes dominance. Sometimes this involves serious injury or death. So when you see them fighting in tight balls with a lot of squeeking going on...and blood...separate them and don't put them back together again.
Here's a really good site I found on gerbils which covers this. And has some information on trying to hand feed the pups if you have to.
http://members.nanc.com/~mhaines/gerbil.html
Rest assured that as long as you have been taking loving care of your pet gerbils, it's very likely NOT something you have done which caused this. Sad to say, but it HAPPENS.
I would say, though, that you should seriously consider NOT allowing them to breed any more because of this. As I said earlier, our gerbils bred progressively larger litters with each one...and that's a HUGE stress on a mother who is getting older each time this happens.
And no need to apologize. I posted this information to help, and I certainly hope it helps you to understand the nature of these little critters.
by The Chief on January 25th, 2010
Oh...and if you have any more question, PLEASE feel free to ask. I'll do my best!
by The Chief on January 25th, 2010
By the way, gerbils are social critters...so if you end up separating them because of this problem, you can introduce a same sex gerbil as a companion when they are very young. Especially to the male.
http://members.nanc.com/~mhaines/gerbil.html#section7.14
by The Chief on January 25th, 2010