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Post by Victoria on Apr 10, 2004 7:30:55 GMT -8
Ok Hi eveyrone! My name is Victoria. I am a new memeber at this form and I have some questions. This is my first litter of gerbils. Of course they are Mongolian Gerbils. The mother is the creme and white and the father is black. The mother's name is Skippy and the dad is Midnight. They are tame and friendly and fed well and very healthy. They had their litter on April 8, 2004. I was owndering when you could touch them? When do their eyes open? How do I wean them? Also I wanted the mother to have another litter and left the dad in the cage. That same night I saw them mating again. But, if she has another litter i about 3 weeks won't she still be nursing and weaning her first litter? Ok please help me out! The runt of the litter died this morning. There where 7 and now 6. The rest seem very healthy and active. Okay now here are pics of the babies and one of mom and dad. C:\Documents and Settings\victoria\Desktop\2003_0105Image0001[/img]
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Post by andrea on Apr 10, 2004 9:06:55 GMT -8
Hi,
The parents will mate immediately after the birth, the female will become pregnant straight away, although gerbils perform "delayed implatation" so basically she will stay pregnant longer after, normally they tend to give birth to the next litter when the existing pups are about 5 weeks old( old enough to look after themsleves and help look after the new ones). I would say seperate the pups from the parents as soon as they are 6 weeks old to avoid the inbreeding.
Gerbils are very relaxed parent and cannabilism is rare (unlike hamsters). I tend to touch the pups right from day one to check for malformed pups, check all pups have had a meal., although this depends on how used to you the mother is. If she is upset she will tend to come to your hand and give a warning nibble, but not bite.
hope this helps, but the main thing is gerbils are great parents and females tend to be much more relaxed when the male is left with her. Male gerbils make brilliant fathers.
Good luck Andrea ;D
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Post by gooda on Apr 10, 2004 19:36:04 GMT -8
first of all, welcome! according to andrea, everything that i know seems to be right on target with what she has already said. but, here's my input too. it doesn't matter when you touch them. the same day they are born you can touch them or even pick them up, but be careful! ther eyes open at around 20 days. the mother will wean them, you don't have to do anything. i have a litter of 8 right now, and they are just about weaned, though i'm sure they will probably suckle for another week. just so you know, they are 22 days old today. and for her getting pregnant again while already having a litter, well i basically have the same help info as what andrea has already said. and that even though my pups are 22 days old, their mom is already pregnant again, and it wouldn't surprise me if she had them in about 2 weeks from now. i think it's crazy somewhat, but as a friend told me; you don't have to do anything, she'll[ the mother ] take care of them. you don't have to do a thing. so, don't worry about anything, just be patient and all will be well!
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Apr 12, 2004 2:43:37 GMT -8
Indeed welcome here! ;D
When your gerbils are tame it will usually be no problem to touch the pups, but to be totally sure you can wash your hands with the bedding in the tank, so that your hand will have the same smell! But do this not too often en not too long! Only for checking them this time, best is always to leave them the first days alone. When the pups start to walking around it is no problem to handle them more and when the eyes will open, you should handle them to get the used to humans and especially your hands! That way you can get very tame gerbils.
Here some additional info on the development of the pups from my website: When the pups are 2-3 days old, the ears start to develop and during the first 4 days the skin at the back starts to darken and the whiskers will develop. After one week the pups have already developed hairs on their back. The ears will also developing further and the pups will start hearing. Around the 10th day the hairs on their belly will start to grow. This is also the moment to have a look at the belly, because this is the time when you can see 8 bald spots on the females' belly, which are the nipples that aren't present in males. A few days later this nipples will be covered with hairs. This is also the age that the pups will try to crawl out of their nest. The teeth will develop at an age of 2 weeks and their eyes will open around 17 days. At this age they will also start to nibble at the food. When they are about 24 days old they won't drink milk any more. At this age they can survive by themselves, but it is best to keep young gerbils with their parents until they are 6 weeks old.
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Post by andrea on Apr 13, 2004 0:05:29 GMT -8
Oh and when they are running around with there eyes shut, be careful when picking them up. Gerbils have a suicidal behaviour when they are at this stage (i.e they like to wriggle and jump out of your hands) you will find they are quite strong and can quite easily fight against your hand strength. so we try to handle them over there house quite near the floor of the house so if they do wriggle out the drop is not far, we find they tend to slow down and settle muh more when the eyes have poppped open.
Andrea ;D
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Apr 13, 2004 2:39:33 GMT -8
Yes, when they walk on the table or something, they just walk over the edge!
