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Post by paperdoves on Apr 14, 2014 11:00:18 GMT -8
I grew up in California, where gerbils are not legally allowed. I now live in Oregon, where they are. I have wanted gerbils for a long time, so about a week ago I got three of them. As far as I can tell I have two females and a male. I am sure about the male, but not 100% sure that the other two are not male. The one is very obviously male, and the other two lack the bulge that the male has but they are very young and small, smaller than an adult mouse. I'm not sure how old they are. From reading here and elsewhere, I estimated 6 weeks- does this sound about right for the size that I described?
I have them split up. The one that is definitely male is in a 55 gallon long aquarium with a screen top and lots of pine shavings, the other two are in a parakeet flight cage. Is this enough room for them? Each cage has a nest box, food, water and some toys (I plan to get more toys for them). We take them out and play with them every day. They seem a little bit wild- they don't bite and they stay on our hands when we hold them, but getting them out of the cage is difficult as they try to run away.
Initially I thought that they were black but it's more like off-black. One female is solid colored with a small beard, the other two have full collars of white plus a white belly. I think that they are either slate or blue but I can't figure out which- they don't have any brownish tones at all, does that indicate blue instead of slate? They don't seem to have darker points but again, they are young and small.
I have a good picture of one of the spotted ones, it's in my phone but I'll try to figure out how to post it here.
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Post by paperdoves on Apr 14, 2014 11:09:21 GMT -8
I tried to post the picture by accessing this forum from my phone and using the picture as an avatar, but it said the file is too large. If anyone can help me to post the picture, I would appreciate any advice.
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Post by Shooting Star on Apr 14, 2014 13:18:02 GMT -8
How to Post PicturesSix weeks sounds about right. A 55 is tons of space for a single gerbil, but you've not specified the dimensions of the flight cage-- particularly how deep the base is. Gerbils should have at least 6 inches of substrate. Make sure your pine shavings are kiln-dried, as well. Sounds like you have Black and Pied Black. Black gerbils are rarely true jet-black, especially if they have white spotting.
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Post by paperdoves on Apr 14, 2014 13:54:14 GMT -8
The shavings are kiln-dried, sludge free and dust free. Both enclosures have a good 6 inches of shavings- results in a bit of a mess around the cage but I know that they really like it so I'm willing to live with it. I just measured the flight cage. It's 17.5" tall, 17.5" deep and 30" long. It's considerably larger than a 20 gallon tank, I'm sure of that because I also have one of those. I read that a 20 gal tank is plenty for a couple of gerbils but it seemed small to me so I put them in the flight cage.
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Post by paperdoves on Apr 14, 2014 13:59:57 GMT -8
Thank you for the picture posting link. I can't get the picture out of my phone into Picasa (the photo site that I use, it works just like photobucket for posting pictures into forums). I'll keep trying. It seems like I should be able to get the picture into the cloud and from there into the computer but I'm not sure how. I'll see if my son can help me when he comes home from school.
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Post by paperdoves on Apr 14, 2014 17:09:18 GMT -8
link I think that I did this right, the link goes to a picture of one of the female gerbils. The color on her head is the same as the color on her body, sort of a dark grey color. Her body looks black here due to an unfortunate shadow. For scale, that's my hand. I'm female with relatively smallish hands. I don't have any pictures yet of the other two. The male looks identical to this one, and the other female is the same color as this one's head (and body but see above about the shadow).
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Post by Shooting Star on Apr 14, 2014 17:35:32 GMT -8
Works for me. That's a Pied Black. Pied Slate is also possible, but not likely. White spotting lightens the base color, and most Black gerbils are off-black anyway due to being heterozygous for various other color genes.
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Post by Shooting Star on Apr 14, 2014 17:41:05 GMT -8
If you take a side-on picture with flash, you'll be able to tell for sure. Slate has a red glow to the eyes in bright light; Black does not. Burmese has eye-glow:  DEH does not:  Together:  Also, this is the difference between a Black and a Slate:  |
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Post by paperdoves on Apr 14, 2014 17:57:25 GMT -8
I'll try to take a pic with the flash on tonight. As I mentioned, my gerbils are a bit on the untamed side, so they are in constant motion while being held. Looking at the last picture that you posted, mine seems closer to the slate. Definitely not similar to that black gerbil. I understand that blue is dilute black, how can I tell if they, or she, is blue? Do blues have a red glow as well? I have a blue Great Dane and the gerbil's color is very similar to my dog's color.
I sound like I'm opposed to black gerbils! I'm not, not at all. I'm just curious and hoping to figure out their 'official' colors and I'm being impatient because I'm excited to finally be able to have gerbils. The few black gerbils that I've seen have had a glossy sheen to their fur that mine don't have. But maybe they just weren't off-black and mine are?
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Post by Shooting Star on Apr 14, 2014 18:12:32 GMT -8
Blues have the red glow as well. But Blue is very unlikely, as the dilute gene is still quite rare in the US.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using proboards
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Post by paperdoves on Apr 14, 2014 18:44:21 GMT -8
Thank you. I'll consider this mystery to be solved, and my gerbils to be black  |
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