Can my mated pair retire together?

[TJ's Rodent Ranch]

For anyone reading this post who doesn't know, I breed gerbils. I put them together for two or three months, and separate them after they've had their first and second litter. After that, I give them as many months apart as they were together, plus an extra month so that I make sure that mom's had a nice long break. How I separate them, is by putting in a divider, and putting the male pups with dad, and female pups with mom. This has seemed to be the best method I've encountered for keeping a mated pair bonded and happy with each other, while still giving them both a nice long break from litters. I'm still trying to figure out a way to achieve doing that, so if you have any suggestions regarding this process, I'd love to hear if anyone has positive or negative views on that. 

Anyway, this specific thread is about one of my mated pairs, Skittle (female) and Keefe (male). 
They've been with me for a little while now, and are getting close to the age that I retire them. They were in a separator after their most recent litter for 2-3 months. 
While they were doing very well, they definitely seemed to want to be back together, so I ended the separator a week early and put them back together. This was going to be the last litter before I retired Keefe with his son and brother, and Skittle with her daughter. Of course, they're very happy to be back together, and it seems they're in little gerbily love.
I'm very happy to see this, but slightly puzzled, because they seem to have absolutely no mating drive. They've been together for a month, and I've seen absolutely nothing beyond cuddling and cleaning, and when I say I've watched them, I mean that an eagle couldn't have been more vigilant. They're both going to be senior gerbils in another few months, and I figured that maybe it's just from old age, and they won't want to breed anymore, but I've never heard of that in gerbils. 

They really do seem to love each other, so if they decided no more litters, that would be fine with me because I'd love it if they could retire together. But I don't want them to retire, and then have a litter when they're so old that it's dangerous for their health, so I'd need to be sure they were done breeding. I'm still waiting to see if Keefe tries to mount, but again, it's been a month and I've seen nothing. 

I was hoping if someone on here might have some insight into that, or know if gerbils might eventually decide 'no more kids'.
Even if so, do you think hormonally it might be stressful on a female to retire with a male? 

I have many more questions, but I'll limit it to that for now. Sorry for the long post!

[Markpd]

Interesting! Afraid I can't help, replying to see answers...

[mygerbilprince]

I imagine gerbils have some sort of menopause, right? Like an age where they lose their fertility? If you want to keep them together, maybe set up a camera to make sure Keefe isn't trying anything.

[TJ's Rodent Ranch]

That's a good idea. I've tried to find anything about menopause in gerbils but the results are surprisingly small.

I'll keep looking, but from what I've gathered (which is very little) instead of a direct cut off, like menopause is for people, it's more that they just have smaller and smaller litters as their fertility is decreased with old age.

[betty]

A few breeders - including me - a decade or so ago tried a few older pairs to see what happened.

Results were around the following:

Most of the time - there were no live pups seen (this doesn't mean they didn't hever have any though)
Most of the time there was no mating seen (although this for sure happened in many pairs)

Litters did occur in female gerbils as old a 3.5 years* although not always straight away; not always after mating was seen; not always back to back; not always getting smaller in size; not always live or healthy pups - but certainly not always ill, disabled or diseased pups.

As for pairings into old age - all my own older pairings as part of this experiment seemed to cohabit quite dull-ley - as I hardly ever saw and posturing, isolation, persistant mating/scent-marking or anything other than snuggles. They all appeared to just be super chill - and all gained weight for sure!


*this particular female had been with the male around 6 months I think with no obvious mating. Single pup seen eyes closed but already furred (which died not long after) - second litter was a litter of 6 males who all lived past weaning but were not all 100% 'normal' (head tics seen in 3 when excited - and one died suddenly at 4 months old). All 5 remaining males lived with Dad their entire lives together and all lived past 4 years of age.

[TJ's Rodent Ranch]

Okay, thank you, that really helped, and it's great to know that it has been done. (yes, they've both gained a great quantity of weight, which only seems to help snuggle time!)

What I've observed, is that sometimes he tries to mount her, and she's not super into it. It always seems to be a bit haphazard and not well thought through, kind of like he was saying 'is this what we're supposed to do?' she never agrees, and he gives up even before he's fully mounted her.
I've kept them in a breeding tank in case something does happen, as this particular female was prone to having pups lost in the bedding, and I don't want her to lose a litter in the vast amount of bedding that I keep in other tanks.
I'll be moving them in two weeks if I don't see any sign of pregnancy, more productive mating, or pups. They're just so happy together, that if possible, I'd like them to retire together.