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Post by Victoria on Apr 15, 2004 15:23:44 GMT -8
Okay me again! *lol* The babies are eight days old right now. The mom is cream on top with a white belly and the dad is all black. The babies are growing some hair and u could see just where their eyelids are now. Three are just like the mom and ruby eyed. There is one all black with black eyes and two siamese babies with black eyes. Im keeping a siamese. Can i keep two sisters together? In a different cage I mean? They are SO active now! *lol* I take them out every day now. They are so cute. How od i tell one sex form the toher. They are 8 days! Please help! I need to sex them now!
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Post by floppy on Apr 15, 2004 16:09:57 GMT -8
Hi Victoria, You should be able to sex them in the next couple of days. They should have fur on their belly when they are around 10 days old. On females you will see little dots on the belly (nipples). These won't be visible on males. It's actually very easy to tell the difference at this age. Keeping two sisters together in a cage of their own is perfect, and much easier than keeping two unrelated females together because you don't have to do the whole split cage introduction thing! They should live quite happily together. Hope to see some photo's of your new pups soon (I couldn't see the one's you posted in your first post!) Floppy
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Post by queenofthenile on Apr 15, 2004 17:26:09 GMT -8
Here's some pics I took of my babies at 11 days old. (Sorry it's so big) You guys must think I'm a real nutcase. First pictures of Aris' neuter and now this. What can I say, I like taking pictures of everything . (I hope to catch Indira having her last litter, I'm going to stay up all night . I'll post pics soon.)
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Post by Victoria on Apr 16, 2004 3:12:08 GMT -8
Thanks for ur help! I am not sure hwo to get my ppic son the internet! *lol* Ummm okay but in a couple books I have they say it is better to have two gerbils form the same litter to be mates. Then later in the same book they say that it isn't good to inbreed. Is it okay? If not why not?
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Post by floppy on Apr 16, 2004 5:25:01 GMT -8
Hi,
I think they mean two same sex gerbils from the same litter! That's ok, when they advise against it is obviously meaning a male and female from the same litter.
Inbreeding isn't something I'd recommend. I bought my first Gerbil, Molly, from a pet shop and she can't nurse her pups, she doesn't produce milk at all. She has a kink in her tail and only one nail on her right hand. The vet said it was probably a genetic defect due to inbreeding. So just don't put a boy and a girl from the same litter together. Two sisters or two brothers is best...or if you have 3 boys/girls you can leave them all together.
Floppy
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Post by andrea on Apr 16, 2004 6:15:24 GMT -8
Inbreeding is a dodgy scenario. Most deformaties are caused by long term inbreeding. I.e mating brother and sister, then mating thee offspring with each other and so on so forth.
I would say if you are sure that you Have F1 generation pups (parents are from good stocks and are completly and uttering unrelated in anyway), then one generation inbreeding does not do much harm and this is how we have come to have our very many colours. But if you do not know the parents background do not inbreed as you are unaware of any previous inbreeding, with pet shop stocks they tend to be very inbred as the less scrupulous breeders that breed these animals are less worried about which one is breeding with which.
If you want to keep same sex partners then litter mates tend to get on the best espcially with females, but you must keep a close eye on females at sexual maturity age, as if you have 2 dominant charactered females you tend to get a fighting problem. I would advise if you wish to keep some keep males they are more docile with each other and are more willing to accept new comers.
Andrea
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Post by Ritzie/Admin on Apr 16, 2004 15:04:53 GMT -8
I agree with you all! ;D You have already all told what has to be told! Queenofthenile, I'm always amazed how sharp and clear your pictures are!
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Post by queenofthenile on Apr 17, 2004 13:34:41 GMT -8
Thanks Peter ;D. I really put a lot of work into getting the lighting and focus right, and I take a lot of pictures to get the few that are special. It has really become quite the hobby and I hope eventually to start up my own little website on gerbil pregnancy, birth and development (there just isn't much for birth pictures on the web).
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Post by Victoria on Apr 17, 2004 16:11:19 GMT -8
No the book says in the beginning that a good breeding p[air is easier if you get two gerbils from the same litter for breeding meaning borther and sister. Then in the breeding section it says to not inbreed. I want to keep a brother and sister to breed but I won't if it's bad. I will only inbred this one generation. Their litter will not be inbred agian or any of them. Is that okay? I really need to know. Also today the babies are 9 days old and have small eyelids with lots of fur except on their bellies! *lol* There are 6 babies. One black female with black eyes named Minnie. One really light creme with white belly male named Peanut. Two regular creme and white females and the smaller one is Marshmellow and the bigger one is Cocoa. There are two siamese females and the lighter one is Nugget and the bigger one is Siam. I love them! Please answrer my question!
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