mother niping me,,,

[jimbo]

hi, just in the past few days when i put my hand near my babies, (there 2 weeks 4 days old now ) the mother bites me, sometimes its just a nip, but today it hurt when she done it, the dad dosent seem bothered by me touching the pups. is this normal for her to do this?

[doomgerbiluk]

I have an overprotective mother gerbil who really goes for me if I try to touch her new pups
It is unusual in gerbils but it does happen
distract and/or remove her first to reduce stress on her (and on you)

[sandy2]

Yeah, ditto...mom gerbil goes for a nice sand bath in the sand tank while I play with..er..examine the pups. Mom loves the time out too.