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Post by seamermate on Jan 9, 2010 6:46:50 GMT -8
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Post by marcia on Jan 9, 2010 8:10:30 GMT -8
It varies. Some people say it's roughly 2-3 years and others say 3-5 years. My oldest is just over 3 years old  |
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Post by bexpetz on Jan 9, 2010 13:08:59 GMT -8
My oldest is just over three and still going strong.
It depends strongly on lifestyle and diet.
Gerbils have been known to live to be 5, the average is generally 2-4, but there are no solid rules.
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Post by Thelodar on Jan 9, 2010 13:22:17 GMT -8
I'd say the average is about 3 years. My oldest almost made 4.
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Post by catnut on Jan 9, 2010 14:19:39 GMT -8
I had a gerbil who almost made it to 4 1/2 years,he passed away in 2005. I didn't have him on organic food or anything special,he was a pied black and the sweetest boy my Polo. His brother,Stetson passed away 10 months before him so he was alone but I had alot of time then so he had attention. You never know how long they will live and just enjoy them each day,give them best you can of life.
Take care,
Tammy
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Post by seamermate on Jan 11, 2010 9:30:27 GMT -8
Thank you For all of those |
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Vixen
Member
8 years of gerbil fun
Posts: 1,805
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Post by Vixen on Jan 11, 2010 9:41:52 GMT -8
we had a wide range in this house.
Our youngest death was 12 weeks and the oldest was 3yrs 8 months
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Post by toughlove on Mar 21, 2012 5:44:41 GMT -8
Males are about 2-3, females up to 5
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Post by MoonstoneGerbils on Mar 21, 2012 6:17:49 GMT -8
I have yet to have a gerbil make it to 4 years yet, (but then again I've only been breeding for 3.5 years) most of my older gerbils are 3-3.5 when they die (or are put down due to tumors). Bailey was probably my oldest gerbil I owned, he was probably close to 4 when he died, his son Duncan is at least 3 years old if not older. I got this pair as adults. I think 4 is a very old gerbil,
Life span is 2.5-3.5 years. With very few making it to 4. I've found that the gerbils i got from petstores don't live nearly as long as the ones I've raised myself. I think this stems from early development and nutrition.
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Post by akane on Mar 21, 2012 10:11:05 GMT -8
Most of ours have made 5. Always at least 3. I don't know about now but around 10 years ago when we had gerbils and hamsters they always lived longer on homemade mixes than any store bought gerbil food. They'd make another year on average even if we were just teenager making our own mix without too much guidance.
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Post by belldandy on Mar 21, 2012 10:17:18 GMT -8
the oldest gerb i have had got to 3 1/2 the youngest was still born..
currently belldandy is my oldest at 2 3/4 in july im assuming she be about 3 years old and she was a petstore buy and she dont act a day over 6 months she's more active then my 6 month old gerbils... shes my queen and i plan on geting a small tatto of her on my shoulder in honnor of the best gerbil ever!!
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Post by qtoffer on Mar 21, 2012 20:22:53 GMT -8
I'm sure that genetics is an important factor too. I think that hobbyist breeders are more likely to breed from healthier stock and produce longer lived gerbils than petstore gerbil mills.
My first two girls lived 2yrs-5 mos (respiratory infection) and 2 yrs 11 mos (natural causes). They were born of parents from a petstore.
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doug
Member
Posts: 2,064
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Post by doug on Mar 23, 2012 15:28:50 GMT -8
I'm sure that genetics is an important factor too. I think that hobbyist breeders are more likely to breed from healthier stock and produce longer lived gerbils than petstore gerbil mills. My first two girls lived 2yrs-5 mos (respiratory infection) and 2 yrs 11 mos (natural causes). They were born of parents from a petstore. genetics does play a factor but that is not tied to where you get them from, in an older gerbil respiratory infection is natural causes as when a gerbil gets older it becomes susceptable to other problems, RI is generally a secondary issue in older gerbils. Doug |
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Post by akane on Mar 24, 2012 16:06:17 GMT -8
Genetics would most definitely be tied to where you got them from. Gerbil mills are going to pay even less attention to long term health issues than they do respiratory infections and they likely inbreed quite a bit while not paying attention to the health of the lines they are inbreeding. Nearly all large pet stores get their gerbils from mills so a pet store gerbil is going to be less healthy than a gerbil from a small pet store who breeds their own or uses local hobby breeders and those are going to be less healthy than the professional breeder who pays close attention to health of every line and makes careful decisions on what to cross. Since we don't have natural selection at play the genetics all depend on the person breeding them so who you get them from is probably the biggest factor in determining the quality of genetics of your gerbil.
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doug
Member
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Post by doug on Mar 24, 2012 21:33:36 GMT -8
Have you heard of the gerbil family circle? not really a tree, gerbil genetics for all are closely related, experiments on gerbil inbreeding have shown that you can inbred for something like 25 generations with no ill effects, not recommended though. The care of the gerbil is more likely to have a greater effect. Doug Genetics would most definitely be tied to where you got them from. Gerbil mills are going to pay even less attention to long term health issues than they do respiratory infections and they likely inbreed quite a bit while not paying attention to the health of the lines they are inbreeding. Nearly all large pet stores get their gerbils from mills so a pet store gerbil is going to be less healthy than a gerbil from a small pet store who breeds their own or uses local hobby breeders and those are going to be less healthy than the professional breeder who pays close attention to health of every line and makes careful decisions on what to cross. Since we don't have natural selection at play the genetics all depend on the person breeding them so who you get them from is probably the biggest factor in determining the quality of genetics of your gerbil. |
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