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Post by jabberwicky on Mar 21, 2008 5:20:28 GMT -8
Good information. Again, people just have to keep the health and wellbeing of their animal as their number one priority and go from there.
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Post by Jill on Mar 21, 2008 8:03:13 GMT -8
Well said, here here :-P! Haha :-)
Jill
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Post by sirius on Apr 9, 2008 5:40:01 GMT -8
yes, but you do need to understand that the body gets fermer when gerbils get older. so the 'total fusing' is a myth, but i would still be careful with breeding females who dont get their first litter untill their first birthday. I have to agree. Just like people the older you wait to have your first child the more risks are involved. Yep. Usually some put older females with males cuz they can't get pregnant. Well, 2 year old gerbil can and I know it's not funny to say owner these negative facts about bones and so when she's waiting for pups. Sadly, the mom gerbil died just before birth. I wouldn't like to play with my gerbils and I respect gerbils as much I breed them only before 1 year old.
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Post by picklepot on Apr 23, 2008 5:18:31 GMT -8
I was just browsing through my gerbil book and thought of this thread. 'Gerbils. The Complete Guide to Gerbil Care' by Donna Anastasi.
"While many other types of small animals have age-related issues like pelvic hardening, and must be bred early, this is not so with gerbils. A female gerbil can have a first litter at any age, though you'll have better luck introducing a female to her mate if she's young."
Although, as with all pet guides, she doesn't site a reference! It's a very detailed and believable book though. At no point have I thought 'You're wrong there!' or 'Not my gerbils!'.
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Post by sirius on Oct 11, 2008 2:20:04 GMT -8
"A female gerbil can have a first litter at any age, though you'll have better luck introducing a female to her mate if she's young." False. Why should? Gerbils forgot eacheothers in a day so this has no point at all. If this meant to put young male to female and grow up with her it's not worth of either. Because usually it takes couple months for male to figure out the mating AND you don't know how the male is evolving. And it's not good for female either to have male in tank but who wont mate with her when she has a heat. We here in Finland doesn't have many new gerbil books and all the olders are sooo false. Instead we have here a Finland's gerbil association and laws for pets too so people know what's right I know that you people there, behind the sea, have different views to this. This is sometimes really confusing if you do what we don't accept or vice versa. So, don't take this message too personal
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Post by texgerbil on Oct 25, 2009 8:04:28 GMT -8
So is this a good place to ask the question, "Is it rare for females to die giving birth?"
When I used to breed gerbils for color and kept all offspring who could not go to good homes, we never had a female die from birthing. But Being a guinea pig person now, I know that in piggies it is a big risk to the sow to breed them. Apparently its a one in four percent chance of death or something like that. But I don't think it could be so risky in gerbils, since we had so many litters and never lost a momma from it.
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Post by greenbelt09 on Oct 25, 2009 16:41:01 GMT -8
You might want to start a new thread for that if you want people's attention, but I've never heard of a gerbil dying during child/pupbirth.
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Post by akane on Feb 20, 2012 12:20:35 GMT -8
Old thread but I can explain that one. The myth seems to have started with the guinea pig rescue crowd partially in an attempt to stop breeding by claiming you could only breed a female within a few months of her life and then the bones would fuse and she'd die. It spread to other rodents. These days even the main rescue group for guinea pigs has disproven it and only says the tendons and ligaments of the pelvis may tighten with age if the female is not bred increasing potential birthing problems in various species from guinea pig to horse. Although in this thread we have a quote from a book that this doesn't happen in gerbils.
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